Most entrepreneurs start working on their own, donning different hats.

Later, when cash flow improves, and they reach a point where they cannot do everything themselves, they decide to hire someone to help them.

But most entrepreneurs don’t make this decision because they can’t afford an employee.

This slows their growth because good employees can grow a business fast and make you free to focus on strategic tasks.

It does not have to be like this.

You can make hiring decisions based on ROI and look at employee salaries as investments.

To do it, look at the money future team members will help you earn.

So if you charge a client $15,000 a month and to deliver the solution to them, an employee with a salary of $5600/month will have to invest 50% of their time, and another employee with a salary of $4600/month will have to do the same. Plus, you’ll invest $2400 worth of your time.

If you are curious how this money does not arrive at this monetary, this is done by doing the work and tracking time.

If you are a small player and hiring for the first time for a role, do the task you want someone to do yourself, track and record time, add 20% time to it because you may be more proficient at it, and then decide the time a new team member will take to do it and decide.

Then your cost of delivering this work to your client is $7,500.

Based on this, it is safe to hire two employees at a collective salary equal to or less than $7,500. 

Also, consider your clients’ lifetime value or knowledge of how long a client stays, and choose your next employee confidently.