SCORE Austin Chair Shannon Black Reveals Sunday Morning Hiring Secret for Small Businesses

Small business owners struggling to hire in a tight labor market may find a solution in a counterintuitive strategy: post job ads on Sunday mornings. Shannon Black, Chair of SCORE Austin and former Round Rock ISD math teacher, shared this and other actionable tips on Episode 82 of the Rock Solid: Round Rock Business Leaders Podcast, hosted by Bryan Eisenberg and published July 14, 2026.

Black, who founded and sold Sunrise Montessori, developed her hiring playbook in response to post-COVID shifts, AI-inflated resumes, and the challenge of preserving company culture during growth. She explained that the optimal time to post a job ad is Sunday morning, because it takes search engines about 24 hours to index the ad, and the peak time for job seekers is Monday during lunchtime. This timing ensures maximum visibility.

Beyond timing, Black recommends using 30 or more hashtags at the bottom of job listings to improve search engine optimization without rewriting copy. She also advises avoiding masculine-coded language that can deter female applicants. For screening, she suggests a 10-minute Zoom pre-interview with unexpected questions like “What is your favorite color?” to gauge personality and fit.

The episode also highlights SCORE’s free mentorship model, a national nonprofit offering over 1,000 workshops monthly 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 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 hiring wins after applying Black’s strategies, 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, crediting St. David’s in Round Rock for antivenom treatment.

For small business owners, Black’s systematic approach—shaped by her math background and experimentation—offers a practical edge in a competitive hiring market. The episode underscores the importance of timing, language, and leveraging free resources like SCORE to build strong teams.