How I Hire People for My Fiverr Business
Hiring the right people for your agency can feel like a full-time job, but it is the foundation of sustainable growth. Here is how I approach it for my Fiverr business.
For me, this year was definitely a very positive one. I did not necessarily achieve all the goals I set, but looking at the numbers, it has been a better year than the last one. The biggest thing that happened this year is that I was able to hire a few people who brought a lot of value to the business and I wanted to break down my hires this year and how it took me almost a year to find them.
Remember: Do not let the business pull you too deeply into operations.
In 2019, I had a team of 20 people, all full-time employees. I was excited about the idea of having people work with me (I do not like saying that someone works for me). At the time, I was watching GaryVee constantly and he had a large team working in his media agency and under his personal brand.
After finishing university in the U.S. in 2017, I returned to my home country, Russia and decided to rent an office and start hiring people. By the way, as soon as I returned, I began documenting my journey on YouTube. Here is my first video showcasing my setup and team at that time:
At that time, I already had two people working with me:
Nina: She still works with me now and was helping with operational tasks, social media posts, and communication.
Kos: He was and still is, managing growth campaigns for Instagram, essentially taking care of service delivery.
When I returned to Russia, I met another person around my age who had completed his studies in Canada, Dmitry. He already had experience in social media marketing and was freelancing as well. Once we met, we immediately felt a connection and realized we could bring value to each other. Hiring Dmitry was more challenging because of his existing experience in marketing and I was unsure how to approach the financial aspect at first. I simply asked him how much he would need to work full-time with me and focus entirely on my business. He proposed a number and at the time, it seemed like a very good offer, so I accepted it.
Hiring someone with an entrepreneurial mindset who is also pursuing their own ventures can be challenging. These individuals are often focused on growth and scaling their efforts. While traditional salaried positions can sometimes limit personal financial growth due to predictable increases (typically 5%–10% per year or less frequent), there are often other incentives and performance bonuses available, depending on the value they bring to the business.
I highly recommend setting clear expectations from the start! Ask about their goals, financial expectations, where they see themselves in a few years and how they envision collaborating with you. If you notice anything unusual or alarming in their responses, it is better not to proceed with the hire. It can be very difficult to part ways later if the collaboration does not align with your vision.
In 2019, I had 20 people working with me, but in June, following my NYSE appearance, I had to let everyone go.
It was an incredibly stressful time in June 2019 when Instagram introduced new limits, making it impossible to provide the service that accounted for 95% of my revenue. When something like this happens, the first thing you must do is cut expenses as quickly as possible. I had to have difficult conversations with each team member, explaining that I could no longer afford to pay them. It was a rough time because we were essentially like one big family and some of the team members were people I had known for many years, even from high school. It is never easy to deliver such news, especially when you know others are financially dependent on you.
I worked hard to find a solution and pivot the business, but the stress was overwhelming. It took me several months to cut expenses as much as possible. By the time 2020 began, I was starting with a fresh perspective. The only person still part of my team was Nina. I offered her what I could afford to pay and she accepted. I believe she stayed because she had faith in me and my ability to recover.
Together, we built a powerful client acquisition system. I developed a new approach for growing Instagram accounts and trained Nina to execute it. She conducted daily outreach from my Instagram account, offering prospects a free trial and then converting them to a subscription. Within 3–4 months, we had over 80 active clients and things were starting to get back on track.
Unfortunately, in August 2020, the industry shifted once again. I was back to the starting point and had to search for a new solution.
As we move into 2025, here is what my team looks like:
Kos: Manages growth campaigns for Instagram.
Nina: Handles outreach, sales and communication.
Mila (my wife): Oversees quality checks for content design work and manages the designers.
Aljosa: A recent hire who has taken over all Fiverr communication and built a system for increasing Fiverr sales.
Marija: A designer responsible for client content design work.
Natalia: Also a content designer, focusing on social media posts for clients.
Milica: Another recent hire who works as a content designer specializing in social media posts.
Nikolay: Assists with all editing tasks, including YouTube videos, thumbnails, and covers for this newsletter.
In addition to my full-time team members, I also have partnerships that cost a certain amount per month, depending on the number of clients I have. These partnerships can be incredibly valuable. When you identify competitors or systems that are managed successfully, there is often a significant opportunity to partner with them and leverage their infrastructure to provide additional value to your own clients.
Do you know the ROI of each team member?
