You’re Probably Waiting Too Long to Hire

I’ve been in business for 20 years now, and hiring is still one of the hardest parts of running a company.

The wrong person can create problems far beyond their own role.
The right person can completely change what your team is capable of.

And unfortunately, there’s no point where you finally “figure out” people.

That’s something Daniel Struna and I agreed on pretty quickly.

Daniel has spent almost 11 years coaching law firm owners through Atticus, so I asked him something I know a lot of owners struggle with: When do you know it’s actually time to hire?

His answer was earlier than you probably think.

Over the years, Daniel can only think of one or two times when he’s seen a firm truly hire for a role too early. Far more often, owners wait until they’re already at capacity.

I understand why. Adding payroll before you feel completely ready is uncomfortable. You want the work and revenue to be there first so you know you can justify another person.

The problem is that waiting until you’re completely ready usually means waiting until you really need the help.

And it’s hard to hire slowly when you need someone yesterday.

That’s when you start rushing the things you know you should be doing. You shorten the hiring process, overlook a concern, or convince yourself someone is close enough because the rest of the team is already slammed. That pressure makes it much harder to be intentional about who you bring in.

At Array, we have a pretty simple rule for this:

It’s either a hell yes or it’s a no.

I’ve had managers bring me candidates they really like when we badly need the help. I’ll ask if the person is a hell yes, and if there’s a pause before they answer, I want to know why.

There’s usually something. And whatever that concern is, needing another person on the team doesn’t make it go away.

That’s why the timing matters.

Starting earlier gives you the ability to say no to someone who’s almost right.

Daniel also made a good point about the financial side of that decision:

Capacity drives revenue.

It’s easy to want the revenue first and the hire second. But if you’re already at capacity, where is the next round of growth supposed to come from?

If an attorney is buried in legal work, they have less time to build referral relationships, market the firm, or focus on the work that actually grows the business. Sometimes the additional capacity is what creates room for those things to happen.

That doesn’t mean hiring before the numbers make sense. Daniel isn’t suggesting that, and neither am I.

It means looking ahead instead of waiting until the need becomes an emergency.

Hire slow doesn’t mean hire late. Give yourself enough time to be picky.

Your people will probably always be one of the hardest parts of running your firm, but they can also be the thing that gives you the most room to grow.

Until next week,
Kevin

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