Your team keeps dropping hints. "We're stretched thin." "Can we get another person on this?" "I'm drowning in requests."
You hear them. But you're not sure if they're right. Maybe they just need to work smarter. Maybe you're being generous and they'd actually be fine. Maybe bringing someone new on will create more problems than it solves.
So you wait. And while you wait, your best people get frustrated. Work quality dips. And you're working weekends trying to fill the gap yourself.
Here's the thing: your team probably knows before you do. But there's a difference between "we're busy" and "we actually need to hire." And most business owners get that distinction wrong.
"We're Busy" vs. "We Need Help"
I'm working with a business owner. Growing company, good revenue, a solid team. The team starts asking about hiring another person. The owner's immediate reaction is defensive: "We're making more money than we've ever made. How can we afford to hire?"
But that's the wrong question. The question isn't "Can we afford it?" The question is "Do we actually need it, and what would change if we brought someone on?"
Here's the difference:
"We're busy" usually means you're all working hard and the business is growing. That's good. That's what you want. But busy doesn't always mean understaffed. Sometimes it just means you need to get more efficient, delegate better, or say no to some opportunities.
"We need help" is different. It means the work is actively suffering because you don't have capacity. Clients are waiting longer. Quality is dropping. Key people are burning out. You're missing revenue opportunities because you literally can't deliver. A person is leaving because they're exhausted.
The second situation requires hiring. The first might just require better systems or clearer priorities.
The trap is treating "we're busy and unhappy" like "we need to hire." Sometimes they're the same. Often they're not.
The Communication Gap That Kills Hiring Decisions
Here's what typically happens:
Your team wants you to hire. They're frustrated. They haven't directly asked, but you can feel it in the tension. So you either avoid the conversation (which makes them more frustrated) or you hire reactively (which often means you hire the wrong person).
Neither works.
The move is to open it up and actually listen. Not to convince them they don't need help, and not to automatically say yes. But to understand specifically where they're struggling and what would actually change if you brought someone on.
Sit down and ask:
"I'm hearing that we might need another person. What's actually making you feel that way?"
"If I hired someone tomorrow, what would change for you?"
"What work are we losing or delaying right now because we don't have capacity?"
"Is this about being busy, or is this about the type of work we're doing?"
Listen. Actually listen. Don't argue or defend. Just understand their perspective.
What you'll often find is that the answer isn't "hire a full-time person." Maybe it's "hire someone part-time for one specific function." Maybe it's "hire a contractor to handle this project." Maybe it's "I need more support on X, and other tasks could be automated or eliminated."
Sometimes after that conversation, you'll realize they don't actually need hiring. They need clarity on priorities or permission to say no to some work.
But often, you'll realize they're right. You do need help. And you'll know exactly what kind of help.
The Business Model Question Nobody Asks
Before you post that job ad, there's a question most owners skip: What does bringing on this person do to my business model?
Not just "can we afford it?" but "How does this change what we're capable of? What new revenue does this unlock? What's the actual ROI?"
If you're hiring to replace yourself (so you're not working weekends), that's valuable but it's not scaling. If you're hiring to handle more of the same work you're currently doing, you're scaling linearly and you'll hit the same ceiling again in 18 months.
But if you're hiring to unlock new revenue, enter new markets, or deliver higher quality, that's a business model shift. That's real scaling.
So before you hire, ask:
Why are we hiring? (To reduce our workload? To do more of what we're doing? To do something completely new?)
What revenue or value does this unlock?
What would we be unable to do without this person?
Does this hiring support our strategy, or are we just hiring because we're busy?
This is the difference between hiring that moves you forward and hiring that just keeps you treading water.
The Collective Decision-Making Model
Here's what I see in the businesses that hire well: they don't make it a secret.
The owner doesn't go off and decide alone. Instead, they open it up. They listen to their team. They talk about what's changing. They bring people into the decision.
Then they make the call. They own it. But everyone understands why.
This does two things:
First, it gets you better information. Your team knows where the real problems are. They'll tell you things you don't see from your desk.
Second, it creates buy-in. Even if someone thinks "I'm not sure about hiring," if they've been part of the conversation and they understand the reasoning, they're more likely to actually support the new person when they arrive. Instead of seeing them as a threat or a waste of money, they see them as part of solving a real problem.
The worst hiring scenarios I see are when the team finds out about a new person after they've been hired. That's when resentment builds. That's when new people don't integrate well. That's when you regret the hire six months later.
The best scenarios are when everyone expected it, understood why, and had a voice in what the role would be.
What To Do This Week
If your team has been hinting that you need to hire, don't wait. Have the conversation.
But do it right.
Step One: Schedule a dedicated conversation. Not five minutes between meetings. An actual sit-down where you can listen.
Step Two: Ask the questions above. Listen more than you talk.
Step Three: If you hear consistent themes, take it seriously. If the problem is specific (we need help with X), acknowledge it. If it's vague (we're just busy), dig deeper.
Step Four: Don't decide in the meeting. Tell them you're going to think about it and you'll circle back.
Step Five: Then actually think about it. What would change if you hired? What's the real problem you're trying to solve? Is hiring the answer, or is something else?
Then come back with your decision and your reasoning. That's how you hire well.
The Cost of Getting This Wrong
Hiring the wrong person is expensive. Not just in money, but in team morale, in your own time spent managing them, in the opportunity cost of the role.
Hiring too late is also expensive. Your best people leave because they're burned out. Work quality drops. You miss revenue. Clients get frustrated.
But hiring without clarity is the worst. You bring on someone who doesn't fit the role because you never actually defined what the role was. You hire for the wrong reasons. You hire the wrong person. And then you're stuck with a sunk cost and a team that's even more frustrated.
The businesses that scale well do this right. They listen early. They decide deliberately. They communicate clearly. Then they execute.
It's not complicated. It just requires you to actually talk to your team instead of making hiring decisions in isolation.
Ready to Build a Hiring Strategy That Works?
Knowing when to hire is half the battle. Knowing what to hire for, and building a team that scales with your business, is the whole game.
This is what we focus on in the Mastering Business Expansion Program. I work directly with you to understand where your real constraints are, whether it's people, systems, or strategy. Then we build a plan that addresses the actual bottleneck, not just the symptom.
In many cases, that means hiring. But it might mean restructuring roles, automating processes, or clarifying leadership. I figure out what your business actually needs.
In our initial strategy session, I'll:
Analyse your current team structure and capacity
Identify where you're truly constrained
Create a clear roadmap for the next 6 months, including hiring decisions if they make sense
If you're at that point where you're unsure about hiring, or you know you need help but you're not sure what kind, let's talk.