Your First Hire

Most first-time employers don't fail because they hired the wrong person.

They fail because nobody told them what happens after.

You posted the job. You interviewed. You made the offer. Someone said yes. And now you're realizing that "hiring your first employee" was the easy part - and nobody prepared you for what comes next: the legal setup you didn't know existed, the management expectations you didn't set, the onboarding you didn't do, and the feedback you gave too late or not at all.

Your First Hire is the complete guide for small business owners navigating their first hire from start to finish - written by a talent acquisition professional who has watched first-time employers make the same expensive mistakes, and built the systems high-performing HR teams use to prevent them.

Here's what this book covers:

• The real readiness test - not "do you have enough work," but whether your revenue, role clarity, financial math, and management capacity actually support bringing someone on
• Employee vs. contractor vs. freelancer - the legal distinction the IRS will use when it isn't your choice anymore, and how to choose correctly the first time
• A job description framework that attracts the right people and filters everyone else - before you spend a single hour reviewing applications
• The legal checklist you can't skip - EIN, payroll setup, I-9, W-4, workers' comp, unemployment insurance, and the wage and hour rules that trip up employers who thought they were too small to matter
• Where to find candidates when you don't have a recruiting budget, a talent network, or a LinkedIn Recruiter account
• A structured interview guide with legal and illegal question guidance - because "I didn't know it was illegal" is not a defense in an employment discrimination claim
• The offer conversation and what to say when they negotiate (hint: it's not as hard as it feels)
• A first-two-weeks onboarding plan built around the one conversation most managers skip - which is responsible for 40% of first-year employee failures
• A direct framework for when it's not working - how to diagnose performance problems vs. fit problems vs. onboarding failures, how to have the conversation, and how to end the relationship correctly when you have to

This book doesn't assume you've done any of this before. It assumes you're good at running your business, you need help, and you'd rather do this right than pay to do it twice.

Ready to hire someone who actually works out?