When you’re a single-person business one of the questions you often ask yourself is when you should hire an assistant.
And there are different questions that go along with this topic…
You wonder if you should hire someone to help with certain tasks. You wonder if that person should be full time or part time. You wonder if you should hire multiple people at the same time to see which is better for the job and what you should expect when you hire the right person.
So there are all kinds of questions, but it really starts with understanding the when.
So let’s get into that…
What do you want from the business?
This is really all about taking time to think about what you want. The first step is to figure out what you want from the business. Do you need a definite answer? No. But it helps to think about what you want from the business.
If you don’t know where you’re going there is a good chance you won’t like where you end up…
If you want to work alone and keep your business at that level then it might not make sense to hire an assistant. For any specific task. But if you want to grow the business you will have to delegate. Sooner rather than later.
It’s easier to understand the when when you understand the what…
Can you afford an assistant?
Obviously money is a big factor in hiring someone. If you decide that you want a business that is beyond yourself then you know that you need to hire somebody. Once you decide that you have to figure out how to pay the person.
Look at what the going rate is for an assistant. You can figure out what tasks you want them to do and look on freelancing sites to see what people are charging. You can speak with colleagues to figure out what they’re paying.
You can also look at what you can afford and see if that’s enough. If it isn’t, start saving right now. Save up to the point where you can go 2-3 months with paying the person while you build up sales to offset things and then have the freeway to more profit.
You’re giving up profit percent when you hire somebody, but the goal is to make that turn into more dollars in the future. But you need cash to make it work in the short-term.
What do you want to do?
You also want to analyze your strengths and weaknesses. What you’re good at. What you like doing. And also what is required, but that you’re either not good at or that you don’t like doing.
Even if you’re good at multiple things you’ll often need to give up some of those tasks if you want to grow your business. Every startup business owner goes through this struggle if they want to grow. They have to decide where their skills are best used. Because you can’t do everything.
This requires analyzing yourself. Your past. What you think you bring to the table and also what you want to do. Then projecting that into the future to think about what tasks you need to hire for.
When you do that you’ll have a very good idea of when you should hire an assistant. And the answer is probably as soon as possible.
Final Thoughts
You have to do a little thinking about yourself to answer this question. If you’re looking at this content, though, you’re probably pretty close to hiring your first assistant. Figure out if you have the cash to pay the person while you figure out how to grow the business so that it pays for the assistant. You might have to give up a little in the short-term, but the payoff likely comes later as your business moves to the next stage.
I’ve done it myself. There aren’t any guarantees. But if you want a larger business this is a required step. You don’t want to look back thinking that you should have hired someone sooner.