Hiring When You’re Still Figuring It Out

One of the most expensive mistakes I made early on wasn’t hiring too late.

It was hiring too permanently before I had real clarity.

When a product-based business starts to grow, there’s this moment where everyone tells you the same thing:

“You need to build out your e-commerce team.”

So you start mapping the vertical. Marketing. Lifecycle. Paid. Social. Operations. It looks clean on paper. Professional. Legit.

It’s also incredibly expensive—and surprisingly risky.

Because here’s the part no one says out loud:

when you hire full-time, you’re not just paying for output. You’re committing to a structure you’re still inventing.

Let’s talk real numbers.

To properly build an e-commerce vertical, you’re often looking at something like:

• Ecommerce Director: $140K–$180K

• Lifecycle / Email & SMS Manager: $90K–$120K

• Paid Ads Manager: $100K–$130K

• Social Media Manager: $70K–$90K

Before benefits, before overhead, before mistakes—you’re easily at $400K–$500K+ a year.

And that’s assuming you hire well.

If they’re salaried and it doesn’t work? You’re stuck unwinding roles, morale, and burn.

If they’re freelance? You’re stuck managing a fragmented team with no real ownership—and still no system.

Either way, here’s the kicker:

you’re still the one creating SOPs, context, and direction in the beginning.

You’re paying top dollar and doing the heaviest thinking.

That’s the part founders don’t budget for—the cognitive load.

This is why I’m deeply opinionated about when to bring things in-house.

There’s a stage where what you actually need isn’t a team—it’s a fully owned e-commerce function. Strategy, execution, prioritization, and systems handled end-to-end while you get clarity on what works before locking in permanent hires.

That’s the gap I work in now: embedding as an e-commerce operator so brands can scale intelligently—without prematurely committing hundreds of thousands of dollars or burning founder time on infrastructure they’re not ready to cement.

Hiring isn’t the goal.

Clarity is.

And once you have that, bringing things in-house becomes obvious—and much cheaper.

If this feels uncomfortably familiar

If you’re scaling and unsure whether to hire, outsource, or wait—I offer a Growth & Ops Diagnostic to map what your e-commerce function actually needs right now, versus what can wait.

No pressure. No long-term lock-in. Just a smarter bridge between chaos and commitment.

If you’ve been feeling this tension, you’re not behind.

You’re being prudent.