Resources · Free Playbook
Free playbook · For coaches & consultants

Your first hire isn't a person. It's a job you finally wrote down.

It's Thursday, 10pm. You've delivered 3 sessions, replied to 14 DMs, sent 2 payment links, and still haven't posted the content you promised yourself on Sunday. You know you need help. You don't know whether it's a VA, a setter or a closer, what to pay, or how to tell a good one from a good talker. This playbook decides it for you in 4 questions, then gives you the pay bands, the job posts and the paid test task.

4-question decision treePay bands in rupees, 3 rolesPaid test task, 9 of 10 fail it
Straight from the PDF

Straight from the playbook

Not "delegate what you hate". A decision tree with numbers, and a test that costs ₹500 and saves ₹45,000. Two pieces, as written.

High Ticket Engine · The First Hire PlaybookPlaybook
Step 1 · The decision tree · question 2
"Count your inbound leads for the last 30 days. Under 20: you don't have a setter problem, you have a lead problem. Hire a VA at ₹12K to ₹18K to free 10 hours a week, and spend those 10 hours on content and outreach. 20 to 60 leads: hire a setter. You're losing more money to slow replies than to anything else. Over 60 leads and a full calendar you're closing under 25%: you don't need a closer yet, you need a better script. Over 60 and closing above 30% but you're the ceiling on call volume: now hire a closer."

Why it works: most coaches hire the role that sounds most impressive (a closer) when the maths says the cheapest role (a VA) unblocks the most. Counting leads removes the ego from the decision.

Step 4 · The paid test task · VA version
"Thanks for applying. Here's the test. I'll pay ₹500 on UPI either way. Task 1: here are 6 messy lead names with phone numbers and dates in a WhatsApp screenshot. Put them in a Google Sheet with columns Name, Number, Date In, Status. Task 2: write the WhatsApp message you'd send a client whose session recording is 2 days late, in under 40 words. Task 3: tell me one thing in this task that was unclear and how you'd have handled it. Deadline: 3 hours from now."

Why it works: task 1 tests attention to detail, task 2 tests tone, task 3 tests whether they'll tell you when something's wrong instead of guessing. Talkers fail task 3 every time. The ₹500 buys you the right to judge harshly.

That's 2 of 6. The other 4, the pay structures for all three roles, the job posts, the 14-day trial scorecard, and the firing conversation, are in the PDF below.

Take the whole thing

Get the full First Hire Playbook

Decision tree, pay bands, 3 job posts, 3 test tasks, and the 14-day trial scorecard. Where should we send it?

Free PDF · The First Hire Playbook

Get the full First Hire Playbook

Decision tree, pay bands, 3 job posts, 3 test tasks, and the 14-day trial scorecard. Where should we send it?

✓ Instant download. No spam. Just the file, and occasionally something worth reading.

✓

It's downloading now.

Tonight, run the 4 questions and post the job. In a week you'll have 3 completed test tasks on your desk and a hire starting Monday on a 14-day trial.

Download Again ↓
Inside the PDF

The First Hire Playbook: what you actually get.

1

The 4-question decision tree

Leads per month, hours lost, close rate, and cash on hand. Answer honestly and the role picks itself.

2

Pay bands, India, 2026

VA, setter and closer. Base, variable, metro vs tier-2, part-time vs full-time.

3

Three job posts

Word for word, where to post them, and what to put in the "to apply" line so tyre-kickers filter themselves.

4

Three paid test tasks

One per role, ₹500 each, 3-hour deadline, and the scoring rubric.

5

The 14-day trial scorecard

What to measure in the first two weeks, and the numbers that mean keep or cut.

6

The hard conversations

The 3-line firing message and the raise conversation, both word for word.

Be honest

Be honest. You've been "about to hire" for 8 months.

→

It's 11:30pm and you're formatting a client's session notes because "it's faster if I just do it".

→

You interviewed a "closer" who talked for 40 minutes and asked for ₹40K plus 20%. You said you'd revert. You didn't.

→

Your cousin's friend "helps with Instagram" for ₹5K. You've re-done every post she's made.

→

A lead messaged at 2pm. You saw it at 9pm. They'd already booked with someone else.

→

You keep a Notes app entry titled "Hire someone" with 3 bullet points and no date.

None of that is a money problem. It's a clarity problem: you haven't decided which job to hand over, so you keep doing all of them. This playbook decides it in 4 questions.

Why we give this away

This is the manual version of one piece of the engine.

High Ticket Engine builds done-for-you appointment engines for coaches and consultants in India. Positioning, offer, sales video script, funnel, CRM, follow-ups and ads, built in 14 days, then fully automated. Now you have the manual version of this piece.

119

engines built for coaches, consultants, course creators and experts

5 to 7

ready-to-invest calls a day the engine is built for, 100+ a month

14 days

from kickoff to a live engine, then it runs itself, fully automated

Straight answers

Questions you're probably asking

A part-time VA at ₹12K is 6% of that. If she gives you 10 hours a week and you use 5 of them on outreach that produces one extra client a quarter, she's paid for the year. The question isn't "can I afford it". It's "which 10 hours do I want back". The decision tree answers that.
India, always, for these roles. Your leads speak Hinglish, your clients are on WhatsApp at 9pm IST, and a ₹15K Indian setter who understands "sochna padega" beats a $6-an-hour freelancer who doesn't. The playbook lists the 3 places to post that actually produce applicants.
They might. That's why every SOP, script and sheet lives in a Notion you own, on a business WhatsApp number you own. Training a replacement takes 3 days when it's written down. The playbook's 14-day trial also weeds out the flight risks before you've invested a month.
Hating calls isn't a reason to hire a closer, it's a reason to fix your script. A closer costs ₹25K to ₹50K plus 8% to 15% and needs 15+ held calls a week to be worth it. If you're under that, a closer sits idle and resents you. Fix the script, hire a setter to fill the calendar, then hire the closer.

The playbook picks the hire. Something still has to give them leads to work.

That's the part we build. A done-for-you engine: positioning, offer, sales video script, funnel, pre-qualification, booking, nurture and ads. Live in 14 days, then fully automated. 5 to 7 ready-to-invest calls a day. 100+ in 30 days, or you don't pay. You show up and close.

Watch The Breakdown, Then Decide →
Free 30-min strategy call · 119 engines built · terms in writing