Hiring a General Manager – would love to hear from those who’ve done this

November 06, 2025

by a searcher from Carnegie Mellon University in Livingston, NJ, USA

I will be overseeing a well-established home care services business that employs about###-###-#### caregivers. I’m looking to hire a General Manager to lead day-to-day operations, someone who can manage scheduling, compliance, and staff performance while continuing to grow the business. For those of you who’ve gone through this, I’d love to hear your experiences: 1/ How did you structure the GM role (scope, compensation, KPIs)? 2/ What surprised you most about hiring or retaining the right person? 3/ Any best practices for balancing owner oversight with GM autonomy? And if anyone here is interested or knows an experienced home care / healthcare operations leader in the NJ area, please drop a note, I’d be happy to connect.

Reply by a professional
from Texas State University in Sidney, NE 69162, USA

We just finished placing a GM for one of our clients and routinely do this for services firms. Few things I've learned: 1/ Structure Most owners get this backward - they define the role before diagnosing what they're actually doing that needs to transfer. You end up hiring a senior coordinator and wondering why you're still the bottleneck. Real question: What decisions are YOU making that this person needs to own? That determines scope, comp, and KPIs - and it's different for every business. 2/ What surprises people Authority transfer is the hard part. Most owners say they want autonomy but then stay involved in daily decisions. You can't just hand someone the keys - there's a 6 month process of systematically shifting decision-making power. Also: The best GMs often don't come from your industry. Operational excellence > industry knowledge. Industry is teachable in 90 days. 3/ Oversight vs. Autonomy If you're in operational weeds more than 5 hours/week after month 6, something's broken. Either wrong hire or you haven't actually transferred authority. For your search: Before you start interviewing, get clear on what you're hiring them to replace you FOR - not just what tasks they'll do. That clarity prevents the "great person, wrong fit" problem. If helpful. DM me. Good luck.

Reply by a searcher
from The University of Chicago in Denver, CO, USA

Shameless plug, but I did a webinar on Hiring an Operator at Acquiring Minds: https://acquiringminds.co/webinars/how-to-hire-an-operator-to-replace-yourself

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