Most tradies budget for the wage and forget everything else — super, leave, WorkCover, recruitment, ramp time, the wrong-hire risk, the human-being cost. Here's what your first onshore admin really runs you.
For a 30 hr/week admin at $30/hr base rate. The base wage is $46,800. That's just the line you advertise the job at — every line below it is mandatory, and you don't get to opt out.
Every owner has heard the horror story. Some have lived it. Industry data puts the cost of a bad hire at 30–150% of their annual salary. Here's what that actually looks like.
The numbers are bad. The trauma is worse.
After one bad hire, most owners don't hire again for years. The experience locks them into a permanent ceiling on the business. They stay solo, work 70-hour weeks, and tell themselves "good staff are impossible to find."
Which is partly true, and mostly a scar.
F*IT doesn't get this wrong because it doesn't have a personality that sours, can't quit out of spite, can't quietly underperform — every action is logged and reviewable.
The on-costs are the obvious bit. Here's what no one tells you when you're thinking about your first hire.
Employing someone means you're now running two businesses — your trade, and a tiny HR function. F*IT only adds to one of them.
No marketing fluff. The honest costs and capabilities of each path. Pick the one that fits.
| Onshore hire$30/hr · 30 hrs/wk | Onshore contractor$60/hr · 15 hrs/wk | Offshore VA$25/hr · 15 hrs/wk | F*IT Pro$1,997/mo · always-on | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | ~$5,600 | ~$3,900 | ~$1,625 | $1,997 |
| Annual cost | ~$67,400 | ~$46,800 | ~$19,500 | $23,964 |
| // COVERAGE | ||||
| Phone reception | Limited hours | ✗ | Mixed | ✓ 24/7 |
| Inbox / SMS / DMs | Limited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ 24/7 |
| Quoting | Drafts only | ✓ | Limited | ✓ AI drafted |
| Scheduling + dispatch | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ Optimised |
| Website + SEO | ✗ | ✗ | Limited | ✓ Built + grown |
| Social content | Light | Maybe | ✓ Volume | ✓ AU voice |
| Reviews automation | Manual | Manual | Manual | ✓ Automated |
| Compliance / SWMS | If trained | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ Templated |
| Bookkeeping / receipts | ✓ | ✓ Specialty | ✓ | ✓ OCR + sync |
| Google Ads management | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ Managed |
| Authority / citations | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ Full |
| // QUALITY | ||||
| AU vernacular | ✓ Native | ✓ Native | ✗ Off | ✓ Trained |
| Phone work quality | ✓ | Limited | Risky | ✓ Native AU |
| Local context | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Brand voice control | Trainable | Limited | ✗ | ✓ Configured |
| Sick days / leave | Yes | No | No | Never |
| Quits without notice | Risk | Risk | Risk | Never |
| Ramp time to productive | 4–6 weeks | 1–2 weeks | 2–4 weeks | 90 days fully dialled |
| Owner mgmt time/week | ~2 hrs | ~1 hr | ~3–4 hrs | ~30 min |
| // COST PER COVERED HOUR | ||||
| Effective $/hr (advertised) | ~$43 | $60 | $25 | <$5 |
| Hours actually delivered | ~26 net | ~15 | ~15 | Continuous |
| Real $/hr after QA + babysitting | ~$50 | ~$65 | ~$30 | See note below |
It's how you make your first hire actually work. The standard small-business hire fails because there's no system for them to slot into. F*IT is the system.
You're on the tools. F*IT runs the back office. No staff, no HR, no awkward conversations. You see your first $400k year as a one-person business.
Single login. Workflows already documented. AI Mechanic answers their questions in real time. They're productive in week 1, not week 8. When they leave, the institutional knowledge stays.
Your hires are doing high-value work — managing relationships, complex jobs, the 5–10% F*IT can't. Not chasing invoices and reformatting quotes. The system carries the floor for them.
F*IT first. Then staff that ride on top of it.
Honest about it. Not every business needs F*IT. If any of these are you, save your money — we'd rather lose the lead than sign the wrong customer.
Walk-in customers, foot traffic, signing for deliveries, running errands across town. F*IT can't open your front door. Hire a part-time receptionist instead.
If you're looking for "set and forget," look elsewhere. F*IT supercharges the repetitive work — quoting, scheduling, content, follow-ups, compliance. We don't make the business decisions for you, and we don't try to. Letting AI run pricing, hiring, or customer relationships is the road to failure. F*IT is your back office, not your replacement.
One head contractor, one number rings, no website needed, no SEO needed, no public reviews to chase. F*IT is overkill. Keep your costs lean and stay nimble.