First Hire on a Budget? Associate or Admin: Which Comes First

You’ve hit capacity and know it’s time to hire, but with limited resources, every decision matters. Should your first hire be an associate advisor to share the client load or an administrative assistant to manage operations? Here’s how to decide.

Many growing firms face the same dilemma: the owner is doing everything, business is booming, but burnout is near. Adding help feels essential, yet hiring too soon (or the wrong role first) can drain profitability fast.

The key is to build leverage, not just headcount. That starts by hiring the role that buys you the most time and scalability per dollar.

Step 1: Clarify Your Constraint

Before hiring, ask yourself one question:

“What’s actually limiting growth: client capacity or operational capacity?”

If you’re losing opportunities because you can’t handle the volume of meetings or service work, you have a client capacity problem. Hire an associate advisor.

If you’re stuck under a pile of scheduling, paperwork, and prep tasks, you have an operational bottleneck. Hire an admin or client service coordinator first.

Step 2: Understand What Each Hire Unlocks

In early stages, most firms benefit more from administrative leverage first. It’s cheaper, easier to train, and creates the foundation for future advisors to thrive in a structured system.

Step 3: Budget and Timeline

If your firm is under $750K in annual revenue, your first hire should almost always be a Client Service Associate.
This person can manage scheduling, prep, CRM tasks, and follow-up - enabling you to focus 90% of your time on planning, strategy, and client communication.

Once revenue grows beyond that level and workflows are stable, your second hire should be an Associate Advisor to support overflow and build continuity.

Step 4: Build a “Shadowing Phase”

No matter the hire, avoid dropping them into the deep end.
For the first 60 days:

• Have them shadow meetings

• Assign repetitive or template-driven tasks

• Document processes together as they learn

This doubles as training and SOP creation: future hires will onboard faster as a result.

Step 5: Track Time ROI, Not Headcount

After 90 days, ask:

• How many hours has this hire freed up for me weekly?

• How has that time been reinvested into revenue-producing work?

If you’ve reclaimed more than 10 hours a week, you’re compounding growth. That’s the signal your next hire will pay for itself even faster.

The best “first hire” isn’t about job title: it’s about leverage. Start with the role that gives you back your time and reinvest that time into building the next layer of your firm.

Explore private strategic coaching with East Coast Coaching's own Stacy Arseneault and leverage his insights to kick-start your firm's growth. Visit our website to learn more and book your complimentary discovery call today: https://bit.ly/42GOhNa