Amit was drowning. He'd hit 120 bookings last year running his agency solo. This year he was on track for 180, but he was working 70-hour weeks, missing client emails, and his wife told him she barely saw him anymore. He needed help but was terrified to hire someone.
What if he hired wrong? What if business slowed down and he couldn't afford the salary? What if the person stole his clients?
He waited another six months until he literally couldn't keep up anymore. Then he hired in desperation and made expensive mistakes. Here's how to do it better.
When You Actually Need to Hire (The Numbers Don't Lie)
Forget gut feel. Here are the concrete signals that you're ready to hire:
Revenue Test: You're Making SGD 15,000+ Per Month Consistently
Not one good month - consistent monthly revenue of at least SGD 15,000 for six months straight. At that level, you can afford a part-time assistant at SGD 2,500-3,500/month without gambling your business.
If your revenue fluctuates wildly (SGD 20,000 one month, SGD 5,000 the next), you're not ready. Stabilize revenue first.
Time Test: You're Working 55+ Hours Per Week for Three Months
If you're consistently working late nights and weekends just to keep up with current business (not to grow), you need help. You can't scale yourself.
One crazy month doesn't count. Peak season happens. But if you've been overwhelmed for 90+ days straight, hire.
Opportunity Test: You're Turning Down Business Because You're Too Busy
The moment you say "sorry, I'm too busy to take on new clients right now," you need to hire. You're literally losing revenue because you lack capacity.
Even losing one SGD 8,000 booking per month (SGD 96,000/year) pays for a full-time employee with money left over.
Quality Test: You're Making Mistakes from Being Overworked
If you've forgotten client follow-ups, missed booking deadlines, or sent quotes with errors because you're stretched too thin, that's expensive. One major screwup can cost more than a year of salary.
What Role to Hire First (It's Probably Not What You Think)
Most travel agents hire wrong because they hire for what they want help with, not what actually adds the most value.
Don't Hire Another Agent First
Your instinct might be to hire another travel agent - someone who can sell and handle clients like you do. Resist this urge unless you're doing 200+ bookings/year.
Why? Because at small scale, you need leverage more than duplication. You don't need another you. You need someone to handle everything that's not selling.
Hire an Operations/Admin Person First
Your first hire should take all the operational work off your plate:
- Processing bookings in systems like DMCQuote
- Following up with suppliers on confirmations
- Sending payment reminders to clients
- Handling booking modifications and basic customer service
- Managing travel documents and vouchers
- Data entry and record keeping
This frees you up to do what actually grows revenue: selling, building relationships, creating packages, networking.
A good operations person costs SGD 2,500-4,000/month. They should save you 20-25 hours per week. Use those hours to sell more.
When to Hire a Second Agent
Only hire a second agent when:
- You're personally doing 150+ bookings/year and have operational support already
- You have a proven sales process they can follow
- You have enough inbound leads to keep them busy
Don't hire an agent hoping they'll bring their own clients. That's a partnership or commission arrangement, not an employee.
Part-Time vs. Full-Time: What Actually Works
Start part-time if you can find the right person. Test the relationship before committing to full-time.
Part-Time (20-25 Hours/Week)
Pros:
- Lower financial risk (SGD 2,000-3,000/month vs. SGD 4,000-6,000)
- Easier to adjust if business fluctuates
- Good for testing culture fit before full commitment
Cons:
- Harder to find good part-time people
- They're less invested in your business
- Limited availability when you need urgent help
Part-time works best if you have predictable tasks (Monday/Wednesday/Friday they process bookings and handle admin). It doesn't work well for reactive customer service.
Full-Time (40+ Hours/Week)
Pros:
- Complete coverage during business hours
- More invested in your success
- Can handle both planned tasks and unexpected issues
- Easier to build real team culture
Cons:
- Bigger financial commitment (SGD 4,000-6,000/month plus CPF)
- Higher risk if business slows down
Go full-time when your monthly revenue consistently exceeds SGD 25,000 and you have at least 3 months operating expenses in reserve.
