Drowning in work, the instinct is to hire. Sometimes that's exactly right. But a hire made to escape overwhelm often makes the overwhelm worse before it makes it better — and occasionally it never gets better at all.
What hiring actually costs
Not just salary. The full picture:
- Salary, plus employer's NI and pension
- Recruitment time and cost
- Weeks of your time training them
- Lower productivity while they learn
- Ongoing management — a permanent claim on your attention
- Equipment, software, space, insurance
- The admin of being an employer
The bit that catches people out: hiring adds management to your workload permanently. If you were overwhelmed before, you're now overwhelmed plus responsible for someone else's week. That's why the first few months after a hire often feel worse, and why a hire made in desperation sometimes never pays back.
The questions to answer first
Is the work genuinely there, sustainably?
Three busy months isn't a trend. Hiring for a peak and then carrying the cost through a quiet quarter is how small businesses get into trouble.
Is the work worth what it costs?
Roughly: could this person generate or free up meaningfully more than they cost, within a reasonable time? If the honest answer is "eventually, maybe", that's a no for now.
Is it a person you need, or capacity?
Crucial distinction. If you need hands on jobs, you need a person. If you need admin done, you might need a process, a subcontractor, or a few hours of someone's time rather than an employee.
Could the work simply take less time?
The question people skip entirely. If ten hours a week of admin could become four, you may not need anyone.
What to try first
Shrink the work
Before adding a person to the current process, check the process. Businesses routinely hire someone to do a job that takes ten hours a week and could take three. See the task that takes far too long.
Buy hours, not a person
A bookkeeper for four hours a month, a virtual assistant for six, a subcontractor for busy weeks. All the capacity, none of the permanence — and a good way to test whether the need is real.
Stop doing some of it
See doing three people's jobs. Some of what you'd hire for might not need doing.
When hiring genuinely is the answer
To be clear, plenty of times it is:
- You're turning away profitable work regularly for lack of hands
- The work is physical or skilled and can't be compressed
- You need coverage — someone else able to be there
- You have a skills gap nothing else fills
- You want to grow beyond what you can personally deliver
The distinction is between hiring from a plan and hiring to escape a feeling. The first usually works.
If you do hire, prepare properly
The single biggest determinant of whether a hire works out is how well you can hand things over — which comes back to whether anything is written down. See everything is in your head and onboarding properly. Businesses that document before hiring get a productive employee in weeks; those that don't spend months being interrupted.
Wondering whether to hire?
Worth checking whether the work could take less time first — it's a cheaper experiment. AskColin works with small businesses on exactly this — low-cost monthly support with one-to-one help whenever you need it. No jargon, no hard sell, and we'll tell you honestly if we can't help.
Have a free, no-obligation chatFrequently asked questions
Should I hire someone when I'm overwhelmed?
Only from a plan, not to escape a feeling. Hiring adds management to your workload permanently, so if you were overwhelmed before you're now overwhelmed plus responsible for someone's week. The first months often feel worse.
What does hiring actually cost?
Salary plus employer's NI and pension, recruitment time, weeks of your time training, reduced productivity while they learn, permanent ongoing management attention, equipment and software, and the admin of being an employer.
What should I try before hiring?
Shrink the work first — businesses routinely hire for a job taking ten hours a week that could take three. Buy hours rather than a person, such as a bookkeeper for four hours a month. And check whether some of the work needs doing at all.
When is hiring the right answer?
When you're regularly turning away profitable work for lack of hands, the work is physical or skilled and can't be compressed, you need coverage so someone else can be there, you have a genuine skills gap, or you want to grow beyond what you can personally deliver.