How to Write a Job Description for Your Small Business

You post a role using a generic list of duties copied from a template online. Weeks after the new hire starts, they're doing tasks nobody discussed at the interview, while the thing you actually needed help with is still sitting undone. Or a new hire mentions, a little unsure, that they're still working out what the job actually involves.

This isn't a sign you hired the wrong person. It's usually a sign the role wasn't defined clearly before it was advertised.

What Actually Needs to Change

Before a role goes live, it needs a clear answer to a few questions: why does this role exist, what does it actually cover day to day, and just as importantly, what doesn't it cover. Without that last part, a new hire quietly ends up absorbing every loose task nobody else wanted.

Writing a Job Description Yourself

Purpose: one or two sentences on why the role exists.

Key responsibilities: three to five concrete things this person does, specific, not vague.

What's not included: two or three things this role explicitly doesn't cover, so it doesn't quietly expand.

First 90 days: what success looks like at 30, 60, and 90 days in.

Write this before the role is posted, not after someone's already started.

Turning It Into a Process You Can Reuse

Writing one job description helps with one hire. Having a process means every role you create from here gets the same clarity, without starting from a blank page each time.

The Job Description Builder gives you that repeatable structure: role purpose, responsibilities, what's explicitly out of scope, and a 90-day success framework, ready to fill in for any role. Use it yourself, or bring me in to work through it with you for a role you're hiring for right now.

Explore the Job Description Builder →

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a job description be? Long enough to be clear, short enough to be read properly, usually one page.

Should I write a new one for every hire, even for the same role? Reuse and refine the same one. Update it if the role has genuinely changed, rather than starting over each time.

What if the role changes after someone starts? That's normal as a business grows. Revisit the job description at the 90-day mark and again annually, and update it to reflect what the role has actually become.