What to Pay (Real Singapore Numbers)
Here's what market rates look like for travel agency roles in Singapore:
Junior Operations/Admin Assistant
- Experience: 0-2 years
- Salary: SGD 2,200-3,200/month
- What they do: Data entry, basic booking processing, document management
Experienced Operations Coordinator
- Experience: 2-5 years in travel
- Salary: SGD 3,500-5,000/month
- What they do: Independent booking management, supplier coordination, customer service, problem-solving
Travel Consultant/Agent
- Experience: 3-5 years selling travel
- Salary: SGD 3,000-4,500 base + commission (typically 2-5% of bookings)
- What they do: Client consultation, itinerary planning, selling packages and tours
Senior Travel Consultant
- Experience: 5+ years with proven sales track record
- Salary: SGD 4,500-7,000 base + commission
- What they do: High-value client management, complex itineraries, team mentoring
Don't underpay trying to save money. Cheap hires are expensive when they make mistakes or quit after three months. Pay market rate for the experience level you need.
Where to Find Good People
Job boards like JobStreet or FastJobs get you volume but not necessarily quality. Here's what works better:
Industry Referrals
Ask other travel agents (non-competitors) if they know anyone good. People who've worked in travel understand the business. The best operations person Amit ever hired came from another agent's referral.
Hospitality and Customer Service Backgrounds
Look for people from hotels, airlines, or high-end retail. They understand customer service and attention to detail. You can teach them travel booking systems - you can't teach work ethic and professionalism.
Fresh Graduates from Tourism Programs
Recent graduates from tourism/hospitality programs are hungry, trainable, and affordable. They lack experience but make up for it with enthusiasm and willingness to learn.
Just know you'll need to invest more time in training.
Your Current Network
Sometimes your best hire is already in your life - a friend who's organized and detail-oriented, a family member looking for flexible work, a former colleague from a previous job.
Hiring people you know has risks (harder to fire if it doesn't work), but it also has huge upside (you already trust them).
The Interview Process That Actually Works
Don't just chat and go with gut feel. Use a structured process:
Step 1: Phone Screen (15 minutes)
Basic questions to eliminate obvious mismatches:
- What interests you about working in travel?
- What's your experience with customer service?
- Are you comfortable with the salary range?
- Can you work our required hours?
Cut anyone who gives vague answers or seems lukewarm about travel.
Step 2: In-Person Interview (45 minutes)
Scenario-based questions that reveal how they think:
- "A client calls angry because their hotel booking was wrong. Walk me through how you'd handle it."
- "You have 10 tasks due today but only time for 7. How do you decide what to prioritize?"
- "Tell me about a time you made a mistake at work. What happened and how did you fix it?"
You're looking for problem-solving ability, accountability, and professionalism.
Step 3: Practical Test
Give them a realistic task:
- For operations roles: "Here's a sample booking confirmation. Input this into our system and prepare the client voucher."
- For sales roles: "A client wants a 7-day Singapore and Malaysia trip for a family of four. Draft an itinerary and rough quote."
Pay them for their time (2 hours at SGD 20/hour is fair). You'll learn more from watching them work than from any interview question.
Training Your First Employee
Don't just throw them in and hope they figure it out. Invest in proper onboarding:
Week 1: Systems and Processes
Teach them your tools:
- How to use DMCQuote for hotel searches
- Your booking management system
- Email templates and communication standards
- File organization and document management
Give them simple tasks and watch them complete them. Correct mistakes immediately.
Week 2-3: Shadowing and Practice
Have them shadow you on client calls, booking processes, and supplier communication. Then have them do tasks while you watch and provide feedback.
Week 4: Independence with Oversight
Let them handle tasks independently but review everything before it goes to clients. Gradually reduce oversight as they prove competence.
Month 2-3: Full Independence on Core Tasks
By month three, they should handle routine tasks without you. If they're still needing constant supervision, either your training failed or they're the wrong hire.
