Is It A Bad Hire…Or Just Bad Onboarding?

Hiring someone in your design business can feel like a huge step.

You spend weeks thinking about it. You stress about payroll. You wonder if you’re really ready to lead a team.

And then you finally hire someone… and things feel clunky.

Tasks get misunderstood. Expectations feel unclear. You start to feel frustrated. They’re probably frustrated, too. And before long, you’re wondering if you made a mistake hiring in the first place.

I’ve been there more times than I care to admit.

But over the years, I realized something important: most of the time, it wasn’t a bad hire. It was bad onboarding.

In small businesses, especially design firms, so much of the way we work lives inside our heads. Our systems, our preferences, how we communicate with clients, how we prepare presentations, how we handle projects. None of that is obvious to someone walking into the business for the first time.

So when we hire someone and immediately throw them into the deep end, we’re setting both of us up for frustration.

In this episode, I’m sharing a simple framework that completely changed how I bring people into my business: the 30-60-90 day onboarding plan.

It’s not corporate. It’s not complicated. It’s just a clear structure that helps a new hire understand what success actually looks like in your business.

If you’ve ever made a hire that didn’t work out, or you’re thinking about hiring your first assistant, junior designer, or admin support, this episode will give you a practical tool you can start using right away.

Episode Highlights

Why hiring can feel so difficult for small design firm owners
The onboarding gap that causes many hires to fail
Why throwing someone into the deep end creates frustration for everyone
The three things good onboarding should actually accomplish
How to clearly define success for a new hire
Why a 30-60-90 day framework removes guesswork
How structured feedback builds confidence for both you and your team
What real delegation looks like once onboarding is done well

Episode REsources

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This episode is sponsored by Dovetail Furniture

March 17, 2026

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