MARK KOHLERMain Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, Main Street Professionals, LLC · Owner at Main Street Professionals, LLC

How Smart Owners Afford Their First Hire #entrepreneur #business

26 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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Mark Kohler explains when a small-business owner can actually afford a first hire: when the employee frees up time for higher-value work or directly generates revenue. A dental practice hiring an admin assistant lets the dentist see more patients; hiring another dentist doubles capacity without burning out the owner. The math has to work on return-on-time first.

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Many of you listeners have heard someone say, well, I just can't afford my first employee. I can't afford it. Well, yeah, it's going to cost you, and you're living month to month now, I get it. But that employee should allow you more time to make more money. If you're hiring someone that's not going to take— free up your time or make money, you're right, you can't afford it. But if they are going to actually take 20% of workload off of you, of menial tasks that aren't revenue generators, then you can easily calculate and go, okay, if I'm that dentist, I can put more people in the chair in my room if I hire that admin. Or if I hire that other dentist, until he's fully busy, I'm going to have to work a little harder. But once he hits his stride, okay, two dentists should allow me to make the same amount of money.