I re-watched The Big Short last Friday. This scene? Pretty much sums up what it feels like to be an entrepreneur.

Anyways…

If you delegate before you automate, you’re just throwing people at a broken system. You don’t fix inefficiency by adding more hands—you just scale inefficiency.

How Automation Made Hiring Unnecessary

One of our clients runs a gym equipment business and sells through multiple platforms—TikTok Shop, Amazon, Shopify, and wholesale. Before automation, his fulfillment process was messy and manual:

• Orders came in from different platforms, each requiring separate label printing.
• He had to log into multiple accounts daily to generate the shipping labels.
• Inventory updates were manual, leading to overselling and constant stock issues.

The Fix:

Instead of hiring an admin to handle it, we automated the bulk of the process by switching him to ShipStation:

✅ All orders from TikTok, Amazon, Shopify, and wholesale now flow into ONE place.
✅ Shipping labels are generated automatically—no more logging into multiple accounts.
✅ Inventory syncs across all platforms, eliminating manual updates.

With most of the process now automated, the only manual work left was a small amount of oversight and processing.

And because so much was already automated, his fulfillment company was able to take over the remaining steps.

💡The result?

• He didn’t have to hire an in-house admin.
• He completely freed himself from fulfillment.
• His fulfillment company now handles everything with ease.

This is why automation comes first. Instead of handing off a mess, we streamlined everything so it was easy to delegate.

How to Know If You Should Automate or Delegate

Before hiring or outsourcing, ask yourself:

➡️ Does this task follow a clear set of rules?
→ Automate it. (Zapier, Make, Airtable, ShipStation, etc.)

➡️ Is this task repetitive but needs human input?
→ Automate 80%, delegate 20%. (Example: Automate order processing, delegate exceptions.)

➡️ Is this task unique, creative, or judgment-based?
→ Delegate it. (Hiring, consulting, specialized work.)

➡️ Would this job still exist if I had perfect automation?
→ If no, automate first. If yes, delegate to the right person.

Final Thought: Automate First, Hire Smarter

The next time you feel overwhelmed and think, “I need to hire someone,” stop. Look at what can be automated first.

If you don’t clean up your processes before you scale, you’re just scaling inefficiency.

Which means you’re burning money.

Fix the systems. Then bring the people.