Most people get this wrong — they either hire too early or way too late.
But there’s a clear, rational way to figure it out.
Here’s how:
- Calculate your revenue and profit
Get clear on where your business is at — and ideally forecast the next 12 months.
- Work out your effective hourly rate
Take your profit and divide it by the hours you’re working. You’ll realize what you’re actually “earning” per hour.
- List every task you’re doing
Now assign hours to each one and calculate what each task is costing you based on your hourly rate.
For example:
If you’re spending 10 hours/week on customer support and your time is worth $110/hour — that’s $1,100/week.
- Ask: Can this be done cheaper and better by someone else?
In many cases (like customer support), you could hire someone overseas to handle this for a fraction of the cost — and free up your time to work on the business.
- Assess hiring difficulty and oversight
Some roles are easy to fill and manage. Others are high-leverage but high-trust.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Customer service → easy to hire, easy to monitor
- Operations → medium difficulty, semi-transparent
- Media buying / growth roles → hard to hire, requires deep trust & visibility
Now put it all together:
- Tasks draining your time
- Cost of doing it yourself
- Ease of hiring + risk level
And you’ll have a clear roadmap for your first hires.
Most people get this wrong — they either hire too early or way too late.
But there’s a clear, rational way to figure it out.
Here’s how:
- Calculate your revenue and profit
Get clear on where your business is at — and ideally forecast the next 12 months.
- Work out your effective hourly rate
Take your profit and divide it by the hours you’re working. You’ll realize what you’re actually “earning” per hour.
- List every task you’re doing
Now assign hours to each one and calculate what each task is costing you based on your hourly rate.
For example:
If you’re spending 10 hours/week on customer support and your time is worth $110/hour — that’s $1,100/week.
- Ask: Can this be done cheaper and better by someone else?
In many cases (like customer support), you could hire someone overseas to handle this for a fraction of the cost — and free up your time to work on the business.
- Assess hiring difficulty and oversight
Some roles are easy to fill and manage. Others are high-leverage but high-trust.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Customer service → easy to hire, easy to monitor
- Operations → medium difficulty, semi-transparent
- Media buying / growth roles → hard to hire, requires deep trust & visibility
Now put it all together:
- Tasks draining your time
- Cost of doing it yourself
- Ease of hiring + risk level
And you’ll have a clear roadmap for your first hires.
