Write down the problem before choosing the job title
A hiring need should describe work that is unfinished, delayed or dependent on someone who needs to take on other responsibilities. Explain where this happens, how frequently and with what consequences. A job title becomes useful only after there is a concrete need that justifies bringing somebody into the business.
I have been through a period when a focus on growth led to bringing in more people than the projects actually needed. There were hires where the work to hand over was insufficiently clear. That experience makes me examine the need first, before associating a larger team with a better business.
“We need somebody to help” can conceal very different problems. Execution may be missing, nobody may be coordinating priorities or a decision may always remain stuck with the founder. Each possibility calls for different skills, authority and ways of supporting the person who joins.
In a hypothetical example, delayed sales proposals might justify support with preparing proposals. They could also result from undefined prices or incomplete information. Hiring somebody who writes faster does not automatically resolve an approval that still has no clear owner.
To prepare your next step, explore Delegation and processes for small teams.
Confirm that the need is real
Before opening a vacancy, examine the source and continuity of the work you expect to delegate. Distinguish a recurring need from a temporary peak and check whether the capacity shortage comes from necessary tasks. This analysis helps you define the scope of the role and the resources it requires.
Collect recent examples of pending work, waiting time and tasks that are repeatedly postponed. You do not need perfect measurement to begin, but you need more than a feeling of constant busyness. Identify who is busy, what occupies their time and which outcome is failing to materialise.
Ask what could stop being done as well. If you maintain reports nobody uses or duplicate information handovers, a new hire may simply sustain that waste. Examining the cost of repeatedly making the same decisions helps locate work that needs organising before more people are assigned to it.
Record the difference between confirmed demand and expected growth. Both can inform a decision, but they should not be presented with the same level of certainty. If the role depends on contracts that do not yet exist, describe that dependency and what the person will do before they arrive.
Define a contribution you can observe
The expected contribution should become observable changes in the work, with an initial position and a review period appropriate to the role. Define what the person will own and which external dependencies remain. This allows you to assess progress without attributing results that depend on the entire company to one hire.
In the hypothetical proposal example, you might want complete requests prepared within the agreed time, with fewer returns due to missing information. That outcome is clearer than asking for “more productivity”. It lets you discuss quality, capacity and specific obstacles rather than impressions.
If you expect to free the founder's time, identify which decisions or tasks will actually leave their schedule. Adding someone to the team is insufficient if the founder continues reviewing everything at the same level of detail. The change must include what the founder agrees to stop doing.
Avoid promising that the person will cover their own cost through revenue they cannot control. A support role can reduce delays, improve information or protect quality without directly closing sales. Assessment should recognise that contribution and the other conditions required for it to have an effect.
Separate essential competence from learnable skills
The skills required depend on the responsibility and the independence expected on arrival. Define what the person needs to do from the start and what you can teach. Assess attitude through specific behaviours, without treating enthusiasm as a substitute for the technical ability needed to carry out the work.
A person may ask useful questions, recognise their limits and carefully incorporate a correction. Those signals help you understand how they learn. They differ from speaking confidently in an interview or showing willingness without understanding the work they will take on.
Prepare a conversation or a short exercise related to the role, with criteria established before comparing candidates. In a hypothetical proposal preparation case, you could ask them to identify missing information in a fictional request. The purpose is to observe relevant reasoning without turning assessment into unpaid real work for the company.
If you intend to teach a skill, identify who will teach it and when. Willingness to learn does not create availability in the mentor's schedule. Hiring for potential can be appropriate, but it requires different conditions from hiring someone expected to work independently as soon as they arrive.
Consider the total cost and onboarding capacity
The cost of hiring extends beyond the amount paid to the person. Consider applicable employment costs, tools, equipment, training and supervision time using actual figures for your context. Also check whether the company can integrate the role without compromising existing commitments or depending on revenue that remains uncertain at this stage.
There is a period when the new person learns and someone on the team spends time explaining, reviewing and correcting. That effort belongs in the decision. If everyone is already fully occupied, reserve room for onboarding instead of expecting complete relief on the first day.
The relationship between margins, the team and business growth helps frame this choice. Additional revenue and available contribution are different things. A role that enables the company to accept more work should also be assessed against the cost of delivering that work.
Compare scenarios with explicit assumptions: work stays steady, increases or takes longer to arrive. Do not seek precision the data cannot support. Seek to understand which conditions make the hire sustainable and which signals would require you to revisit the plan before expectations drift further.
Prepare the start before confirming the decision
A hire becomes better defined when you can explain the first assignment, necessary access, who will provide support and how progress will be reviewed. Prepare those conditions before the start date. If you still do not know what to hand over, use that difficulty to reassess the need and scope.
Organise a sequence of responsibilities that helps the person understand the business and gain independence. Avoid handing over a list of accumulated problems without priorities, context or decision-making authority. The person needs to understand what comes first and what can reasonably wait.
The principle of organising the first month without promising to solve everything also helps with this preparation. Define initial deliverables, support meetings and questions requiring answers. The sequence should reflect the complexity of the role without turning an illustrative schedule into a universal rule for every new hire.
Before proceeding, I would write one complete sentence: this person will own this responsibility, to solve this problem, with these resources. If the sentence remains vague, so does the vacancy. Clarifying it is part of the employer's work and improves the conditions for assessing the person fairly.