The step of actually hiring someone to work in your office

I have always done my own coding or outsourced it to people on sites like scriptlance, etc., but at a certain point it seems like it would just make so much more sense for me to hire a local college kid who really knows ajax/php/etc.

Everyone always says outsource, but let me just say that I have been outsourcing for 5 years or so and it is a pain in the a**. There are dozens of potential pitfalls (for example, how much access can you trust a freelancer from scriptlance with, how robust is their code really going to be, how consistent is the communication, etc?).

I think I'm finally at the point where I want to hire one or maybe two programmers to actually come in and work in the office w/me, but this brings up new concerns, so, for those of you who have done this, how difficult is it to take care of things like liability, insurance, taxes, etc? The idea would be to avoid headaches, not to create more, so I want to just see how those of you who have taken the step of hiring a programmer to actually physically come in and work with you feel about it.

Lookin' forward to any replies.

 

This is a general reply about adding employees.

I think if you should really check it out.

The "cure" may be worse than the problem. If you bring them "in house" as emplyees you will need Federal and state emplyer ID #'s. You will have to with hold taxes and submit monthly or at a minimum quarterly returns for the with holding taxes. You will also have to provide worker's comp insurance and liabilty insurance for EACH worker.

If you are paying $20 per hour now it will cost you $30 to comply with all the crap.

Then when you decide to let some one go you can waste a day or two fighting the unemployeement claim.

Did I mention fringe benifits?

Hope I helped. But this rude crude opinion is from BTDT.

CEO and one man owner/employee of my own lemoade stand.

EDIT: I forgot the the 7.65% FICA tax.

 

Have your freelancers been remote? If so you may want to try using a local freelancer as an in house contractor. He/she would work like an employee but be payed as a contractor. I work in a company that has both fulltime and contract programmers and you wouldn't know the difference between them except when it comes to the topic of overtime pay.

 

Very cool, this is what I'm lookin' for. I'll have to check into the details. Thanks both of you for your replies.

 

I pay my people as Independent Consultants....that's also how I accept payments.....I can't be bother with doing taxes and the insurance...The people who work for me have registered small businesses.

 

The thing is I'm really thinking more along the lines of students, particularly because you could save so much money and still be paying them better than they can get anywhere else in town.

 

If you think you would have enough work to keep an employee busy, and factored in all the added costs over and above their wage (taxes, insurance, etc.) then I can see the benifit.

I've only sort of just begun with the outsourceing thing and see the pitfalls of this. But for now cost savings outweigh the problems.

I definately look forward to having an in-house team.