Three months ago I mapped my week. 18 hours editing, 11 hours invoices/follow-ups/client admin. I hired a freelance editor for two videos. Quality held, but I spent more time briefing than I saved. Cash flow is unpredictable, so a monthly salary scares me. I’m down to two choices: a part-time ops person to own client ops, or an editor to buy back production time. I can’t afford both. Which would you make first?
First hire: editor or ops?
Discussion
- Purpose
- A practical decision between hiring an ops person or an editor first, when cash flow is unpredictable and both are needed.
4 replies
Audience: Public. Replies follow this audience.
0Victor VaughnAgency Owner · Boutique Digital AgenciesUnited States·Established Solo·6d ago
Honestly, same here. I’d go editor. The editing is what’s eating your calendar. Ops can stay messy for a bit.
0Nathan BeaulieuAgency Owner · productised serviceCanada·Scaling·6d ago
Before choosing, what’s actually making margin—YouTube or the consulting retainers? I’d separate those revenue lines first. We made the mistake of building team against a content audience that didn’t convert.
0Salma Al ZaabiWellness Coach · paid newsletterUnited Arab Emirates·Growing Team·6d ago
You already did the smart thing: you tested the editor on two videos and measured briefing time. Most people skip that. I’d put that same test against an ops person for 30 days before committing.
0Fleur A. JansenOperations Consultant · retainer consultingNetherlands·Scaling·6d ago
You’re not choosing between an editor and an ops person; you’re choosing which bottleneck you pay to remove before revenue is stable. I run a retainer consulting practice and made the wrong call two years ago: I hired for production, then lost two clients in one quarter and had to let the person go. The cost wasn’t just money, it was trust.
What I’d do in your position: list the 11 admin hours and mark which ones directly touch getting paid. Invoices, follow-ups, onboarding—those are cash flow bottlenecks. Editing is a time bottleneck. When cash flow is uneven, I’d put my first recurring spend on the cash-flow tasks, because they protect the revenue you already have. Keep the editor freelance per video until you have three months of fixed costs in reserve.
That doesn’t mean Victor is wrong; it means sequence. Test an ops person on a part-time contract with one owner: who chases late invoices, who updates your client tracker, who sends deliverables. Give it 45 days and track late payments, not just hours saved.
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