“I interview at least five people for any role I bring into my life, because the first candidate almost never fits. When I hired an interior designer in 2010, one didn't show up and another sneered that my project was beneath them; the fifth was the obvious yes. Treat your first hire as seriously as your first customer, because the wrong person costs more than their salary.”

“My first hire was not a VA. I needed someone who could take the messy, random work I threw at them, use tech, communicate clearly, and act like an operations partner even at $500 a month. Treat that person like gold, because they end up training everyone after them.”

“My first hire was operations, not another version of me, because I was already the best salesperson and technician we had. Hire someone who can do the work or manage the people doing it so you can stop being the bottleneck.”

“I waited too long to make my first real hire because I thought I had to be sure. The real signal was that I was spending my best hours on tasks someone else could do, while revenue-generating work was backing up. Hire for the task you dread, not the one you love.”

“My first hire was the hardest because I was convinced no one could sell payroll the way I did, so I started by hiring someone just to set appointments and shadow me. That let me teach them my pitch without handing over the full deal, and once they could close, I finally had a way to scale beyond myself.”

“I made my worst first hire at employee 7: a full-time office manager/HR person when we barely had enough work to fill their week. It cost us about $85K fully loaded and three months of product velocity I'll never get back.”

“My first hire was Saskia, and that was the moment my business actually started, because before her I was doing everything alone, even cleaning the toilets. I had reached about €50,000 in revenue on my own, and instead of buying nice things or taking a vacation, I invested that money straight into her salary.”

“I see too many owners hire a salesperson or bookkeeper first, then wonder why they are still drowning. My first hire was support, someone to take the scheduling and paperwork off my plate, because I needed my own time back before I could afford to grow.”

“I hired my first full-time employee on payroll at TheStudio.Coffee right after opening in October 2020, with zero hospitality experience and a lockdown starting almost immediately. What I learned fast: hire for attitude and willingness to learn, because the technical stuff can be taught, but you can't teach someone to care when everything is on fire.”