You’ve got something big in the works – a website relaunch, an app development, a new program. But you know you don’t have the manpower to get it done right now.
If you’re like many managers, you might start looking for a new employee to take on that workload. Bringing someone in-house is just one option to help your business take on additional work, but it shouldn’t be your only consideration. You can also work with a software development company to get the project done.
Before we get into why you might want to work with another company, let’s first look at some of the risks of hiring a new employee.
Hiring a New Developer – The Risks
It’s important to be very clear about why you’re considering hiring a new developer, and whether it will pay off in the long run. It might be the right choice for your business, but you should first understand some of the risks that come along with expanding your tech team:
- Salaries for experienced developers are a considerable expense. In the Little Rock market, you can expect to pay $70,000 or more for a software developer with 7-9 years of experience.
- Salaried employees are paid even when there are no active development projects happening.
- New employees need to be trained, which can take a significant amount of time and management.
- Full-time employees will also receive benefits like health insurance and a 401(k).
- Once you take on a new employee, you will have to consider additional insurance (unemployment, workers’ compensation, professional liability, property, etc.).
- You will continue to pay your employees during vacations, even though no work is getting done.
- You will likely need to invest in annual training for your employees, which can take a couple weeks per year.
- Your business will also be responsible for providing workspace, furniture and working tools like laptops and monitors.
In addition to all the costs that come along with a new employee, you’re also not guaranteed to retain them. You run the risk of losing employees if something better comes along, or if there is a lull between projects and they start job hunting.
Then there’s that you probably need a team of people if you want software that actually works in a reasonable amount of time. One person may be able to do it for you, but it will take a lot longer. One person is likely to only be skilled in some areas, not all areas. You may get someone who is great with databases and APIs but terrible at designing a user interface. So there you are, now hiring more employees.
Why You Should Consider Hiring a Development Company
When you hire a software development company to work on a project for you, they are only with you until the project is completed. You have some control over when and how it is completed, and what you can expect to pay, right from the beginning.
The hourly rate to work with an outside company might be higher than bringing on an employee. But you will be working with them for a shorter, defined period of time with precise expectations of what you will get out of the partnership. This is not a career-long partnership like with employees.
When you work with Idestini, we first assess whether our team is a good fit for working with you. If we are, we do a short Roadmapping with your team to lay out a thorough plan, budget, and design of your project. We want to make sure we don’t just build software, but the right software.
With this Roadmap plan in place, we then build your custom software, delivering efficiently, using best practices, and putting the right-skilled teammates on tasks along the way. We are able to deliver software projects in a fraction of the time it will take a single developer (or two). Most of our projects are completed and go live within 4 – 6 months.
When we’re done, we hand it over to you. You own everything about the software. We do offer plans for maintenance activities, like monitoring performance and security issues, but our goal is to complete your project successfully and create software that doesn’t need lots of support. (We’re not looking for a “job” from you, after all.)
The Bottom Line
As a manager, hiring anyone to work on vital projects for your business is no easy task. There is a lot at stake to consider. If hiring an employee isn’t the right choice for your business right now, consider working with a company like ours to get the job done.
At Idestini, we can help you avoid the fears and risks that come with taking on new employees and help you build software that actually supports your business within a short amount of time. If that sounds nice to you, get started here.