Hiring your first employee is one of the scariest — and most important — decisions in a home service business. Hire too early and you burn cash. Hire too late and you collapse under your own workload. In Episode 8 of the Hose & Hustle podcast, Mike and Monica Dingler share exactly when to hire, who to hire first, and the hiring red flags that have cost them over the years.
How to Know You’re Actually Ready (Not Just Exhausted)
In the early days, Mike didn’t have the data — he just knew he was drowning. The honest signal back then was simple: he was a one-man show, booked out two-plus weeks, missing family obligations because his personal cell was the business line.
Today, the answer is data-driven. Calculate your capacity:
- Daily capacity = how much one rig/tech can comfortably do per day (e.g., $1,000/day)
- Weekly capacity = daily × days worked (e.g., $5,000/week)
- Monthly capacity = ~$20K for a one-truck, one-man operation at 4 days/week
“Math is the path. Data-driven decisions.”
But the simplest rule still holds: if you’re booked out two weeks to a month and you’re a one-man show, it’s time to hire.
The “One Is None, Two Is One” Reality of Going Solo
Mike’s hardest lesson came before he had backup:
“If a hose broke, that was the end of the day. If the machine went out, end of the day. When you fall off your first ladder and break some ribs and an ankle — can your business operate while you’re laid up in the hospital? If it’s just a bunch of ‘I’s and no ‘they’s,’ you’ll get a front-row seat to watching it collapse.”
Don’t build your business on you. Build it on a team that can run without you.
Who to Hire First: Always a Technician
This one isn’t close.
“First tech or first admin? Tech. You don’t hire a first admin — that’s a recipe for disaster.”
The distinction is revenue-generating vs. non-revenue-generating employees. Your first, second, and third hires should all be techs with wands in their hands, making things clean. The rule of thumb:
“You need one office worker per million dollars in exterior cleaning per year. You don’t want to be top-heavy like a fire department full of white shirts waddling to the lunch buffet.”
Your First Hire Is Never Your Five-Year Hire
A hard truth: your first hire is usually someone you already know — and eventually, they won’t work out.
“Your right-hand man will be your first lead tech. And then he’ll no longer work for you, because he’ll miss you out in the field. Where’s Mike? Mike isn’t on the truck anymore.”
That’s normal. The first hire is partly a guinea pig — because the owner has never had an employee either. Both of you are learning.
Where the Best Hires Actually Come From
Forget the unemployment line.
“Your best hire is NOT someone who’s unemployed. If they’re unemployed, that’s a big red flag.”
Firehouse’s secret weapon: word of mouth from existing technicians. Every Firehouse tech is an off-duty firefighter who recruits from their local fire department.
“That’s why Firehouse is the superior exterior cleaning company in the U.S. — I knew how hard it was to find good full-time technicians, because I went that route and it failed.”
Indeed and Facebook can work, but referrals from trusted A-players are gold.
Why Full-Timers Failed in a Seasonal Business
Mike is candid about a costly mistake:
“Full-timers in a seasonal business are a recipe for ‘I don’t know what to do with this person today because the phone didn’t ring.’ We went into debt one year paying payroll during the slow season.”
The fix: a roster of off-duty firefighters who work 10-12 hours a week (two shifts), love the change of pace, and don’t need full-time hours. When winter slows down, there’s no full-time payroll bleeding the business dry.
“Research a hundred pennies vs. four quarters. If all your eggs are in a commercial-contract basket, you’re just waiting on the next slowdown — and someone’s always trying to underbid you.”
Hire A-Players — And Treat Every Season Like a New Season
Mike runs his roster like a college coach:
“Just because an employee worked out great this season doesn’t mean they’re back next season. I only bring back my A-player technicians. Some don’t make it out of season one — they’re in the portal.”
The most important warning:
“Don’t hire your first technician just because they can fog a mirror. Find someone who can think on their feet — because once you hire the second person, the first becomes the lead. And if you hire a turd, they’ll bring other turds to work.”
(Want the deep dive? Mike wrote a magazine article — “How to Attract, Employ and Retain A-Players” — available on firehousepowerwash.com.)
Want to Own Your Own Firehouse Franchise?
Visit firehouse-franchise.com or call +1 770-468-0014 to talk with our team about owning a firefighter-built pressure washing franchise.
Listen to the full Episode 8 of Hose & Hustle wherever you get your podcasts.
