You remember when your “business” was basically you doing everything that you could to make those first few critical sales. Back in those days, the only people who were there were the people who owned the place (maybe you and a partner, and maybe you going completely solo) and the people who loved them. Unlike the overwhelming majority of businesses out there, however, yours is finally doing fairly well. You have finally left the garage or the spare bedroom behind you, and those first (somewhat silly) feelings that this really could become something to rival Apple or 3M are beginning to come to you. It might be a little bit early, but you’re starting to feel good. Good enough to hire people, even. Just make sure that you can actually afford to do so, because pink slips are an unforgiving mistress.
When you hire a person, you begin to assume a degree of control over their life. If you pay them a certain amount of money and provide them with benefits, their spending is naturally going to gravitate in the direction of spending all of that money on the things that they like. And those benefits are likely going to go into making sure that their children stay healthy. These are things which can get extremely expensive over time, so they should never be offered tentatively.
You have got to be absolutely certain that you can afford to hire someone (even if things do not continue to be great) before you do so. While you will always be able to lay off someone, cut their benefits or give them a pay cut, these are not kind things to do. Why would you ever want to tease another human being like that, when you could simply not hire them in the first place? Being able to hire a staff is a sign of you being successful.