Is Your Business Ready to Make a Senior Hire?
Hiring senior talent is one of the biggest leaps a growing business makes. A senior leader, whether in sales, operations, finance, or marketing, can transform your trajectory but also represents a significant investment. Salaries are higher, expectations are greater, and the impact of getting it wrong can be costly.
Many owners think about hiring readiness purely in terms of whether they can afford the salary. But affordability is only one piece of the puzzle. The real question is whether your business is strategically ready to make that hire.
Why Affordability Isn’t Enough
It’s tempting to calculate the cost of a senior role and compare it against your current revenue or profit. But simply being able to “cover the salary” doesn’t guarantee success. A senior hire should generate a return by creating capacity, driving revenue, or improving profitability that more than offsets their cost over time.
Without that lens, businesses risk bringing in expensive talent before they’re ready, which can create financial strain and frustration on both sides.
The Hiring Readiness Framework
Here’s a practical framework to assess whether your business is truly ready for a senior hire. Think of it as four filters to work through:
1. Financial Capacity
Do you have consistent, recurring revenue to support this salary?
Can you commit to paying them for at least 12–18 months without relying on short-term spikes in cash flow?
Do you have a buffer for onboarding costs, bonuses, or benefits?
This ensures you can fund the role sustainably, not just afford it this quarter.
2. ROI Potential
What measurable outcomes will this person deliver? (e.g., $1m in new sales, 20% efficiency improvement, reduced churn)
Can you reasonably expect the value they bring to outweigh their salary within 12–24 months?
Have you mapped their role directly to revenue growth, profit improvement, or scalability?
If you can’t define ROI upfront, you may not be ready to justify the hire.
3. Organisational Capacity
Do you have systems, processes, and a team in place for them to leverage?
Will they have the tools and authority to do their job effectively?
Or will they be bogged down fixing basic issues because the foundations aren’t ready?
Hiring senior talent into chaos often leads to disappointment. The role should be additive, not firefighting.
4. Leadership Readiness
Are you prepared to delegate and give them real ownership?
Do you have clarity on their responsibilities versus yours?
Can you support them during onboarding with access to information and alignment on strategy?
A senior hire won’t succeed if you aren’t ready to step back and let them lead.
Applying the Framework
Imagine a growing tech services company considering its first Head of Sales. The founder thinks: We can afford $200,000 a year, so let’s go for it.
But when tested against the hiring readiness framework:
Financial capacity: They have stable recurring revenue from service contracts. Tick.
ROI potential: They expect the Head of Sales to deliver $1.5m in new contracts within 18 months. A clear ROI, tick.
Organisational capacity: Their CRM is set up, marketing funnels are generating leads, and junior sales staff are in place. Tick.
Leadership readiness: The founder is ready and willing to hand over responsibility for closing deals. Tick.
In this case, the hire is a strategic investment, not just an expense.
Contrast this with a business that can technically afford the salary but has no sales process, no support team, and no clarity on what success looks like. The senior hire ends up frustrated and underutilised, and the business carries an expensive cost with little return.
Signs You’re Not Ready Yet
You’re relying on one-off projects or unpredictable revenue to cover salaries.
You can’t clearly articulate how the hire will add measurable value.
You expect them to “fix everything” without the foundations in place.
You aren’t ready to let go of control.
In these cases, focus first on strengthening systems, stabilising revenue, or hiring at a more junior level until you’re truly ready.
A senior hire can be a game-changer, but only if the business is ready across finances, ROI, systems, and leadership. Affordability alone isn’t enough. By running your decision through a hiring readiness framework, you can be confident you’re setting them up to deliver results that move the business forward.