I've now investigated my suspect new employee further?

Yes, she is incompetent in office administration, but she's also strong in creative ideas. What I need right now is a right-hand as I'm a one-man-band business owner and she's my first employee. So she's compitent in some stuff but not in other (important) stuff. She does not have a contract (still on trial) Her salary expectation is too high as well. Do I a) cut her salary and make her do creative stuff. b) let her go c) train her up to the detrement of my business? d)give her another chance at proving her skills?

I've now investigated my suspect new employee further?
Well why did you hire her in the first place? Didn't you give her a test on things that you KNEW were absolutely vital for the success of your business? Her salary expectation was too high, ahhh, hire her, she'll take significantly less. If you can get away with letting her handle the creative "stuff" and you handle running the business and the leftover work, do it. You hired her, it was your incompentency that got you in this situation and not hers. She just did what everyone else does, says what it takes to get the job. If she doesn't have the skill(s), she can't prove them now. What you can do, is meet in the middle on the salary, pick up her slack for a little while and make her train for what you need in off hours, if your business and you can handle the extra strain. You can fire her but you'd be a real SOB for doing so. Like I said, you jumped the gun by hiring her and should've either asked better questions or asked her to prove herself on the important "stuff" in some kind of written or physical test. Do the right thing for both her, you and your business because it's both of your faults.
Reply:Cutting her salary is not an option. She'll be worthless after that if she doesn't quit--been there, done that as an employer. Let her implement one of her creative ideas. You'll probably see an overall improvement of her performance. Empowerment encourages anyone, especially someone with real potential.
Reply:Really depends on your needs. If her creativity is something you can't live without, I'd NOT cut her salary, but give her more responsibilities, or hire her for part time work to do the creative stuff and free her up to work elsewhere. If it's not that important, I'd let her go.