Scaleport Blog
Hiring Your First Amazon FBA Employee? Read This Before You Make Costly Mistakes
Hiring your first employee is a huge milestone for your Amazon FBA business—but get it wrong, and it will cost you time, money, and a ton of frustration.
Unfortunately, most sellers mess up their first hire—they pick the wrong person, don’t set things up properly, and fail to delegate the right way. I’ve seen so many Amazon sellers get stuck, sitting on a brand with huge potential, but unable to scale beyond their own bandwidth.
Before I hired my first employee, I thought it would be simple—just find someone, hand off tasks, and free up my time. But that’s NOT how it works. The difference between a smooth hiring process and a complete disaster comes down to a few key things—and I’ll break them down for you here.
1. Clarify WHY You’re Hiring 👋
Before you even start looking for your first hire, you need absolute clarity on what you want to achieve.
What problem are you solving?
What does success look like for this hire?
What does failure look like?
📌 Define Success Before You Hire
Don’t hire just to “get help” – hire with a clear purpose and outcome in mind.
Clearly define what success looks like so you can measure performance later.
Identify the problem this hire should solve and the impact they should have.
A good hire should move your business forward, not create more work for you.
If you skip this step, you’ll end up hiring reactively—bringing someone on out of desperation, only to realize they’re not the right fit.
2. Hire Sooner Rather Than Later 🌄
Most Amazon sellers wait too long to hire—usually because they think they need to have everything perfectly planned first.
Instead, hire sooner—but start small to minimize risk.
📌 Start Small and Learn
Start with a low-risk commitment—a part-time role, a project-based hire, or even 5 hours per week.
You need time to learn and prepare for managing a team.
When you desperately need to hire, you’re already too late.
The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll figure out what actually works.
3. Hire for Ownership—Not Just Tasks ☑️
Many Amazon sellers think hiring is just about offloading tasks—but the real game-changer is hiring someone who takes ownership.
If your first hire needs you to micromanage every detail, you’ve just created more work for yourself.
📌 Stop Managing—Start Encouraging Ownership
Instead of hiring a VA to just "help with X", find someone to own the process.
Look for people who solve problems, improve workflows, and make decisions independently.
Not everyone is wired for ownership—some people are followers, and that’s okay. But your first hires should be leaders in their roles.
🚨 Understand This:
Hiring someone who only follows instructions = you stay the bottleneck.
Hiring for ownership = real time freedom.
The more you empower your first hire, the less involved you’ll need to be—allowing you to focus on growth, not just operations.
4. Who to Hire = What to Delegate 🔦
A common mistake? Hiring a "general VA" and expecting them to handle everything—customer service, product research, PPC, listing optimization, admin work… then wondering why they don’t perform well.
📌 Don't Hire a "General VA"—Hire for a Clear Role
Define a specific role—Customer Support, PPC Manager, Inventory Coordinator, etc.
Easier ownership transfer—Clear roles make delegation and accountability simple.
Specify required expertise—Hire based on specific skills, rather than hoping a generalist can figure it out.
Specialization leads to mastery—A focused hire masters their role faster and delivers better results.
Hiring for clear, specialized roles ensures long-term efficiency and stronger execution—instead of just patching problems.
5. Expect Mistakes—And Be Okay With It 🟥
Most sellers panic when their first hire makes mistakes and think:
🤔 “I should have just done it myself!”
📌 Your First Hire Will Make Mistakes
A major mindset shift: 80% done by someone else is 100% awesome.
Most tasks don’t need to be perfect—they just need to be done.
Every new hire needs an adjustment period (first 4-6 weeks = learning curve).
👉 Instead of assuming they’re bad, improve your onboarding.
👉 Set clear expectations and document processes.
👉 Create a feedback loop so they correct mistakes without micromanagement.
Mistakes are part of the process—it’s how you handle them that determines success.
6. Hire Slow—Fire Fast 🔥
Hiring the wrong person can cost you more than having no one at all.
📌 Pay Attention to “Red Flags” Early
🚨 The first 30-60 days reveal whether a hire will work out long-term.
Red flags to watch for:
❌ Lack of proactiveness – Only follows instructions, never problem-solves.
❌ Poor communication – Ghosts you, gives vague answers, or fails to follow up.
❌ No progress in learning – Mistakes are normal, but repeated errors = 🚩.
❌ Doesn’t take ownership – Avoids accountability, makes excuses.
Final Thoughts
Hiring is the key to scaling your Amazon business—but only if done right.
Pinpoint the gaps in your Amazon FBA business - Take our FREE 5-minute Business Checkup to understand what is holding you back and what you need to prioritize right now.
