First Hire
The universal first-hire decision for any business: the trigger math, the loaded cost, contractor versus employee, finding and vetting one person, and the first ninety days.
This module has one job: by the last page you know whether to make your first hire, when, what it actually costs, how to find the person, and how to keep from ruining it. The method is arithmetic, not ambition. You will price your own hours, subtract the hours someone else could do, and let the number decide. Fatigue, feeling stuck, and "real businesses have employees" do not appear anywhere in that math, and this guide will tell you so to your face.
The money here is honest. You will see what an employee costs once employer taxes, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, and your own management hours are stacked on the wage, because the wage is the smallest honest number in the pile. Every figure carries a source or a flag saying operators report it and we could not verify it harder than that. No hire is magic. The payoff, when it comes, is redeploying freed hours into work only you can sell.
This is not trade-specific hiring advice. Which helper a cleaning company looks for, which editor a channel hires, which installer a repair outfit adds: those live in the business courses in this catalog, and we will name them and send you there. This is the decision layer that sits under all of them. It is also not a substitute for a lawyer or your state's labor department on classification and payroll, and where the law is moving it will say so plainly.
The Decision
The only honest reason to hire
Why fatigue is not a reason, what a first hire can and cannot fix, and why most businesses never make one at all.
The trigger math
The hours audit, the buy-back rate, and the three honest triggers: the arithmetic that decides whether and when your first hire pays.
The loaded cost
What an employee truly costs stacked from the wage up: employer taxes, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, software, and your management hours.
The Deal
Contractor or employee
The classification question that decides itself from the facts of your relationship: IRS and Labor Department tests, state ABC tests, the 2026 reporting threshold, and safe defaults for a first hire.
The first role
Turning the hours audit into a role: what you hand off, what you keep, and how to define the job as an outcome instead of a task list.
The Person
Finding the person
The channel ladder from referrals to platforms, the filter post that screens for you, and why the pay range goes in the ad.
Vetting and the paid trial
Structured interviews, reference calls before the offer, and the paid working trial: the strongest predictor you will ever get before committing.
The offer and the paperwork
Putting the offer in writing, the employee paperwork clock: I-9 in three days, new-hire reporting in twenty, payroll setup, and the first-week plan.
Making It Work
The first ninety days
The onboarding arc from do-it-with-them to they-own-it, the weekly one-to-one, quality control that replaces your presence, and what the owner stops doing.
Outcomes, not tasks
The mistake class that kills first hires: delegating tasks instead of outcomes, the bottleneck returning as dispatch, and the delegation ladder out.
When it breaks
Separating a skill gap from a fit problem, the correction conversation, parting ways lawfully and humanely, and why deciding not to hire is a fine outcome.