Small business owners struggling to hire in today's tight labor market may find a surprisingly simple solution: post job ads on Sunday mornings. That advice comes from Shannon Black, Chair of SCORE Austin and former Round Rock ISD math teacher, in Episode 82 of the Rock Solid: Round Rock Business Leaders Podcast, hosted by Bryan Eisenberg. Published July 14, 2026, the episode arrives as small business owners nationwide continue to grapple with post-COVID hiring shifts, AI-inflated resumes, and the challenge of protecting company culture during rapid growth.
Black, who founded and successfully sold Sunrise Montessori, shared her practical recruiting playbook developed in response to COVID's disruption. She told Eisenberg, "The best time of the week to put an ad, to place it, is actually Sunday morning... it takes Google and other search engines about 24 hours to go through and pick up the SEO in your ad. The number one time of the week that people look for jobs are Mondays during lunchtime." This timing strategy is part of a systematic approach shaped by Black's math background and habit of experimentation.
Black also recommended using 30 or more hashtags at the bottom of job listings to capture search engine optimization without rewriting copy. She cautioned against using "masculine" language that can repel female applicants and suggested screening candidates with a 10-minute Zoom pre-interview, including unexpected questions like "What is your favorite color?" to gauge personality fit.
The episode also covered SCORE's free mentorship model, a national nonprofit offering more than 1,000 workshops per month and virtual mentor matching at score.org. Black previewed an upcoming women's conference, a trades conference on June 13, and a four-day workshop series on valuing and selling a business. She recounted helping a client named Justin launch a successful Austin clay studio and pointed to entrepreneur Desiree Fox of V Wear Love as an example of the idea-stage founders SCORE serves.
Eisenberg shared his own home care agency hiring wins after applying Black's tweaks, plus a lease near-miss rescued by Round Rock realtor Bacha Porter. The conversation opened with Black recovering from a baby rattlesnake bite sustained while gardening in Georgetown, crediting St. David's in Round Rock for the antivenom treatment that allowed her to record.
For small business owners in Central Texas and beyond, Black's insights offer a data-driven roadmap to navigate the challenging hiring landscape, emphasizing timing, language, and systematic screening to build a strong team.
