My first advice would be to buy nucs instead of packages. (A nuc is a "nucleus hive" that typically contains five frames of resources (honey, brood, pollen, and built out wax, along with a working queen. A package is where selling beekeepers dump 3 pounds of bees plus an unrelated queen into a box and sell it).

Other advise:

1. find him a mentor. Hopefully he has had a chance to work with bees and these aren't the first he has worked with
2. local beekeeping clubs are great resources. Meetings to discuss issues, training, etc.

That is a start. It is a fascinating hobby - like golf. Always trying to figure it out.