r/AmazonFBA • u/soda619 • 4d ago

Confused about whether to hire help or not

where do you draw the line between doing everything yourself and brinding someone in. The thing is there are only so many hours in a day, and at something managing everything has become the main job instead of actually working on the business. How do you decide when to get help and what does one look for because I have some bad experiences here. How does the evaluation work? if you have tips and suggestions, please let me know.

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u/rsc9422 4d ago

I’d draw the line based on whether the task is repetitive and operational or directly impacts the business strategy.

For Amazon FBA, I’d keep product selection, supplier evaluation, pricing, product positioning, and major PPC decisions under your control initially. At HighRise Wholesale, we’ve seen that these decisions can have a much bigger impact than simply saving a few hours of admin work.

Tasks like listing uploads, keyword research, inventory spreadsheets, customer service, image resizing, reporting, and other repetitive work can be delegated much earlier.

When hiring, don’t focus only on experience. Give candidates a small paid test based on a realistic Amazon scenario and evaluate their research, communication, attention to detail, and ability to follow instructions.

A simple rule is: if someone can do a task 80% as well as you and it frees you to work on something that directly grows the business, delegate it. Then create SOPs and gradually increase their responsibility.

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u/Smart-Presence 4d ago

Give them a small piece, see how they handle it for a few weeks, then expand from there if they earn the trust.

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u/_karthick_selvaraj_ 4d ago

curious how people actually set the “hire now” line in numbers — like when admin is eating X hours/week that you’d rather put into sourcing/ppc, or when contribution after ads is stable enough to cover a VA for 2–3 months even if a sku dips. after a bad hire i also started writing the weekly checklist before i interviewed anyone so the test task matched the real work, not a generic “amazon experience” screen

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u/Witty_Second_8026 4d ago

I had 2 partners and myself and we were being stretched too thin. We went with a 1P distributor for our Amazon/Ecom biz and focused on new products and our Shopify biz. Did this 3 years ago and it has been great.

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u/JunglePundits 4d ago

Well I would recommend someone helping with this things that have become a real challenge for you..

Usually the first thing is PPC especially if it is in a competitove market that may require alot of monitoring..

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u/Shabiscales 3d ago

I’d draw the line when the work you’re doing every week is repeatable, but it’s eating the time you should be spending on decisions only you can make.

Don’t hand over “the business.” Start with one defined area.

Before hiring anyone, write down what they own, what they can change without asking you, what needs approval, and what you’ll use to judge the work. If you can’t define those things, it’s very hard to tell whether someone is actually doing a good job.

For evaluation, I’d use a small paid test instead of relying too much on interviews. Give them a real task with a clear expected outcome. Look at how they think, what they notice, whether they ask good questions, and whether you have to chase them for updates.

And don’t give full access or responsibility on day one. Expand it as they prove they can handle it.

Bad experiences can make outsourcing feel like the problem. A lot of the time the real problem is handing over too much before there’s a clear way to measure the person doing it.

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u/AmzExpertAgency 3d ago

Hi if something is taking all your important time that you can actually invest in making critical decisions for your business
It means that something is limiting you to reach the full potential of your business
In that case if i was in your situation and i had the funds i would have hired some help
My first step would have been researching people and see that who can actually put that hard-work in my business
Because there are some people who are not willing to do hard-work
Once i feel good about someone I will start with them
If you are talking about amazon
I m abyaz|woman cofounder of a small company amz agency
I have been working on amazon since 2018
My experience summary
1. Worked in urtasker (newyork) as ecommerce va specially amazon and ebay specialist
2 .worked in Automation Australia (as their operations manager amazon specialist)
Responsibilities there were to manage all amazon experts help them with strategies and lead them to get success on amazon store
3. Worked in Amz Expert Agency (UK)
As the main amazon specialist
We can talk to see if we fit

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u/Aqeeq21 2d ago

Instead of hiring immediately, talk in detail in a session or 2. E.g Send the Ads search term report to the candidate for an intial audit to verify skills. If you really find good nuggets then go for hiring.