Know when it's time to hire your first person

Most owners wait too long to hire — they're drowning, turning away work, and spending their day on $15 tasks when their time is worth far more. Hiring feels scary and expensive, but the real cost is the growth you cap by trying to do everything yourself. Here's how to tell when it's actually time.

Do this

1. Watch for the signs: you're turning down work, working nights just to keep up, or doing low-value tasks you could hand off.
2. Do the math: what's an hour of your time worth on your best, highest-paid work versus the tasks eating your day?
3. Start with the tasks, not a person — list what you'd hand off first: the repetitive, low-skill, time-eating ones.
4. If handing those off frees you to earn more than the help costs, it's time.

Is it time to hire?

You're probably ready if two or more of these are true:

▢ You've turned down work you could've taken ▢ You're working nights/weekends just to stay even ▢ You spend hours on tasks a $15-20/hr helper could do ▢ A part of the business only happens when YOU do it ▢ You've got steady enough income to cover the help for a few months

The math that matters: Your time on your BEST work is worth $______/hr. The tasks you'd hand off cost you ______ hrs/week. If a helper frees those hours to earn more than they cost — hire.