The Creator Hiring Mistake

The truth is, creators often hire before their business can support it. They hire that editor, that manager, even an assistant. And it feels like progress.But for a lot of creators, that decision creates more stress, not less. Because hiring doesn't fix chaos, it just amplifies it. Hey there. I'm Ralph Estep Jr. I'm a licensed accountant and I've been doing this for 30 years.And I work with content creators just like you and small business owners all over the world. I'm known as the content creators accountant. And I've seen today's pattern over and over again.Creators grow, they hire, and then suddenly they feel that financial pressure. So in today's episode, I'm going to show you three things. Number one thing, why creators hire too early.Then we're going to talk about the real cost of building a team. And then we're going to talk about a framework to hire the right way.Because hiring should actually create freedom and not lead you to financial stress. I never forget, I had a creator come to me. They were super excited. They wanted to share with me, hey, I just hired an editor and a virtual assistant.I told them that was great. But then I asked them the tough question. I said, what's this going to cost you? They looked at me, wait a second, Ralph. I hadn't thought about that.It's important. What's the monthly cost? And they hemmed and hawed and we finally got to it. $3,500 A month.Well, the revenue at the time that they were telling me this was about $6,000 a month. I was worried from the beginning. Two months later, they were overwhelmed. Why?Because their income fluctuated as it normally does as a content creator. But those expenses, they were fixed. And because they were spending on those employees, the cash flow tightened.And as the cash flow tightened, stress increased. They didn't hire the wrong people. Both of these people were well qualified people, but they hired at the wrong time. And that was the issue.See, the problem is, hiring too early never is going to solve your problems. All it's going to do is create financial pressure that your business isn't ready for. Because hiring turns flexible work into fixed expenses.And those fixed expenses require stability. But let's talk about the chaos of what's really going on here. Let's talk about how this normally plays out. A lot of people's first hire is an editor.It's usually the first one they do because creators like you and I, we want to save time, we want to increase our output, but they don't calculate something can the business sustain this? Monthly, when you're on that roller coaster of income and now you've got this editing staff or this editor, you got to pay.Can your business sustain that? Here's the second one. Managers. And this usually comes from growth pressure. Creators like you and I think I need help handling deals.But again, the revenue isn't consistent. Those margins aren't clear, so they give away a percentage before they even stabilize their income.My grandfather used to always say it's like putting a cart before the horse. Here's another one. A lot of people do, they hire assistants. It's all about freeing your time.But again, it adds fixed costs and without a system, it creates more pressure. And you know, I'm all about systems. And most of the time the hiring is based on emotion. That's the real issue.A lot of creators hire because they feel overwhelmed. They want to grow faster, they want that relief. They want to not have to do everything themselves.But hiring is not an emotional decision, it's a financial one. And you got to hear me on this. If you don't hear anything else I say in today's show, hiring is not an emotional decision, it's a financial decision.So here's the real question you've got to ask. What if hiring isn't about how busy you are, but actually about how profitable you are?Now I'm going to come back to that in a few minutes because I said a few minutes ago that you need a system. So here's my profit based hiring plan because this is where everything changes.Now this is the same process I use with small business clients that I've been working with for over 30 years. I've used the same approach in my own accounting and yes, even in my current content creation business. You ready for the steps? Let's get this done.Here's step one. You got to know your real profit. Not the revenue dollars, not what's coming at the top, not the cash in the bank. You've got to understand the profit.That's the money after the expenses, after your taxes, and yes, after you pay yourself. If you don't know that number, you're guessing. Guessing is no way to run a business. Step two, you got to hire from a place of profit, not revenue.That's why I started there. This is critical. You don't hire because, hey, I made ten grand last month. You hire because your profit supports the expense. Here's step number three.Start with variable not fixed. Now you might be saying, wait a minute, Ralph, now you're getting into accounting lingo. And I promised you I wouldn't talk accounting lingo.So let's break it down a little bit. Before you commit to full time monthly retainers, look at doing it on a per project or maybe a per video.Work up some flexible arrangements because that's going to reduce the risk. You can kind of test your foot in the water.Like if you're standing next to the pool and you're thinking, I don't know if I want to jump in or not, what do most people do? They put their toe in the water to see how cold that water is. Do the same thing with your business. Here's step four. Tie hiring to growth.In the end, when it's time to hire somebody, a person you hire should either increase your revenue, increase your capacity, or improve your efficiency. If it doesn't do any of those things, guess what, that's just an expense. That's not an investment. It's not an excuse for you to do less yourself.That is just an expense. But here's step five. You got to integrate with your system. Hiring only works if you already have the things we've talked about on this show before.That four account system, that tax vault. And you've got to have that income stability because these expenses are going to continue. Guess what?People are going to want to get paid every month. If you don't have the revenue dollars coming in, how are you going to pay them? And if you don't do that, you're just going to build more chaos.It's just going to cost more chaos. But that structure I talk about on this show, that system supports that growth.And you've got to have a system in place before you even consider hiring somebody. I work with somebody. She's a massage therapist and she decided she was going to expand her business. Well, she went out and hired an employee.But the problem is she had zero systems in place. So the first month this person sat idle because she was so busy she couldn't build the systems. You got to build the systems first.And hey, don't forget about doing payroll. And I can actually help with that. Now maybe you're thinking right now, Ralph, I really want to hire somebody.But now that I've listened to you, I'm not sure if I'm ready. Well, that is the right question. It's not time to guess. I'm going to encourage you to go to https://contentcreatorsaccountant.com/helpme.We'll put a link in the show notes. But I would love to talk to you about this. Let's look at your numbers together again. That's https://contentcreatorsaccountant.com/helpme.Because hiring at the right time can change your business. But hiring at the wrong time, it can actually break it if you're not careful. But now I want to go a little deeper.I want to talk about hiring being a scaling decision. Hiring is never a survival decision. You don't hire to fix chaos. You hire to expand the structure.And if you're going to do that, you've got to realize you're going to be adding fixed costs. Those fixed costs require stability. And this is where most creators struggle. The income is variable. Like I've said. I've used the analogy before.It's like a roller coaster. But your expenses become fixed. And when that gap is explored, that's what creates stress. Because the goal in all of this is leverage. It's not relief.You're not hiring just to feel better. A lot of people say to me, well, I got so much on my plate, I gotta hire somebody. Stop sign moment. Don't do that.You're hiring to multiply your output and to actually increase your income potential. Do you understand the shift there? But when you do this right, and you can do this right, you hire with confidence.You hire with confidence when your numbers support it. And that actually reduces your financial stress because you've planned for those expenses.You build a stronger business because then your team is sustainable and you scale correctly because structure came first. If hiring is creating stress for you, you didn't hire too soon. You hired without structure because that right hire and those people are out there.That right hire at the right time with the right system creates freedom and not pressure. And if you want help making that decision, go to https://contentcreatorsaccountant.com/helpme. Again, that's content https://contentcreatorsaccountant.com/helpme.I'm Ralph Estep Jr. And I am the content creators accountant. And I help creators just like you, protect, keep and grow what you work so hard to earn. And I'll see you on the next show.