First Hire

How to complete First Hire

Going from doing everything yourself to handing real work to someone else is the first structural shift in a business. The point isn't just extra hands, it's freeing your time for the work only you can do and proving the business can carry a payroll.

1. Identify the single most time-draining task you do that someone else could own, and write it up as a role.
2. Decide employee vs contractor based on control, hours, and your country's tax rules, since misclassifying is costly.
3. Write a one-page job description with concrete deliverables, not a vague wish list.
4. Set up the legal basics: a contract, tax registration, and a reliable way to pay on schedule.
5. Onboard with documented processes so they can work without constant hand-holding.

Tips

• Hire for the bottleneck capping your revenue, not the task you personally dislike most.
• Start a contractor on a small paid trial project before committing to ongoing hours.
• Budget the true cost (taxes, tools, your training time), not just the headline rate.

What counts as done

You have a signed agreement and have paid your first worker for completed work.