01
Hire in the order of leverage, not pain
Most first-time owners hire in the order of their own pain. That's wrong. The first five hires should follow the order of business leverage: revenue first, operations second, specialized last.
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Guide14 min readFocus · August
Your First Five Hires
Org-design templates from operators who've done it twice.
Focus for August
Hire #2 before you need #1 again
August: if hire #1 is working, the second-most-painful seat is already obvious.
Refreshes on the 1st of every month
Don't wait for crisis to start the next search. With one good hire in place, you've earned the right to be deliberate about the next.
- Name the next role by the calendar-change test
- Reuse and adapt the proven scorecard
- Start sourcing through referrals only
- Aim for a Q4 start, not a Q3 panic
02
The five archetypes
| # | Role | Hire when… | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Closer / producer who isn't you | You're turning down work or capping growth at your capacity | Hiring an admin first because they're cheaper |
| 2 | Operations lieutenant | You're spending >15 hrs/week on scheduling, dispatch, or coordination | Hiring a 'manager' before there's anything to manage |
| 3 | Bookkeeper → controller | Books are 30+ days behind or you can't answer 'what's our gross margin' | Outsourcing forever instead of bringing it in at $1M revenue |
| 4 | Customer-success owner | Churn or repeat-purchase rate is dropping and you don't know why | Treating this as 'support' instead of retention/expansion |
| 5 | Senior trade or craft hire | Quality is starting to vary by who's on the job | Hiring 2 juniors when 1 senior would have fixed it |
03
Comp without giving away the company
Bands for early-stage hires in most US metros. Adjust ±20% for HCOL/LCOL.
| Role | Base range | Variable | Equity? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closer / producer | $60-90k | Commission 5-15% GP | No |
| Ops lieutenant | $65-95k | 5-10% bonus on operating metrics | No (phantom OK at scale) |
| Controller | $80-120k | 5-10% bonus | No |
| Customer success | $55-80k | Bonus on retention/NRR | No |
| Senior trade | $70-110k | Project bonus or hourly OT | No |
04
The 90-day scorecard
Three metrics, one behavioral expectation, written down before they start.
Worked example
Sample: Operations Lieutenant scorecard
1) On-time job completion ≥ 90% by day 60. 2) Owner hours on scheduling/dispatch ≤ 3/week by day 90. 3) Job profitability variance ≤ 10% on jobs they coordinate. Behavioral: documents every process they touch in our shared playbook within 48 hours.
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