When to start taking employees on board ?

The answer to the above question is completly dependent on the Type of business. In my case, the company is just a specialized distribution unit (The manufacturing company does everything as per my design and delivers it to me). I have been doing all work by myself, from office cleaning to CEO meetings, but i just have started relaizing that in about 2 months time i should have 1/2 employees. I have to convert all the contract technicians to Permanent technicians.

Based on the input from many business owners, they suggest to start employing someone when we exactly know what the new employee is going to be doing for the next 5 months, if we do not know that, it might not be the right time to get an employee. This decission is very important as the costs start exponentially increasing when permanent employee gets on board, their travel allowances, their holidays, their salary, their welfare fund, their personal development. So carefull thought is necessary before emplyoment decission is taken. Also the business becomes answerable to the government, if there is any issues with the employee.

Few other business owners suggest that, when the business owner feels that he cannot handle all by himself or feels he is doing lots of things, then start recruiting, but since "feeling" is perspective based idea, i would not go with this option.

With me i will wait untill i know what the new employee will be doing for 5 months. The contract employee are costing higher but i will have to continue the same for a while.