How to Hire Your First Employee When You Have Been Solo for Years

Look, I get it

You've been running solo for what, three years? Five? Maybe longer. You've got your systems. Your spreadsheets. That one Google Doc you keep updating with your process notes that nobody else will ever read. You know exactly where everything is. The thought of bringing someone in makes your stomach turn a bit because honestly, it's just easier to do it yourself.

Except it's not anymore, is it?

I spent about seven years solo before I brought someone in. Kept telling myself I wasn't ready. The business wasn't stable enough. I couldn't afford it. All the usual excuses. What I didn't admit was that I was basically scared of the admin, the responsibility, and the fact that someone else might do things differently to how I did them.

Which, looking back, was completely mental. Because doing everything yourself is not a business. It's a job you've created for yourself where you can't even call in sick.

The bit nobody tells you about

The hardest part isn't the money or the legal stuff or even finding someone. It's the identity shift.

You've been "the person who does everything" for years. Your whole business is built around you being that person. Clients know you. You answer every email. You do every bit of work. The thought of someone else touching your stuff feels wrong.

I had a mate in Stevenage who ran a plumbing business solo for eight years. Brilliant at the work. Completely booked out. Turning away jobs. But he couldn't pull the trigger on hiring someone because, in his words, "nobody's going to do it like I do it."

He was right. Nobody was going to do it like he did. They were going to do it their way. Which, as it turned out, was fine. Sometimes better. Different doesn't mean worse.

But that realisation only comes after you've actually hired someone. You can't think your way into it.

When you actually need someone (not when you think you do)

You don't need to hire when you're busy. You need to hire when you're turning down work because you're busy.

There's a difference.

Being busy just means you're working a lot. Turning down work means you've hit your ceiling. You can't grow. You're leaving money on the table because there's literally no more hours in your week.

Or here's another sign: you're doing work you hate because nobody else can do it. Bookkeeping. Admin. Chasing invoices. That stuff that sits in the back of your brain making you feel slightly sick.

For me it was reporting. I bloody hate reporting. Every month I'd spend three days pulling together analytics and writing up what was happening with each client's AEO performance. Made me want to pack the whole thing in. Soon as I hired someone who was decent with data, I got three days of my life back every month.

That's twelve working weeks a year. Twelve weeks I can spend doing actual client work or winning new business or, honestly, just not working.

The money bit (because obviously)

Right, so everyone says "hire when you can't afford it" which is rubbish advice. Don't do that. You'll just stress yourself into the ground.

But also don't wait until you've got six months of wages sitting in the bank, because you'll never hire anyone.

Here's what actually works: look at your revenue over the last six months. Properly look at it, not the version you tell yourself in your head. If you can cover someone's wages for three months from what you've already got coming in, and you're still winning new work, you're probably fine.

You don't need certainty. You need reasonable confidence.

I hired my first person when I had about two months covered. Felt terrifying. But I also had three proposals out and I knew at least one would land. It did. Would've landed anyway, but having someone else to help deliver it meant I could go out and win the next one instead of being buried in delivery for three months.

Most people in Hitchin or Letchworth running service businesses are turning over enough to support one person. They just don't believe it because they're used to paying themselves whatever's left at the end of the month rather than treating wages as a fixed cost.

Part-time is fine, actually

You don't need to hire someone full-time straight away. You probably shouldn't.

Start with two or three days a week. See how it goes. See if you can actually hand stuff over. See if the work's there to support more hours.

I started with someone doing 15 hours a week. Just Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Gave me time to get used to managing someone (which is a whole different skill, turns out). Gave them time to learn the business without drowning in it.

After three months we went to four days. After another four months, full-time. By then we both knew it was working.

If I'd gone straight to full-time I think we'd both have panicked and it would've fallen apart.

What they should actually do

This is where most people mess it up. They hire someone and then don't know what to give them.

Don't hire a "general assistant" or a "VA" or whatever. Hire someone to do a specific thing that you currently do and hate.

For service businesses, it's usually one of three things: - Client communication and scheduling - Admin and invoicing - Delivery work (the actual service you provide)

Start with the first two. Keep delivery for yourself until you've got someone who's been around for six months and actually understands how you work.

I hired for client communication first. Someone to handle the back and forth, the "can we move Tuesday to Thursday", the "here's the report we promised", all that stuff. Freed up hours every week. Meant I could focus on the actual work and on winning more clients.

Didn't touch delivery for over a year. When I did start handing off bits of AEO work, it was to someone who'd been watching me do it for months and understood why we did things a certain way.

The job ad thing

You don't need Indeed or Reed or any of that. You need to tell people you know.

Put a post on LinkedIn. Tell the business groups you're in (there's a decent one that meets in Baldock if you're local). Ask your existing clients if they know anyone.

People who come through referrals are ten times better than randomer applications. They're already semi-vetted. Someone you trust has said "yeah, they're decent."

My first hire came through someone I knew from a networking thing in Royston. Her sister was looking for part-time work. Worked out perfectly.

Don't overthink the job description either. Just write what you need someone to do, what hours, what you'll pay. Three paragraphs. Done.

Managing someone when you've never managed anyone

It's weird at first. You feel like you're bothering them when you ask them to do stuff. Even though that's literally what they're there for.

Set a weekly check-in. Half an hour, every Monday or Friday or whatever. Go through what they're working on. What's blocking them. What you need from them that week.

That's it. That's management.

You don't need to be all corporate about it. You're not running a graduate scheme. You're two people trying to get work done without stepping on each other's toes.

Also, you will explain things badly at first. You'll assume they know context they don't have. You'll forget to tell them important stuff. That's normal. Just get better at it as you go.

The bit about AI (because I have to mention it really)

Look, AI search and AEO is changing fast enough that even keeping up yourself is hard work. Trying to keep up AND train someone else AND do client work is basically impossible.

This is actually one of the reasons I ended up hiring. The landscape was moving too fast for me to do everything. I needed someone else to own parts of the business so I could focus on staying ahead of where AI search was going.

If you're in any kind of digital marketing or service business where tech matters, you need leverage. You need other people carrying some of the load so you can actually think strategically instead of just firefighting all day.

Just start

You're not going to feel ready. You're never going to feel ready.

The business won't be perfectly systematised. You won't have every process documented. You'll still have that nagging feeling that you should wait another few months.

But if you're turning down work, or working evenings and weekends every week, or just generally burnt out on doing everything yourself... you're already past the point where you should've hired someone.

It'll be messy. You'll make mistakes. They might not work out and you'll have to start again. That's all fine. Still better than grinding yourself into the ground for another two years.

If you want to chat about how AI and AEO might affect your hiring plans, or you're in North Herts and fancy a proper conversation about this stuff, book a call or have a look at what we do with AEO in North Hertfordshire. Either way, stop putting it off.