Hiring your first helper
Hire when you are consistently turning work away at a price you are happy with. Not when you are busy.
Those are different situations and they look identical from inside a full week. Busy at the wrong price means the fix is the price, and hiring into that problem multiplies it: you now have two people producing work at a rate that does not cover one. How to raise your prices.
The cost is not the hourly rate. It is the rate, plus employment taxes, plus insurance, plus equipment, plus the hours you spend training, checking and rescheduling. That last one is the largest in the first months and the one nobody counts, and it comes out of your billable time.
One helper does not double your capacity. Two people on one job is rarely twice as fast. Two people on separate jobs needs a second vehicle, a second set of equipment, and scheduling that can hold two calendars.
And the classification question has to be settled before the first day. Whether someone is an employee or a contractor is determined by the working relationship, not by what you call it, and getting it wrong is expensive in a way that compounds quietly. That is a question for an accountant or employment adviser where you operate.
What has to be true first
Consistently turning work away, for a month or more, not one good fortnight.
At a price you are happy with. If you would not be happy doing the work yourself at that price, a helper will not fix it.
Your process is written down. Not in your head. What "done" means for each package, in what order, with what products, and what gets photographed. This is the step people skip, and it is why the second version of the work is never quite the first version.
You have the cash to pay someone before the money arrives. Wages come out weekly; customer payments do not always.
Insurance is sorted. Employer liability is legally required in many places from the first employee, and your current cover was written for one person. Insurance for a one-van operation.
The real cost
Build the number honestly before deciding:
| Item | Notes |
|---|---|
| Hourly rate | The obvious part |
| Employment taxes and required contributions | Varies by jurisdiction, never zero |
| Insurance increase | Employer liability, plus adjustments to existing cover |
| Equipment | A second set, or a slower day sharing one |
| Vehicle | If they work separately |
| Training time | Yours, unbillable, and heaviest in month one |
| Checking and redoing | Yours, unbillable, and honest people include it |
| Admin | Payroll, scheduling, rotas |
Training and checking are the two that decide whether this works, and they are the two that never appear in the plan. Assume your own billable hours drop for the first month, and price on that assumption rather than hoping.
The two ways it goes wrong
1. Hiring to fix a pricing problem. Covered above and worth repeating because it is the most common. A calendar that is full at a low price is a pricing signal, and adding labour to it makes a bigger version of the same business.
2. Hiring without writing the process down. The helper learns by watching, which means they learn your habits including the ones you would not endorse, and the work becomes inconsistent. You find out through reviews rather than through a conversation, which is the expensive way.
Both are avoidable in an afternoon, which is what makes them worth naming.
Write the process down first
For each package: what is included, in what order, with what products, how long it should take, what gets photographed, and what "done" means.
That document does four jobs at once. It trains the helper. It makes quality checkable rather than a matter of opinion. It is what you hand the second helper. And writing it usually shows you two things you have been doing inconsistently yourself.
Before-and-after photos that protect you. · Quoting without seeing it.
Deciding what they do
Two on one job is the safe start. Slower per job than you hope, easier to supervise, and quality stays consistent while you learn what they can do. Best for heavy jobs and for the first month.
Separate jobs doubles capacity in principle and needs a second vehicle, a second kit, and real scheduling. It also means quality is unsupervised, which is fine once the process is written and not before.
Most operators should start with the first and move to the second, rather than deciding in advance.
What Rigsheet does about it
Two extra team logins are on the Pro tier ($39/mo), because a second person on the account is where the app stops being a single-user tool: two calendars, jobs assigned to a person, and photos and completion coming from whoever did the work.
The rest of what makes a helper workable is on the lower tiers, and it is the boring half: packages with fixed inclusions so a job means the same thing to both of you, customer notes with gate codes and preferences attached to the customer rather than to your memory, and recurring jobs that appear without anyone rebooking them.
No per-user fees on any plan, which is the specific thing that makes the alternatives expensive at exactly this moment. Jobber and Housecall Pro both charge per extra user, so the month you hire is the month your software bill steps up. Why per-user pricing costs you. · What each plan includes.
This page is not employment or tax advice. Classification, payroll obligations and required insurance vary by country and by state, and they are worth a professional's hour before the first day rather than after.
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About Rigsheet
Rigsheet is a job app from Baker Ventures LLC for one-to-three-person mobile service businesses: mobile auto detailers and residential cleaners first. Scheduling with drive-time gaps, quotes with vehicle and home-size pricing, deposits, "on my way" texts, before and after photos, invoices, and automated review requests. Plans start at $4 a month, with unlimited jobs, customers, quotes and invoices on every tier and no per-user fees.
It exists because the alternatives charge a solo operator team prices. A one-van business is not a small version of a ten-truck business, and pricing built around seats and add-ons makes that mistake expensive. The pricing calculators and operator guides on this site are free and need no account.
Questions and answers
When should a solo detailer or cleaner hire someone?
When you are consistently turning work away at a price you are happy with, not when you are busy. Busy at the wrong price means the fix is the price, and hiring into that problem multiplies it rather than solving it.
What does a helper actually cost?
Considerably more than the hourly rate. Employment taxes, insurance, equipment, and the hours you spend training, checking and rescheduling all belong in the number, and the last one is the largest and the one nobody counts.
Employee or contractor?
That classification is determined by the working relationship rather than by what the paperwork says, and getting it wrong is expensive. It is a question for an accountant or an employment adviser in your jurisdiction before the first day, not after.
How much more work can one helper do?
Less than double, at first. Two people on one job is rarely twice as fast, and two people on separate jobs needs a second vehicle, a second set of equipment and a scheduling system that can hold both.
What is the most common mistake?
Hiring to fix a pricing problem. The second most common is hiring without writing anything down, so the helper learns by watching and every job comes out slightly different, which shows up in reviews rather than in a conversation.
Do I need different insurance?
Almost certainly. Employer liability is legally required in many places from the first employee, and your existing cover was written for one person working alone. Check before the first day.
Rigsheet. “Hiring your first helper.” Baker Ventures LLC, September 7, 2026. https://rigsheet.bakerventuresstudio.com/guides/hiring-your-first-helper/