When is the right time to delegate work tasks to another person?
My environment consists of many solo founders.
However, when I see someone is already starting to hire an employee, the question crosses my mind:
What profit has that person achieved when they can afford to pay another extra person?
In some cases, I have seen a call for volunteering, but now I have a purely interesting employment relationship.
Is it determined by the turnover or profit multiple from a given project?
How did you determine the right time for hiring the first employee?
Replies
That's a good thread! In the early stage that you are describing, it is an investment of which return is much less foreseeable compared to more mature companies.
A very well-defined detailed roadmap and strategy for at least the next 6 months is required in my view (of course longer term as well, but this will be less detailed). This way, the predicted output is quantified, which supports the decision making to hire or not.
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@didiervanh well, but can we quantify somehow the turnaround or profit? Like when would you hire? When you have 5X of your profit or 10x of your profit?
@busmark_w_nika You can add a value to the elements on your roadmap I believe. development of new features, acquisition of new users, growth of community, organisational topics etc. The value can be derived from many factors such as opportunity costs, value of getting things done at faster pace etc. This is something that the founders need to determine, but can significantly ease the decision process, even though it is never accurate.
The right time to delegate is when you can’t catch up, start missing meetings, and people are waiting on you to move forward.
Delegation isn't just about freeing up time, it's about making sure progress doesn't slow down.
minimalist phone: creating folders
Almost everything that you said is already my reality but I do not feel I should pay another person. Maybe I should change my time/energy-management :D
@busmark_w_nika I see your activity on various platforms, and not surprised to hear this haha :)
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@isibol01 :D yeah, need to waste less my time there :D
@busmark_w_nika ah no, I love your posts here. Spend more!
minimalist phone: creating folders
@isibol01 Haha, thank you :D
It wasn’t about profit for me, but time. When tasks started piling up and I was working 12+ hours a day just to keep up, I knew it was time to bring someone in.
minimalist phone: creating folders
Probably you are right – but you need to have a solid profit to afford another person. At least freelancer or VA.
The right time to delegate tasks or hire your first employee is when you truly understand where your strengths lie. As a solo founder, it’s easy to take on everything yourself, but at some point, you'll notice that certain tasks are either not your strong suit or simply not enjoyable for you.
That’s when hiring makes the most sense – bringing in a specialist who can handle those areas better than you, allowing you to focus on what you do best. It’s less about hitting a specific revenue milestone and more about optimizing your time and energy for growth and efficiency.
Many founders delay hiring because they see it as a financial risk, but in reality, a well-placed hire can accelerate progress significantly.
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Yes and no. I agree with the importance of delegating because you cannot do some things at the professional and specialised level. But you can't afford to underpay your employees because it can bring you unprofessional employees and also create a bad reputation.
LiftmyCV
Well, many solo founders start by side hustling alongside their regular job until they can fully switch to their own projects.
Some may also have other businesses or savings.
So it really comes down to setting the right priorities and allocating capital wisely.
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@danzaitsev What I have seen (the pattern) is that many makers went from 9 – 5 to solo, then hired freelancers and then full-time job employees... when things went well.
Such a great question.. especially for fast-moving teams.
What I’ve seen across orgs: delegation isn't just about headcount. It’s about mental bandwidth.
We’re building an AI Executive Assistant that handles high-frequency, low-leverage tasks — like email routing, follow-ups, and meeting prep.. so your team doesn’t burn time on work that should’ve been delegated to systems long ago.
Curious what kind of work you’d delegate first if you didn’t have to think twice about setup?
minimalist phone: creating folders
@goodgistai Probably accountancy – that one I already delegated actually but also other things related to government etc :D