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 · October
Your First Five Hires
Org-design templates from operators who've done it twice.
Focus for October
Promote, don't hire
October: an internal promotion done well beats two external hires done fast.
Refreshes on the 1st of every month
Look at the team. Who's grown past their current role? A clear promotion path retains your best people and removes one external search from the queue.
- List anyone outgrowing current scope
- Draft the promoted-role scorecard
- Have the conversation, then the offer
- Backfill the vacated seat with intent
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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