“Should I hire an operations manager?”

Maybe not.

The inbox is overflowing, deadlines are constant, and you’re still the one catching the details. The instinct is to think, “If I just find the right person, they’ll clean this up.”

I used to believe an operations manager would save me. Until the third one quit.

Here’s what I’ve seen inside my own company, Gorilla Stationers, and in many others: operations and building are two separate things. Most operations professionals are great at optimizing, but not at building systems from scratch.

If intake happens five different ways, case handoff depends on memory, and no one’s really sure who owns what, most operations managers will struggle. They first need to understand what’s going on, then build a system, and only then can they run it. When they realize it’s not about running but about building, they often leave.

So before hiring someone to run the ship, ask yourself: is the ship built?

And by built, I mean:
• Standardized onboarding
• Clear case handoff
• A follow-up system that doesn’t rely on you at 10 p.m.

These are the things we as founders have to create first. In my experience, maybe one in a hundred operations managers is both good at building and happy to do it.

They’re two different jobs.

Don’t hire an ops lead to figure it out. Build the system first, then hand over the keys.

Because even the best captain can’t steer a ship that’s still under construction.