So on the hiring side, our first ever hires were two editors/strategists. Getting them in quickly was the first priority — making sure they had everything they needed to hit the ground running.
Then we brought in customer support.
Customer Support System
We made sure she was fully informed on everything. The best system we ever set up was rating customer anger levels (1–10) to reduce refunds and chargebacks:
- 1–3 (mildly annoyed):
- 4–6 (frustrated):
- 7–10 (very angry / high chargeback risk):
→ Offer a gift card slightly under CAC. Example: if CAC is $15, give them $10–12 store credit.
→ Mention our other product so they see value in staying.
→ Offer a gift card equal to their purchase price.
→ Example: if they spent $50, give a $50 gift card instead of a refund.
→ Full refund. No questions. Protect against chargebacks.
We very rarely gave actual refunds compared to the scale we were doing. Most got converted into gift cards or credits — way less risky, way more profitable.
Later, when we scaled up more, we hired a second support rep:
- New rep handled first-touch tickets (fast replies).
- Experienced rep handled follow-ups and escalations.
⚡ Key lesson: Quick replies = fewer chargebacks. Customers just want to know someone is there.
Operations Manager
This was one of the best hires I ever made.
- She built out Monday, Slack systems, and automations (like ad-upload notifications).
- She handled SOPs and kept all tracking tight.
- She basically became the “ops brain” so I could stay focused on ads, creatives, and growth.
I wouldn’t recommend this early on. But once you’re scaling and your time gets pulled in 10 directions, this hire changes everything.
Image Ad Editors
- First hire: 3–5 concepts per day, each with 3 design variations (not headlines).
- That gave us proper testing volume without burning editors out.
- Later: added a second editor → scaled to 15–20 total concepts/day.
The key was balancing volume vs. iteration speed. With two editors, it was easy to brief, assign, and keep the pipeline flowing.
Finance / Bookkeeping
We had a bookkeeper handling:
- Daily, weekly, and monthly P&Ls
- Tracking net margins
- Preparing for owner payouts
- Plan was to eventually let them pay out the whole team directly
This was all managed through Hubstaff.
How We Managed All Hires
- Find them: Upwork
- Onboard them: SOP → Slack invite → Hubstaff invite
- Manage them: Slack channels + Hubstaff tracking
- Pay them: Off Upwork (through Hubstaff) to avoid Upwork’s fees
👉 That was the full team stack:
- 2 Editors/Strategists
- 1 → then 2 Customer Support Reps
- Operations Manager
- Image Ad Editor(s)
- Bookkeeper
Lean, effective, and systemized through Slack + Hubstaff + Monday.