When should I hire a manager for my small business?
When the cost of you managing is higher than the cost of a manager: usually once you are spending most of your week on scheduling, problems and people instead of the work only you can do. Make sure the margin can carry the salary before the benefits arrive, and define exactly what they decide without you.
Count where your week goes
If most of it is coordination, who is where, what went wrong, who needs what, you are already working as a manager, at an owner’s cost. That is the signal. A manager is not a luxury at that point; you are paying for one with your own time.
The margin has to carry it first
A manager is paid every month from the day they start, and the growth they make possible takes months to show up. Work out whether the business can carry the salary for six months or more before relying on that growth.
Define the job before you hire
What do they decide alone? What do they bring to you? What does a good month look like for them? Hiring a manager without answers to these usually means hiring someone to ask you everything.
Inside or outside
Promoting someone who knows the work brings trust and know-how; hiring from outside brings management experience your team may not have. Either can work. The job has to be defined either way, and the best worker is not always the best manager.
Also asked
- How much should I pay a manager?
- Check what similar roles pay locally, then check it against your margin. If the business cannot carry a fair wage yet, the timing is not right.
- What if my team does not accept them?
- Say clearly what the manager decides and back their decisions in front of the team, especially early. Undermining them once undoes months.
- Can I hire a part-time manager?
- Yes. An office or operations person a few days a week is often the right first step before a full-time role.
Related
Written for your trade
This is the kind of thing Solomon works through with owners using their own numbers. See how it works →