Some hires pay for themselves, others just cost you money… and knowing which is which can save your business a lot of headaches.

When I think about whether we have the budget to hire someone, I filter the decision through two lenses… investment cost or operational cost. It’s a simple framework, but it changes the way you look at adding people to your team.

Some roles are built to directly increase revenue. In an online school, that usually means the Growth division… sales and marketing. These people exist to bring in more money than they cost, ideally by a wide margin. If you add the right person here, it’s less about “can we afford them” and more about “can we afford not to have them.” A good salesperson or marketer should pay for their own salary several times over. It doesn’t mean there’s no risk… hire the wrong person and you can lose money fast. But the intention is clear: they’re here to grow the pie.

Then there’s Fulfillment and Operations. This is the crew that delivers the product, keeps the students happy, pays the bills, files the taxes, and makes sure we aren’t accidentally violating some obscure law that could tank the whole business. These roles don’t generate revenue directly. They are a cost of doing business. Important costs, sure… but costs all the same. You don’t bring on a great customer service rep because they’re going to close more sales. You bring them on because your customers will leave if they don’t get help.

The math is different for these two categories. An investment hire is easier to justify because the upside is measurable in dollars. An operational hire is about capacity, quality, and risk reduction. In other words… they might not make you more money, but not having them might cost you a lot more in the long run.

This is why, before I greenlight a hire, I ask myself… is this person an investment that will grow our revenue, or are they an operational expense that will help us run smoother? The answer changes how quickly I’ll move, how I’ll evaluate them, and how much budget I’m willing to stretch to make it happen.

How do you think about hires in your business? Are they investments, costs, or something in between?