Hiring Your First Amazon FBA Employee? Read This Before You Make Costly Mistakes
Hiring your first employee is a huge milestone for your Amazon FBA business—but get it wrong, and it will cost you time, money, and a ton of frustration.
Unfortunately, most sellers mess up their first hire—they pick the wrong person, don’t set things up properly, and fail to delegate the right way. I’ve seen so many Amazon sellers get stuck, sitting on a brand with huge potential, but unable to scale beyond their own bandwidth.
Before I hired my first employee, I thought it would be simple—just find someone, hand off tasks, and free up my time. But that’s NOT how it works. The difference between a smooth hiring process and a complete disaster comes down to a few key things—and I’ll break them down for you here.
1. Clarify WHY You’re Hiring 👋
Before you even start looking for your first hire, you need absolute clarity on what you want to achieve.
What problem are you solving?
What does success look like for this hire?
What does failure look like?
📌 Define Success Before You Hire
Don’t hire just to “get help” – hire with a clear purpose and outcome in mind.
Clearly define what success looks like so you can measure performance later.
Identify the problem this hire should solve and the impact they should have.
A good hire should move your business forward, not create more work for you.
If you skip this step, you’ll end up hiring reactively—bringing someone on out of desperation, only to realize they’re not the right fit.
2. Hire Sooner Rather Than Later 🌄
Most Amazon sellers wait too long to hire—usually because they think they need to have everything perfectly planned first.
Instead, hire sooner—but start small to minimize risk.
📌 Start Small and Learn
Start with a low-risk commitment—a part-time role, a project-based hire, or even 5 hours per week.
You need time to learn and prepare for managing a team.
When you desperately need to hire, you’re already too late.
The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll figure out what actually works.
3. Hire for Ownership—Not Just Tasks ☑️
Many Amazon sellers think hiring is just about offloading tasks—but the real game-changer is hiring someone who takes ownership.
If your first hire needs you to micromanage every detail, you’ve just created more work for yourself.
📌 Stop Managing—Start Encouraging Ownership
Instead of hiring a VA to just "help with X", find someone to own the process.
Look for people who solve problems, improve workflows, and make decisions independently.
Not everyone is wired for ownership—some people are followers, and that’s okay. But your first hires should be leaders in their roles.
🚨 Understand This:
Hiring someone who only follows instructions = you stay the bottleneck.
Hiring for ownership = real time freedom.
The more you empower your first hire, the less involved you’ll need to be—allowing you to focus on growth, not just operations.
4. Who to Hire = What to Delegate 🔦
A common mistake? Hiring a "general VA" and expecting them to handle everything—customer service, product research, PPC, listing optimization, admin work… then wondering why they don’t perform well.
📌 Don't Hire a "General VA"—Hire for a Clear Role
Define a specific role—Customer Support, PPC Manager, Inventory Coordinator, etc.
Easier ownership transfer—Clear roles make delegation and accountability simple.
Specify required expertise—Hire based on specific skills, rather than hoping a generalist can figure it out.
Specialization leads to mastery—A focused hire masters their role faster and delivers better results.
Hiring for clear, specialized roles ensures long-term efficiency and stronger execution—instead of just patching problems.
5. Expect Mistakes—And Be Okay With It 🟥
Most sellers panic when their first hire makes mistakes and think:
🤔 “I should have just done it myself!”
📌 Your First Hire Will Make Mistakes
A major mindset shift: 80% done by someone else is 100% awesome.
Most tasks don’t need to be perfect—they just need to be done.
Every new hire needs an adjustment period (first 4-6 weeks = learning curve).
👉 Instead of assuming they’re bad, improve your onboarding.
👉 Set clear expectations and document processes.
👉 Create a feedback loop so they correct mistakes without micromanagement.
Mistakes are part of the process—it’s how you handle them that determines success.
6. Hire Slow—Fire Fast 🔥
Hiring the wrong person can cost you more than having no one at all.
📌 Pay Attention to “Red Flags” Early
🚨 The first 30-60 days reveal whether a hire will work out long-term.
Red flags to watch for:
❌ Lack of proactiveness – Only follows instructions, never problem-solves.
❌ Poor communication – Ghosts you, gives vague answers, or fails to follow up.
❌ No progress in learning – Mistakes are normal, but repeated errors = 🚩.
❌ Doesn’t take ownership – Avoids accountability, makes excuses.
Final Thoughts
Hiring is the key to scaling your Amazon business—but only if done right.
Pinpoint the gaps in your Amazon FBA business - Take our FREE 5-minute Business Checkup to understand what is holding you back and what you need to prioritize right now.
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