10 processes I would automate before hiring another employee
Headcount is the most expensive way to solve a problem you have not looked at closely.
Adding a person is a permanent decision with a temporary feeling of relief. Before you make it, it is worth asking what exactly the new person will spend their week doing.
Where the hours actually go
Proposal and offer preparation. Recurring reports nobody reads in full. Answering the same twenty internal questions. Moving data between two systems that should talk to each other. Formatting. Translation. Meeting notes and follow-ups. First-line support triage. Invoice and document handling. Candidate screening.
None of these are exciting. All of them are real hours.
The honest test
If a task is repetitive, text-heavy, low-risk and reviewed by a human anyway, it is a candidate. If it requires judgement, relationships or accountability, hire.
The point is not to avoid hiring. The point is to hire for the work that deserves a person.