When do you hire employee's??

I turned down a gate job last spring. Good project, fair budget, customer was easy to work with. I turned it down because I was already six weeks out and I knew I couldn't do it right in the time I had. That's not a good feeling. But it led me to a question I've been sitting with for a while now: at what point does a one-man operation need to become something bigger?

I don't have a perfect answer. But I've got years of watching myself and other small shops figure it out the hard way.

The Moment You Know Something Has to Change

For me, it's usually one of three things.

You're turning down work you want to take. Not bad-fit jobs—jobs you'd genuinely enjoy and do well. That's lost revenue, but more than that, it's a sign your capacity doesn't match your demand anymore.

You're rushing, and the quality is slipping. I've caught myself cutting corners I never used to cut. Not because I stopped caring, but because I had three jobs stacked up and not enough hours. That's a dangerous place to be. Your reputation is the whole business when you're a one-man shop.

You're doing $20-an-hour tasks when your time is worth $80 an hour. Driving to pick up materials. Answering emails. Scheduling. If that's eating your days, you're working against yourself.

What You're Actually Deciding

Hiring isn't just a staffing decision. It's a business model decision.

When it's just you, every dollar of profit is yours. Your overhead is low. Your quality control is simple—you did it or you didn't. Your liability is manageable.

The moment you bring someone on, everything changes. You're now responsible for their wages whether the work is there or not. You're now a manager, whether you wanted to be or not. And you're trusting someone else to represent your name on a job site.

That's not a reason not to hire. It's just what you're actually signing up for.

The Real Advantages

More capacity is the obvious one. You can take that gate job and the handrail job and not have to choose.

But the less obvious advantage is focus. Right now I'm the fabricator, the estimator, the scheduler, the delivery driver, and the guy who answers the phone. A good hire—even just a helper or an apprentice—lets me spend more time on the work I'm actually good at.

There's also the long game. If you want this business to exist after you stop swinging a welder, you need people who know how to do the work. You can't build that overnight. The guys who are best at passing on a trade started training people five or ten years before they needed to.

And honestly? Some jobs just go better with two people. Hanging a long section of railing, setting a heavy gate post—there are things that are physically easier and safer with a helper. I've worked alone long enough to know which jobs I've white-knuckled through that I shouldn't have.

The Real Disadvantages

Payroll doesn't stop when the jobs do. That's the one that gets small shops in trouble. You have a great six months, hire someone, and then November hits and you're slow. Now you've got a fixed cost and a variable income. That math gets ugly fast.

Finding good people is hard. Especially in the trades. I'm not looking for someone who just shows up—I'm looking for someone who gives a damn about doing it right. Those people exist, but they're not standing in line waiting to work for a small shop in Orem.

Training takes time you probably don't have. The first few months with a new hire, you're often slower than you would have been alone. You're teaching, correcting, explaining. That's an investment, and you have to be willing to make it.

And management is a completely different skill than fabrication. I'm good with steel. I'm not naturally good at having hard conversations with an employee who's showing up late or rushing through work. That stuff doesn't come easy, and if you ignore it, it gets worse.

What the Numbers Actually Need to Look Like

Before you hire, you need to know your numbers.

Can you sustain that person's wages for four to six months even if work slows down? Do you have enough consistent, repeatable work to keep them busy—not just a few big projects, but ongoing demand? Does bringing them on actually free up your capacity to earn more, or are you just adding overhead to your current workload?

If the answer to any of those is no, you're not ready. And that's okay. A lot of good small businesses stay small on purpose and do very well.

The Apprentice Route

One thing I've seen work well for small fabrication shops: start with an apprentice, not a journeyman.

Someone younger, willing to learn, not bringing in bad habits from another shop. You pay them less, you train them your way, and if they're the right person, you grow together. It's slower than hiring someone with experience, but you end up with someone who actually knows how you work.

The risk is you put a year into training someone and they leave. That happens. It stings. But most of the time, if you treat people right and give them real work and real responsibility, they stay.

My Honest Take

I've run this business alone for most of its life. There's a lot I like about that. I know exactly what's going out the door. I can make decisions without a meeting. My name is on the work and I'm the one doing the work.

But I've also watched jobs walk out the door because I couldn't take them. And I've felt the weight of doing everything myself—the estimating, the fabricating, the delivering, the billing—all stacked up on one person.

The right time to hire isn't when you're desperate. It's when you've got enough consistent work to support another person, enough patience to train them right, and enough margin to absorb the slower months.

Get there first. Then hire.