Hiring guide
How Much Revenue Do I Need Before Hiring?
Revenue has to be repeatable enough for payroll.
Estimate whether revenue, margin, and cash flow can support a new employee.
Check leverage
Revenue per Employee
Check loaded cost
Payroll Burden
The mistake
Revenue can be high enough in the headline and still fragile if margin, collection timing, concentration, or owner workload is weak.
The better move
Test the hire against recurring revenue, gross margin, payroll reserve, and the owner bottleneck before adding headcount.
A practical way to use this guide
Pick one role, task group, or automation idea and describe the work in plain language before using a calculator. Include the repeatable work, the exception handling, the review time, and the decisions the owner still has to make. Hiring looks better on paper when those hidden pieces are left out.
The result can mislead you if revenue is seasonal, the process is undocumented, the owner is the only reviewer, or the new person would inherit unclear priorities. Use the linked tools to decide whether to hire, automate, simplify, or delete work. The best next step is often a smaller role, clearer standards, or removing low-value work before adding headcount.