Every growing team hits the same wall: there's more work than people. The instinct is to hire. Sometimes that's right, and sometimes you're about to pay a salary to do work a system should handle for free.
Here's a simple test. If the work is repetitive, rule-based, and high-volume, automate it: data entry, follow-up sequences, routing, reminders, reporting. If the work needs judgment, relationships, or creativity, hire for it: closing deals, complex problem-solving, strategy.
The mistake lean teams make is hiring to cover the repetitive work because the systems don't exist yet, then that expensive new hire spends half their week on admin a workflow could have handled. You end up paying premium rates for mechanical work.
Build the systems first. Automate the mechanical layer, then hire people to do the things only people can do, on top of a foundation that handles the busywork. That's how a small team punches above its weight.