Most operators hear the same advice when they’re starting:
“Do everything yourself first.”
“Hiring too early kills margins.”
“Wait until it’s stable.”
I heard that advice at least 5 times a week and twice on the weekend.
I didn’t follow that advice.
I hired in my first month, and it played a huge part in how fast I scaled. Not because hiring early is always smart, to be honest, it probably wasn’t, I hired because time, not money, was my constraint.
Here’s how I thought about it.
I Didn’t Hire Because I Was Overwhelmed
I hired because I was capped. I was working 40+ hours weekly as a military officer, family at home, additional responsibilites and also managing a growing business.
Servicing machines myself meant:
Fewer hours prospecting (I limited myself to once a week, 2-3 hours)
Slower installs
Missed follow-ups (This would kill my growth)
Growth is tied directly to my availability (Stuck on the first account)
Every hour spent refilling was an hour not spent placing the next machine or speaking with a decision maker. When your time is limited, buy yourself more time; your return on investment is longer, but time allows you to scale in other ways.
That was the bottleneck. Time, I figured out how to fix that.
Hiring Didn’t Reduce Work, It Redirected It
Once I had someone handling:
Refills
Installs
Basic servicing
I focused on:
Prospecting locations
Closing placements
Following up faster and consistently
Planning the next phase of my growth
Revenue didn’t come from better refills.
It came from more machines placed.
Hiring bought me leverage, not comfort. I used that to expand and grow at a pace I didn’t imagine possible. When you no longer focus on restocking, free time is surprisingly high.
The Role Matters More Than the Hire
I didn’t hire a manager.
I didn’t hire someone to “run things.”
I hired execution.
Clear tasks. Clear expectations. No ambiguity.
I kept control of:
Sales
Relationships
Decisions
Expansion strategy
That distinction is why this worked. When starting, you’re hiring route drivers, you’re not hiring managers or shift leaders. They all report directly to you, and you make sure everyone is working efficiently; if anything happens, you hear about it directly. Service is a priority when it comes to vending. Make it so.
Hiring Forced Systems Faster Than Most Operators Ever Build
People say:
“Systemize first, then hire.” What is even systemizing?
For me, hiring forced systemization throughout my company before I knew what it even was. I built my employee handbook, checklists, expectations, and requirements; all were required by my first month because I decided to hire.
The moment someone else touches your operation, weaknesses show up fast:
What isn’t written down breaks
What isn’t clear gets done wrong
What isn’t repeatable stalls growth
That pressure made the business tighter, earlier. Trust me, there were a lot of issues starting, but it allowed us to fix them, account for them, and adjust for the future. We are now stronger thanks to that initial decision to hire at the start.
Yes, There Was Risk, I Took It Anyway
Payroll is real.
Margins tighten.
Cash flow matters.
I managed that by:
Starting lean on hours - Part-Time Employee
Scaling work with machine count - More Machines = more hours
Treating payroll as an investment in speed
Accepting lower short-term margins for long-term momentum
Growth isn’t free.
But neither is staying small. This initial tactic allowed me to scale from 1 machine to 16 machines and then to 50 machines within 15 months. If I had not hired, I would be stuck at 16 machines still after 2 years.
Hiring Early Isn’t for Everyone
It works if:
You’re actively placing machines
You’re growth-oriented
You want to scale past your own limits
It doesn’t matter if:
Routes are light (I started with 1 person part-time)
You want a faster ROI by doing it yourself
You don’t want to manage people
Neither path is wrong; they just lead to different outcomes.
The Real Win Was the Template
My first hire wasn’t about that month.
It created:
A role structure
Training expectations
Repeatable workflows
A playbook for new hires
So when growth accelerated, adding help wasn’t chaos; it was a process, a system I could replicate over and over. To this day, closing in on 2 years of my business starting, I can say I’m still learning and adding new things to my handbook because I decided to hire early and learn to be a leader for my employees.
That’s how scale compounds.
Final Thought
Hiring early didn’t make my business fragile.
It made it intentional. My growth was expected because I needed to account for others who believed and trusted in my company.
The question isn’t:
Can I afford to hire? I’ve asked many operators this question
It’s:
What growth am I delaying by not hiring? We’ve seen their routes grow exponentially as soon as they hire someone. Trust in this process; once you hire someone, your growth will increase naturally.
If this sparked a question or made you rethink your timeline, hit reply. I read every single one.