I remember asking myself how to determine a person’s salary and how it should increase year after year. I realized I needed to have a system in place. But before that, I had to understand what this person actually contributes to the business. From my experience, team members can be responsible for different processes:
You hire someone to manage your system, essentially saving you time.
You hire someone to bring in more leads and sales.
You hire someone to handle service delivery.
In my workflow, these roles are categorized as:
Project Manager: Focused on managing systems and saving time.
Sales Operator and Communication: Responsible for generating leads, driving sales, and communicating with potential and current clients.
Designer: Handles the execution of service delivery.
For each role, it is important to have a clear understanding of how this person can grow, how much value they bring to your business and how much time they are saving for you
If I start hiring people, I will be left with nothing—my team members will end up making more money than I do.
Yes, this is a very common mindset among freelancers. You might think, “Why hire someone and pay them X amount when I can do the work myself and keep all the money?” It is true that you can remain a one-person show and handle all the work yourself. We often hear about “one-person businesses generating millions of dollars a year.” It sounds cool and appealing, especially when you are working solo and making good money. But in reality, this approach may not work well for everyone.
Here is an example from my experience: About two years ago, I introduced a new service, and Mila (my wife) took on the role of delivering it. She created social media posts under my guidance, quickly mastered the skill and clients were happy with the results. However, she could not handle more than 4–5 clients per month, which capped her maximum earnings at around $3,000 per month based on our prices at the time.
After a few months, I told her that we needed to scale and that she could not continue doing all the designs herself. Nina, who was already part of our team, was open to taking on the role of social media designer. While Mila was initially hesitant, understandably so, as every designer has their own style and approach, I explained that we just needed to create clear guidelines and rules for how the posts should look. With that, we would be able to scale effectively.
Over time, Mila transitioned into more of a Project/Content Manager role. She began focusing on quality checks, assigning clients to designers and managing client communication. Today, we have a team of 3 full-time designers, with Mila still overseeing their work as Project/Content Manager.
I believe we are able to deliver high-quality social media posts that stand out from others because of the structured approach we take. However, as we continue to scale, we need even more team members and finding the right person can take months.
Finding the right person can take months and it is something you should work on daily.
Currently, we hire people from two main sources:
Running local paid ads linked to a Notion form
Back in 2023, we got extremely lucky. We decided to post a job listing on Jobrack, and within 1–2 weeks, we found the right candidate. At that time, we did not have a proper system for evaluating a candidate's skills. However, we decided to give a trial task and based on the results, scheduled a call to conduct an interview with that person.
When hiring, beyond evaluating actual skills, you can often sense if a person really wants the job or if they are simply doing it for the paycheck.
It is challenging to spot potential issues at the beginning, especially when hiring remotely. Most candidates are enthusiastic when starting a new job and everything might seem smooth initially. This is why I highly recommend being extremely picky and paying close attention to small details. For example, a minor mistake like a misspelling might seem insignificant, but small errors like these can escalate over time, leading to bigger issues.
Communication is another key factor to assess. For instance, if you send a message to a candidate on Friday at 6 PM and they wait until Monday morning to respond, you might think it is acceptable since your arrangement likely includes working Monday to Friday with weekends off. Technically, they are not required to respond over the weekend. However, a candidate who truly wants the job and is attentive to details will often go the extra mile, showing care and initiative by responding as soon as possible, even outside of standard hours. This kind of proactive behavior can make all the difference.
Here is what our hiring process looks like:
Portfolio Review
We review each candidate's portfolio to evaluate if their skills potentially match what we are looking for.Trial Task
We create and send them a trial task to complete. Trial tasks typically involve creating 3 social media posts from different niches.Video Interview
Based on the results of the trial task, we schedule a video interview to get to know the candidate better.Two-Week Trial Period
If they pass the interview, we organize a two-week trial period. At this stage, they are not fully onboarded and do not have access to Slack, Trello, or other internal tools. Instead, we create a temporary Telegram group chat and assign tasks directly using Canva. During the trial period, we allocate €300. If they successfully pass the trial, they are offered a monthly salary of €1,000.
The trial period gives us insight into how the candidate works and completes tasks. It is important to clarify that the trial period does not mean the candidate is fully onboarded. If we feel the collaboration is not going in the direction we hoped, we may end the trial early. In such cases, the candidate is paid for the days they worked.
See you next week!
Happy New Year to you and your family!
Kind regards,
Vasily