We Had to Fire Someone This Week | Week 9 Founder Vlog

Founder Journey

About this week's journey

Week 9 of the Founder Journey lands in one of the least comfortable parts of running a small business: deciding that a new hire is not working out. Chris and Helen had returned from Ideas Fest to find a series of errors and issues that needed dealing with. The employee had received training and was well liked, but they felt the required skill set was not aligning with what the role and business needed. That led to the decision to let the person go, something they describe as both a business necessity and a difficult human decision because it affects more than a job title.

The immediate consequence is familiar to many small business owners. Losing one person does not simply remove a salary line. It creates another recruitment process, more training and a period where the founders and existing team have to pick up the missing work. In this case, it has happened during a busy period, so Chris and Helen are already working weekends to cover the gap. The episode also explores a wider frustration: the disconnect that can exist between how employees see the owners' time and what the owners feel they are actually carrying. Comments about being away at an event or leaving the office at half past four prompted Chris to reflect on the many hours spent networking, following up and continuing work at home.

Alongside the pressure, Helen's week had several positives. A meeting with a new college opened an opportunity to supply staff workwear, and another meeting with a local pub and restaurant created a further branded clothing opportunity. Chris and Helen also recorded a podcast with Angela Cox, whose work they describe as sitting somewhere between business coaching, advice and therapy. The conversation connected with Helen's view that the emotional side of running a business is often overlooked, and even challenged some of Chris's scepticism about therapy.

There was also an unexpected content win. After Helen posted a spontaneous video with Niall MacMillan from Ideas Fest, the clip generated close to a million Instagram views or impressions and tens of thousands of likes according to their discussion in the vlog. That interaction also helped lead to securing him for a future podcast episode. The contrast is the point of this week's Founder Journey: one week can hold a dismissal, staffing pressure, new sales opportunities, a strong podcast recording and a piece of content suddenly taking off. Chris and Helen use the series to document those swings openly so other business owners can see more of what running multiple businesses actually looks like in real time.