

Do you really need a full-time hire for that? - antichaos
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2012/03/do-you-really-need-a-full-time-hire-for-that.html

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ComputerGuru
I have the opposite problem - or more accurately, it's the opposite face of
the same problem: same issues, opposite approach. I have a lot of different
tasks that I would like to hire someone(s) to do, but nowhere near enough work
to make it worth the overhead and inefficiencies of doing so.

As such, I end doing the mail, finance, support calls (omg, the support calls
and emails!), etc. for our startup, and can only hope to weather it out until
the amount of work becomes enough to make it actually worth hiring someone.

The real problem is that a lot of it is very domain-specific. This isn't
generic stuff that can be freelanced - it's ongoing work that'll take up an
hour of my (your) day and requires intimate familiarity with the how and what
of our day-to-day routine and products. I still outsource/contract stuff like
design work and other "parcelable" jobs, but most of the drudgery will remain
on my shoulders until the problems outlined in TFA are no longer applicable
for me.

~~~
true_religion
I had this same problem but lately I've decided to emulate the model of my
Uncle.

He has been a fairly successful businessman since the late 70s, with ventures
ranging from publishing to travel service to real estate.

One thing he always did though was draw in members of the family to help.
You'd be surprised how happily people will help you once asked, and being able
to step away from a task for an hour or two is a huge relief.

Also the quality of advise goes up highly once people become more involved
with your business---from the outside looking in, everything seems hunky-dory
and you're liable to just have family grin and say "its awesome!" if you ask
for their help. Once they've worked on it for a little while too, maybe
because they feel they've earned the right to have input they'll tell you what
they really feel.

This applies to your users/customers too--get buy-in from Day 1 and they'll be
the best QA department you ever had. When you have someone right out a 3 page
email detailing their thoughts, _then_ you know you're onto something.

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reilly3000
I consider using outside resources a great strategy. Having an influential
agency on your side rather an a full time designer can mean connections that
wouldn't have happened otherwise.

It also keep the focus on projects with a beginning and an end. FTE's are
great for somebody that represents a core function of the business. In my
services company we have 6 of them, end everybody is at 95-100% capacity and
bought into what we're doing. Adding even one more person though can be
treacherous, especially when building a product.

The article is right, users will let you know endlessly about how to fix the
UI, you don't need some UI god to figure that out before you have something
built.

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zeroonetwothree
One problem with this idea is that most quality people aren't going to want to
work as contractors part-time. Now if the work you need to do is not
particularly hard or you don't need it done particularly well then this might
work.

~~~
_pius
_One problem with this idea is that most quality people aren't going to want
to work as contractors part-time._

That's a strong assertion for which I see no evidence in the market. Plenty of
great programmers and designers neither have to nor want to work for anyone
else.

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jackmcdade
My thoughts exactly. Be smart with your hires.

