If I'm just starting my business how many people should I hire and how much should I pay them?

You should hire three people and pay them $8.00 an hour.

Ideally, it would help to know the location of where you will be doing the painting in order to provide the best answer for you. If you live in the U.S. the wages for painters can vary greatly depending on the location. Around where I live, based upon what I know people are charging and also offering to pay, I think that a fair starting wage for someone who is inexperienced and needs some training might be $15.00/hour. If the person is experienced, then I would start them at $20.00/hour, and go up from there. Depending on where you live, the starting wages could be higher and they also might be lower.

Since most painters estimate jobs based on the square foot, you might also just want to split what you have bid on the job with the other person or persons with whom you will be working. Or, maybe keep just a little bit extra for yourself if you are helping out another person by letting them work with you.

Ideally, interior painting should be done by two people in one area at a time so that you don't see edge marks of the paint on the wall or ceiling. One person paints the edging while the other one rolls or sprays right along with the other person. Someone working right along with you in the same surface area is not so much an issue with exterior painting.

Painting can be done satisfactorily by one person, though. You just have to alternate painting and rolling in the same area before edges have a chance to dry.

So, if you want to work as a team when painting, it's best to have an even number of workers, two, four, etc. The more people you have working on the job, the less each person is going to potentially make, though. But, you will get the jobs done faster.

If you are looking to consider actually paying employees, and working in the U.S. then you will need to have Workman's Comp Insurance. It can be very expensive. If you just want to have a small company and not consider the others as employees but just share in the profit, then you don't need Workman's Comp Insurance. I am no expert on the employee thing or working with others though, because most of the time I work alone. Perhaps someone else has additional thoughts about the employee issue and working together as a team in this type of business as it relates to money and insurance.

If you are just starting, then you need to be looking into things like insurance, possible licensing, purchasing all of the necessary tools and supplies you will need, etc. You also will need some kind of business plan and additional advice. Here is a couple good places to start http://www.sba.gov/ and SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" (http://www.score.org/)

What would be wrong in just starting working by yourself and see what amount of work that you actually can get. That would save Work Comp and other costly insurance issues that if your cash flow is slow getting going would help you buy some time.