Getting a growing business ready for its first employee
The Challenge
A small business run by two founders, with no formal systems, no processes, and no employees. Everything had been handled informally between the two of them from day one.
The founders were ready to take the next step: paying themselves properly through payroll, and hiring their first employee. They soon found, however, that growing from “just the two of us” to a business with staff isn’t as simple as adding a name to a spreadsheet. Without payroll, pension provision, or basic HR processes in place, they risked getting the fundamentals wrong from the outset, creating compliance issues and a shaky foundation just as the business was starting to scale.
The Approach
Set up payroll for the founders, so they could finally pay themselves through PAYE rather than ad hoc
Registered and configured payroll for the incoming employee, ensuring everything was compliant and ready before their first day
Set up and ensured pension compliance, including auto-enrolment, so the business met its statutory duties from day one
Made sure everything was fully compliant with HMRC, giving the founders confidence that payroll, tax, and reporting were being handled correctly
Built the company’s first HR systems and processes, providing the structure needed to bring someone on properly, rather than managing it informally as they had done up to that point
Professionalised the business, putting in place the documentation and processes a business needs the moment it has employees, not just founders
The Outcome
The founders moved from an entirely ad hoc setup to a business with proper payroll, pension auto-enrolment, and full HMRC compliance, plus the employment processes needed to support their first hire and any future ones. What had been done informally between two people now had a structure that could scale.
Ongoing Support
I’m continuing to work with the business as they grow, now turning our attention beyond HR to their wider operations. This means putting operational systems and processes in place across the business, so they’re properly set up to scale at speed as the enterprise expands.