The Lie About Delegation
Everyone says "hire for your weaknesses." It sounds right. It's mostly wrong.
Hiring for your weaknesses means hiring someone to do things you hate — which usually means things you've never done well enough to know what "good" looks like. You can't manage quality you can't evaluate.
Hire for your bottleneck first. What is the thing that, if you had 40 more hours per week, would make the most difference to revenue? That is what you hire for first.
Before You Hire: The SOP Test
If you can't write a standard operating procedure for the role, you are not ready to hire for it. Not a job description. An SOP — step by step, this is what this person does every Monday morning. What decisions do they make. What does a good outcome look like.
If you can't write that, you don't understand the role well enough to manage it. Do the job yourself for another month and document everything you do.
The First Role That Moves the Needle
For most solo builders, the answer is either:
Customer support / account management — if your bottleneck is time spent answering the same questions and managing existing clients, every hour you hire back is directly available for growth.
Content / distribution — if your bottleneck is getting attention, a part-time content person who understands your audience is a force multiplier.
Not a developer (unless you're non-technical). Not a "general assistant." Not a project manager. Either of those two roles based on where your specific growth is stalling.
The Hiring Mistake Everyone Makes
Hiring a full-time employee first. Start with a contractor on a defined project. Pay them well for the project. See how they work. See if the output moves the needle. If it does, offer a retainer. If the retainer works, offer part-time. If part-time works, offer full-time.
Each step is a checkpoint. You are not guessing about culture fit with a six-month commitment. You are evaluating performance with a two-week commitment.
The Math of Your First Hire
Before hiring, answer this: if this hire works perfectly, how much additional revenue does it unlock per month? If the answer is more than 3x their monthly cost, hire. If it's less than 3x, either you're solving the wrong bottleneck or the business is not ready for a hire.
