So you need something done, it can be a web app, a mobile app or pretty much anything in the IT world you can think of, but should you hire people and come to work for you or should you use a contractor? There are a lot of things to consider when making this decision, I will list a few and then propose a solution in the end. As you will soon see, I'm a bit biased, but bare with me.

1. IT project coming up? Should you hire a contractor instead of a regular employee?
So you need something done, it can be a web app, a mobile app or pretty much anything in the
IT world you can think of, but should you hire people and come to work for you or should you use
a contractor?
There are a lot of things to consider when making this decision, I will list a few and then propose
a solution in the end. As you will soon see, I'm a bit biased, but bare with me.
Cost
This is one of the big reasons for hiring a contractor. Let's start with the the available candidates
for your position(s), since your contractor can be found anywhere in the world, your target
candidates are way more. If you have your operation in Tulsa it might be hard to find someone to
fit the profile in your area (or someone willing to move to Tulsa) bit when hiring a contractor, you
can scan the entire world for this person, and with more candidates, the lower the cost.
We then move on to the payment itself, normally the salary of the contractor is way less than
what you pay an employee, don't just think of the actual salary, think of all the extras like social
security, insurance, pension and so on. And since you can find good contractor in countries with
lower salaries, well, that's just an added bonus.
Then we have all the extras around hiring a person you have to consider, what's the fee for the
agency that does your hiring, what is the cost of the desk, the computer, the different types of
software and so on. Think about it, how much will you save on phone bills alone?
Risk
Hiring someone is a risk, you might have a topnotch hiring agency, but you are still exposed to
the risk of hiring the wrong person(s). Let's put the risk of theft and the like aside and just focus
on the person in question. If you hire the wrong person, it will not only cost you money to replace
that person, you are also running the risk of delaying a project and getting a bad reputation, firing
someone is not easy, cancelling a contract with a contractor is way easier.
Flexibility
Normally you would like to hire someone that are good at everything and have 50+ years of
experience in ALL areas you can imagine. That might sound a bit silly, but look at some of the
wanted ads out there, the list of required knowledge can sometimes be so long that you mistake
it for a car manual. When you hire a contractor, this contractor is most likely part of a company
that offers many contractors, that way you can be very flexible and hire one contractor who are
expert on one thing for sub project A, then replace that contractor with another one for sub
project B. Because in reality, nobody can be an expert on everything, so a team of contractors
offers you flexibility and better experience and expertise when needed.

2. These are just three simple points on the benefits of hiring a contractor instead of a regular
employee, if you want to find more, just google, there are lots out there.
And now for the final section:
Warning!
Hiring a contractor can sound easy when you look around. But be careful, here are a few tips:
1, Make sure that your contractor is part of either a company or a group of contractors so that
you can get access to different expertise when needed.
2, Make sure that the contractor you hire have a designated Project Manager in the company or
group that you hire, you do not want to spend time making sure your contractor stays on track
and are focused towards your target, the contractor should have these abilities themselves.
3, Make sure that you do a proper screening, check previous work, talk to the people involved (do
a video call so you know who is out there), google the company or group.
4, Insist on a contract that benefits you, if the contractor wants money upfront, move on to the
next, if the contractor wants a long term contract, move on to the next.
5, Security, always sign an NDA with the company or the group.
6, Do a test, insist that the first part of the project is a test project that will show if you are a good
fit for eachother.
Happy contracting!
If you need advice, drop me an email on carl-johan@ikantam.com