Field Guides / Team
Treat hiring as filtering, not gambling. Two steps, and neither is a showreel on its own.
An interview, or a short written exchange, tells you whether someone can think. A small paid test tells you whether they can actually deliver. Owners often put every candidate through the full process, then discover halfway that two of them were never ready, having burned time and goodwill. A showreel proves someone cut something well once. It doesn't prove they can hit your brief, in your style, on your timeline. The paid test does, and it's the cheapest way to find out before the stakes are real.
You can't scale your business if you're going to stay on the tools. Building a business means the business produces the income without you having to shoot or edit. You can still choose to do parts of it. You just don't have to.
The hardest part is usually your own standard. Owners take an edit to 110% when 85% would satisfy the brief and give the client the outcome they wanted. Start the hand-off with the low-level work that shouldn't be yours anyway: client changes, lower thirds and social cut-downs.
Still deciding whether you can afford the hire at all? Start with making your first hire.
Never hire an editor on the reel alone. A small paid test job is the cheapest insurance you'll ever buy on a hire.