It\u2019s an age-old quandary you face at home daily: Should you rent, or should you buy?<\/p>\n
Does it make more sense to rent that spacious 2-bedroom apartment you\u2019re now in, or buy a cramped condo on the \u201cother\u201d side of town? Is it better to lease that shiny new BMW 5-Series or buy a used Taurus outright? Should you download the new Sun Kil Moon album or borrow a friend\u2019s CD?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no different at the office. Now that your business is ramping up, should you hire a full-time programmer or find online freelance talent? It\u2019s an interesting dilemma you\u2019ll have to ask yourself (and your accountant). But one thing is obvious: More and more startups today are turning to freelance programmers. Here are four reasons why:<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re trying to get to market ASAP, every second counts. Unfortunately, hiring a full-time programmer can take weeks or months. The delay ranges from the candidate search itself and trying to schedule multiple rounds of interviews with multiple people (\u2026zzzzzzz\u2026), to background checks, paperwork and 2-week notices.<\/p>\n
With online freelancers, work begin quickly — often that day if need be. Freelancers know they\u2019re expected to jump on projects fast and they have the computer fired up. Online work marketplaces like Elance and oDesk help take care of vetting and background checks, and provide tools for quick interviewing and hiring. This includes giving you access to freelancer\u2019s online profiles complete with portfolios, work histories, skill test results and ratings and reviews from previous clients. This makes it easy to gauge the quality of a programmer quickly.<\/p>\n
With thousands of freelance programmers ready, willing and able to work, it\u2019s easy to find people with the exact skills you\u2019re looking for. This includes professionals with hard-to-find programming skills and highly specialized skills you won\u2019t find on every street corner.<\/p>\n
Hiring programmers with specialized skills can make more sense than hiring one \u201cgeneral purpose\u201d full-time staff programmer (and expecting him or her to learn new skills to tackle a variety of projects). As programming becomes more-and-more specialized, it\u2019s easy to understand where focused talent comes in handy.<\/p>\n
Getting back to the time-to-market story, many startups realize that sometimes a programmer can be a bad fit skill wise, personality wise or both. When you hire someone permanently, you\u2019re never sure what you\u2019re getting until it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why many startups prefer to hire 2 or 3 freelance programmers for a new project, and then give each candidate a smaller task to tackle. At the end of the \u201ctrial\u201d project you\u2019ll have a good idea of who best fits the bill. Simply hire that freelancer and part as friends with the other two programmers.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s nice to have a full-time programmer sitting in that desk doe-eyed each morning you walk in (OK, maybe they don\u2019t roll in until noon or so?), it\u2019s also very expensive to maintain those 9-to-5ers. From the cost of physical office space to employee benefits, PTO and sick time, and on and on, workers are not cheap. With freelance programmers you pay only for the work you receive (and with reputable online marketplaces, only for work you approve).<\/p>\n
With a world of options at your fingertips, you can also find a freelance programmer who works within your budget \u2013 while still getting the quality you need. Plus you can ramp up and ramp down at a moment\u2019s notice, as demand changes. This includes having entire online teams of programmers working for you on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
<\/b>You decide what\u2019s best for your own situation, but before you post that programmer job on your website, consider the alternatives. You may discover some considerable advantages from freelancers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s an age-old quandary you face at home daily: Should you rent, or should you buy? Does it make more sense to rent that spacious 2-bedroom apartment you\u2019re now in, or buy a cramped condo on the \u201cother\u201d side of town? Is it better to lease that shiny new BMW 5-Series or buy a used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":975,"featured_media":34337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n