It is common enough to resort to remote working, especially after the global pandemic we have witnessed, but if you are a newbie, you should forego this tempting option and choose a good ol' office. Working on the premises is a throwback we wouldn't miss, but alas, sometimes it is simply inevitable: buyers have to be supervised. Not that you have to suspect every employee, but chances are that marketers may start stealing, and you won't even find it out unless you govern the team personally.
As for the budget, there are opinions on the topic, but it is advisable to launch the campaign having at least $50k. This is a huge sum of money, but remember that the team is expected to bear losses within the first two months. The reason is obvious: you are looking for suitable offers and tie-ups (offer + GEO + creatives + traffic sources + audience, landing pages, etc.), and the team members are getting used to each other and working together. That makes sense if you ponder it over: some affiliate marketers with their own tie-ups are not ready to share their information with the people they don't trust.
Hiring People
If you wanted to brandish your owner status, you might be discouraged to find out that your role as an owner will be reduced to a bare minimum. Sure, you will be able to brag about your achievements and your team at a conference, among friends and distant acquaintances, but overall you will have to delegate your functions to other people.
If you have never worked in affiliate marketing before or have a very vague idea of what it actually is, you definitely should explore the field yourself. Still, it is always easier to find a trustworthy, reliable partner who already has an impression of what the sphere is like, what mistakes can be made on the way to the profit, and what interim points are to be passed through to reach a goal. Even though they are significantly more experienced than you are, this person is expected to be your legitimate, equal partner, an associate, helping you run the business and supervise the processes while having their own share in the company.
Your next step is to find a well-qualified HR manager responsible for hiring staff. That's where you'd better resort to hunting, otherwise you'll waste too much time trying to discover the perfect fit. Then, the HR manager hires a team leader.
A team leader is a senior manager. This person controls the inner processes within the team, so everyone does their job: buyers directing traffic, designers working with creatives, technicians preparing new scripts, landing pages, and intermediary websites.
Then, the engineering department. This division prepares the infrastructure, CRM, and all the tools buyers may need. Of course, Keitaro is still an option, but nowadays, it is mainly considered a relic of the past.
When the engineering department is established, it's time to hire buyers: that's where the team leader and the HR manager have to work in cahoots. The thing is that the HR manager is not always aware of the subtle aspects of the sphere, and the team leader is here to bolster the colleague, navigating the interview with the right questions and remarks. However, don't hire 10 buyers at once: each employee has to be thoroughly scrutinized. Start with 2 or 3 people: it is easier to control and communicate.
When you realize that the buyer works perfectly well, get them an assistant: they often work to obtain the necessary experience in affiliate marketing, so you won't have to worry about salaries.
You may be curious as to where to find enthusiastic people. Hunt them at conferences. Well, sounds a little too straightforward, but this is the simplest answer: your HR manager has to attend conferences and meetings, talk with the marketers, and recruit them. Another option: a blog. Create a channel in Telegram, drive traffic to this channel, and tell people about your success and failures. The audience will eventually text you, asking if it is possible to get into your team.
Growing Your Team
A team cannot slip into dormancy. It has to develop and pick up momentum in order not to stick in the swamp of stasis. Team leaders cultivate buyers, and those buyers can soon become team leaders themselves. If there's a buyer with managerial abilities, you can hire some money-loaders to teach and guide. In case the buyer succeeds, you can promote him to a team lead, and the money loaders can now be exalted to buyers. As a result, you will form another department in your growing team.
In fact, you're supposed to create a conveyor belt of sorts, where a money loader you hire turns into a buyer and then gets promoted to a team leader. If you discover your buyer has no managerial potential, you can always leave them be, giving them a good percentage. This is how you reach equilibrium within the team.
