It's a question that comes up a lot. You're writing good business, the clients keep coming, and you're working nights and weekends to keep up. At some point the thought lands: maybe it's time to hire someone.

The hard part is the timing. Too early and you're carrying a wage you can't afford. Too late and you burn out and cap your own growth. Here's how to think it through.

The signs you've hit the ceiling

There's no magic revenue number, but the signals are consistent. You'll usually see a few of these before you're ready:

• You're consistently working 50 to 60 hours a week and sacrificing your evenings and weekends just to keep up.

• Admin and paperwork are eating the hours you should be spending in front of clients.

• You've got more leads than you can handle, and you're turning away referrals or letting them go cold because you can't get to them.

• Client service is slipping. Follow-ups are late, reviews aren't happening, and you can feel it.

• Your income has plateaued, not because demand dried up, but because you've run out of hours.

If you're nodding at three or more of these, you're past the point where a hire is a nice-to-have.

What the first hire should be

The first hire should depend on what your business goals are. Happy as a solo operator running a lifestyle business? An admin hire to buy back your time makes sense. Trying to build something bigger? Good systems plus a second adviser might get you there faster.

Traditionally the answer has been an admin rather than an adviser. They solve the immediate pain without needing the same training, and a capable one can progress to adviser over time, learning the industry through osmosis.

Admin hire or automate?

Many advisers can solve their basic admin needs by using their CRM more effectively. Before you look to hire, write a list of everything you'd hand over to an admin person. Then contact your aggregator and request training to see how much of it your CRM can already handle. Half your "hire" might be a workflow problem.

KAN helps advisers with this every day, and it's worth a chat before you commit to a salary.

Whichever way you go, don't wait until you're desperate. Underwater by the time you act and you won't have the headspace to train a hire or set up a system properly. Move while you've still got the capacity to do it right.

What it actually costs

An admin hire is a lower-risk option than a producer. A full-time administrator in NZ typically runs $60,000 to $100,000, with the top end for someone senior. Add KiwiSaver, ACC, a desk and laptop, software licences, and training time, and the real first-year cost climbs well above base salary. If that's a stretch, start small. A student or part-timer doing basic filing three days a week takes a surprising amount off your plate and lets you test the water first.

The question isn't "can I afford the wage". It's "if this frees up 10 to 15 hours a week, how much more can I write, and is that worth more than they cost?" For most advisers at the ceiling, the maths works.

And there's a cost to not hiring, even if it never hits a payslip: the revenue you can't write because you're buried in paperwork. That's usually the biggest number in the equation.

Have your reserves sorted first

Don't make the hire on a good month. Make it when you've got the buffer to carry the wage through a slow patch. A sensible rule is three to six months of the new person's total cost in reserve before you sign anything. Commission income is lumpy, and you don't want a quiet quarter forcing you to let someone go three months in.

Get the structure right from day one

Before the first day, sort the boring stuff:

• A written employment agreement. Non-negotiable, and required by law.

• A clear job description so they know what success looks like.

• The systems and logins they'll need, set up and ready.

• A checklist of resources they can work through solo, your processes, key systems, useful reading, so they can self-teach rather than wait on you.

A tidy CRM makes this land better. If your processes live in one place, handing work over is easy. If it's all in your head and your inbox, onboarding is painful and you won't get the time back you hoped for.

Final word

The first hire is the one that turns a job into a business. Get the timing right, and don't commit without the reserves to back it.

When you're ready to bring on advisers rather than support staff, remuneration becomes the next puzzle. We've covered the options in How should you pay your Financial Advisers?

If you want a sounding board before you make the move, the KAN team has watched plenty of advisers make this jump. Have a chat with us first.