Common Hiring Mistakes to Avoid
- Hiring too early to avoid burnout: Burnout fades. A bad hire creates different stress. Make sure it's really time
- Hiring friends/family without clear expectations: Put everything in writing even with people you know. Especially with people you know
- Not defining the role clearly: Write down exactly what they'll do daily, weekly, monthly before you hire
- Skipping reference checks: Always call previous employers. Always
- Paying under market rate: You get what you pay for. This is not where to save money
- Not having a trial period: Include a 3-month probation in the employment contract. Make it clear performance will be evaluated
Managing Your First Employee
You've never been a boss before. Here's what actually matters:
Weekly One-on-Ones
Every week, spend 30 minutes reviewing:
- What they accomplished
- What they're working on next
- Any problems or questions they have
- Feedback both ways (you to them, them to you)
Consistent communication prevents small issues from becoming big problems.
Clear Performance Expectations
They need to know what success looks like. For an operations person:
- All bookings processed within 24 hours of confirmation
- Zero missed payment reminders
- Client emails responded to within 4 business hours
- Booking accuracy rate of 98%+
Measure these metrics. Discuss them in one-on-ones.
Document Everything
Create simple process documents for every task they do. This serves two purposes:
- They can reference it when they forget how to do something
- You can train their replacement if they leave
Use Google Docs or Notion. Keep it simple. "How to Process a Hotel Booking" shouldn't be a 10-page manual.
When to Fire (Because Sometimes You Have To)
Most first-time employers wait too long to fire bad hires. Don't.
Fire quickly if:
- They're dishonest: Lying about work, stealing, misrepresenting things to clients. Zero tolerance
- They're consistently late or unreliable: After one warning, if it continues, done
- They make repeated costly mistakes: Everyone makes mistakes. But the same mistake three times shows they're not learning
- They're negative and drag down morale: One toxic person can ruin your business culture
Fire slowly (with warning and improvement plan) if:
- They're trying hard but not quite meeting expectations - might just need more coaching
- Skills are good but attitude occasionally slips - address it directly and give a chance to improve
Document performance issues. Give written warnings. Follow Singapore employment law. When you do fire someone, you want it to be legally clean.
The Financial Reality of Hiring
Let's do the math on what hiring actually costs:
SGD 3,500/month salary × 12 months = SGD 42,000
+ SGD 5,950 employer CPF (17%)
+ SGD 2,000 recruitment costs
+ SGD 3,000 training time/lost productivity
= SGD 52,950 total first-year cost
That's real money. You need to generate at least SGD 75,000-100,000 in additional revenue to justify that hire (accounting for other business costs).
If you're doing SGD 180,000/year in revenue solo, adding someone who lets you grow to SGD 280,000 makes perfect sense. If you're doing SGD 100,000/year in revenue, you can't afford a full-time hire yet.
The Alternative to Hiring: Contractors and Freelancers
Before committing to an employee, consider contractors for specific tasks:
- Virtual assistants: SGD 15-25/hour for admin tasks, no commitment
- Freelance travel consultants: Commission-only arrangements (10-15% of booking value)
- Part-time bookkeepers: SGD 500-800/month to handle accounting instead of hiring full-time
Contractors give you flexibility without the commitment. Once you know exactly what help you need, convert your best contractor to an employee.
When to Hire Your Second and Third Employees
Once you've successfully hired one person and your revenue continues growing, here's the expansion path:
Second hire (when revenue hits SGD 35,000-40,000/month consistently): Another operations person or your first sales agent, depending on your bottleneck.
Third hire (when revenue hits SGD 55,000-60,000/month): Now you can build a complete team structure - operations lead, sales agent, admin support.
Don't hire faster than revenue growth supports. Every hire should pay for itself within 6 months through increased capacity and revenue.
The Bottom Line on Hiring
Your first hire is scary because it transforms your business from a solopreneur gig into an actual company with employees. That's a big psychological shift.
But it's also the only way to scale. You can't personally handle 300 bookings per year. You can't be available 24/7 for clients. You can't grow while doing all the admin work yourself.
Hire when the numbers support it. Hire for operations first, not sales. Pay market rate. Train properly. Manage consistently. Fire quickly when needed.
Whether you're handling Thailand beach packages, European tours, or Dubai luxury trips, you'll hit a ceiling working solo. The question isn't if you should hire, but when.
Make that call based on revenue, not emotion. Your business will thank you.
