--- title: "Should Your Next Hire Be an Office Manager or Another Tech?" description: "Log your own two weeks, then run the payback math. A plain way to pick which seat to fill next and check whether the job pays for the person." url: "https://www.novatori.us/field-notes/next-hire-office-manager-or-technician/" source: "Markdown twin of https://www.novatori.us/field-notes/next-hire-office-manager-or-technician/ — generated for AI agents." --- Field notes # Should Your Next Hire Be an Office Manager or Another Tech? Log your own two weeks, then run the payback math. A plain way to pick which seat to fill next and check whether the job pays for the person. Published October 21, 2026 Everyone says to hire someone. That is advice, not a decision. The decision is which seat removes the constraint, and whether that seat can return more gross profit than it costs. If you have not yet worked out whether you are the constraint, start with [the owner-bottleneck diagnosis](https://www.novatori.us/field-notes/scale-past-a-revenue-plateau). This post starts after that point. Use these two moves before you post a job or call a recruiter. ## Log your own time for two weeks For two weeks, record your work in 15-minute blocks. Use a phone note, paper on the dash, or a simple spreadsheet. The tool does not matter. Give every block one tag: - **Sell**: estimates, follow-up, lead calls, site visits, and work that wins the next job. - **Do the work**: production, jobsite work, installs, repairs, and service calls. - **Run the office**: scheduling, paperwork, customer updates, billing, purchasing, and crew coordination. Do not try to make the log look productive. Log what actually happened. At the end of each day, add the time in each tag. After two weeks, look for the work that is keeping you from doing the work only you can do. The biggest time bucket by itself is not always the answer. ## Let the log name the next seat ### Hire office or admin help when office work is blocking sales Choose office or admin help when scheduling, customer calls, follow-up, billing, and paperwork keep taking time from estimates and sales conversations. The goal is not to hand off random chores. The goal is to return selling time to the owner. ### Hire another tech when sold work is waiting Choose a field tech when work is already sold, the schedule is full, and you are still on the tools because there are not enough hands to complete the jobs. A tech adds capacity only when there is work ready for that capacity. An empty schedule does not become profitable because you added payroll. ### Hire a lead tech or foreman when jobs still require you to run them Choose a lead tech or foreman when sales are moving and crews are busy, but you still have to provide daily direction, solve job problems, or make every quality call. That seat is about removing you from day-to-day field decisions, not adding another pair of hands that still needs your direction. ## Find the monthly cost from your own books Start with the monthly wage. Then pull every recurring cost in your own books that will follow the role. Use your actual numbers, not a generic percentage from the internet. If you want a wider check on the business numbers you already track, use the [trades business financial health checklist](https://www.novatori.us/field-notes/trades-business-financial-health-checklist). Construction labor burden commonly falls between 35% and 60% above base wage, with variation by trade, geography, and workforce structure. Treat that as a sanity check, not a rule. If your total is barely above the wage, go back through your own books before you make the hire. Write down one number: total monthly cost of the seat That is the number the seat must earn back. ## Calculate what the seat gives back For a field hire, start here: gross profit per added job × added jobs per week = added weekly gross profit For office help, start here: owner hours returned each week → additional selling activity → jobs won → added weekly gross profit Do not guess at field capacity. Your [per-job time tracking](https://www.novatori.us/field-notes/systems-to-scale-past-1m) gives you a better starting point. Have the crew clock in when work starts and out when it ends, then use that job time with your own gross-profit numbers. ### Example: office or admin seat These are example numbers, not a benchmark for your business. An office hire earns $22 an hour. That is about $3,800 a month in wages. The owner’s books show a total monthly cost of $5,500 for the seat. The hire returns 12 owner hours each week. Those hours let the owner send three more estimates or follow up on open work each week. One extra job is won each week, at $1,400 gross profit per job. 1 added job × $1,400 = $1,400 added gross profit each week Over four weeks, that is $5,600 in added gross profit. In this example, the office seat has a path to covering its $5,500 monthly cost. If those 12 hours do not turn into more work won, the seat has not paid for itself yet. ### Example: field-tech seat These are example numbers, not a benchmark for your business. A field tech earns $28 an hour, or about $4,850 a month in wages. The owner’s books show a total monthly cost of $7,000 for the seat. The new capacity allows three additional jobs each week. Each job produces $600 in gross profit. 3 added jobs × $600 = $1,800 added gross profit each week Over four weeks, that is $7,200 in added gross profit. The hard question comes before the hire: are three jobs a week already sold and waiting, or are you adding capacity to an empty schedule? ## Turn the calculation into break-even weeks Use this formula: cost to recover ÷ added weekly gross profit = break-even weeks For the office example: $5,500 ÷ $1,400 = about 4 weeks For the field-tech example: $7,000 ÷ $1,800 = about 4 weeks Use your own total monthly cost and your own expected weekly gross profit. If the math does not cross break-even, do not force the hire. The real constraint may be demand, follow-up, scheduling, or a process that still depends on you. Sell the backlog first, try part-time office help, subcontract overflow, or fix the process and run the two-week log again. ## Avoid the cheap-hire trap The goal is not the lowest payroll number. The goal is added capacity. A lower-cost hire who still needs you to make every decision, solve every job problem, or finish the work has not removed the constraint. You still carry the same load, plus the new payroll cost. Choose the seat that can take a defined result off your plate. For office help, that might be timely follow-up and a controlled schedule. For a tech, it might be a specific amount of sold production. For a foreman, it might be daily job decisions that no longer need your call. ## Have these three things ready before day one - One short written procedure for the first task you will hand off. - A list of decisions the new person can make without asking you. - A 30-, 60-, and 90-day check-in on the calendar before they start. Once you know the seat and the math works, move to [building a hiring culture that attracts A-players](https://www.novatori.us/field-notes/build-a-hiring-culture-that-attracts-a-players). That is the next job. This one is deciding who to hire first and what that person must return. Keep going ## Want to talk through what you just read? Tell us how your business runs today, and we’ll talk through how this applies to it. [Talk to us](https://www.novatori.us/contact)