When should I hire a project manager or lead carpenter?
Short answer
When your own schedule is the bottleneck on how many jobs you can run, not before. Hiring one too early is an overhead cost with no volume to justify it.
The signal to watch
If you're turning down jobs because you personally can't be on another site, or you're on site babysitting work a capable lead could run, that's the signal, not burnout by itself. Burnout alone often means you need better systems, not necessarily another salary.
Run the math before you hire: what's the fully loaded cost of the role, and how much additional job volume does it need to unlock to pay for itself? If the answer is 'I'm not sure,' you're not ready, get sharper on that number first.
What the role actually needs to own
A lead carpenter or PM should be able to run daily sequencing, catch quality issues, communicate routine updates to the customer, and flag real problems early, without you being there. If you still have to double-check everything they do, you've hired a helper, not a lead.
Promote from within when you can. Someone who already knows your standards and your customers is a shorter runway than an outside hire who has to learn both from zero.
Does the hire pencil out
| Lead carpenter fully loaded cost | $75,000/year |
|---|---|
| Additional job capacity unlocked | 1 extra concurrent job |
| Average margin per job at that size | $18,000 |
| Jobs needed per year to cover the hire$75,000 / $18,000 | ~4.2 jobs |
The math: Fully loaded cost of the role divided by average margin per job the role frees you up to run tells you how many extra jobs a year justify the hire.
Where owners get this wrong
- Hiring a PM to fix burnout when the real issue is missing systems or processes.
- Hiring before you can name the specific job volume the role needs to unlock.
- Keeping a hands-on grip on every decision after hiring, which defeats the purpose.
Ask your version of this question
This is one business owner-tested take. Your shop size, trade, and team change the answer. Ask the exact version inside Ask a Shop Owner and get a response grounded in how owners like you actually handled it.
Now run it against your numbers.
This answer is written for shops in general. Inside Ask a Shop Owner it becomes your answer: your revenue, your crew, your market, your history. Ask "When should I hire a project manager or lead carpenter" and get the version that accounts for what you already told us.
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