My Current situation is I am essentially a freelancer working as a limited company. I have 3 main clients who I develop for.
I’m aiming to add another two clients in order to increase turnover etc. My only issue is that currently I have difficulty getting work done when three clients all want work doing at the same time. I had one client book me for five days the other week, and as such I had to work evenings and weekends in order to complete work for me other clients. I only see this situation getting work as I add more clients.
My business coach has recommended that I hire an apprentice. I’ve looked into this, and it would cost £90 a week for someone that’s 18 year old, and has no or very little web development experience. Now, I’m thinking that if a take on an apprentice, they’ll need to be trained on the job, taking up some of my time, and I’m guessing it’s going to be six month or so before they are doing HTML/CSS really well.
I suppose the plan is to train this person to eventually be able to develop using PHP/MYSQL, and as the person learns, the amount of work I can do gradually increases.
Part of me wants to go down this route, but another part thinks that it’s almost £400 a month, and I won’t really see any return for that £400 for a while, especially when around 75% of my work is php/mysql, and I do very little PSD to HTML.
Has anyone been in a similar position?
I also don’t really want to take someone on and them be sitting around doing nothing, or being bored.
Hiring and managing an inexperienced worker will only increase your workload, so I’m not sure if that’s great advice. You need to decide if you want to continue being independent (and learn to raise your rates and lower your load) or if you want to expand (and learn to manage effectively while finding others to do the work).
Adding an apprentice isn’t a business strategy, really. What’s your long term goal?
My long term goal is to have a small team of developers working with marketing agencies and other web companies.
Ultimately though, my goal is to be earning around £50,000 a year, whether this be alone, or having people work for me. I’m probably earning around £25,000 at the minute. My hourly rate for my biggest client is £35, but £40 for everyone else, although i’m looking to increase my hourly rate to £50 an hour.
It can be very challenging developing a team, but very rewarding too. There is a whole new set of issues as you start working with new people. I would say that to create a buffer, you need to be charging customers twice what you are paying your apprentice. Sometimes you may find you can’t sell the work, and you have to “eat” some of the cost yourself, but once they get trained, it can take a big load off your back. The next challenge is getting them to stick around for a couple of years.
My suggestion would be to partner up with someone cheaper instead of hiring a noob. The amount of time, frustration and annoyance it causes dealing with someone that doesn’t know how to do the job is too much for a freelancer to bare. You don’t want to have to worry or waste time teaching someone new skills. Time is money.
For instance you could hire an Australian developer for 15-30 pounds an hour depending upon their skill level. Or you could hire an Indian guy for $5/day or something silly.
Hey come on now, any reputable Indian will be at least $8/day
When we bring on new developers, we pair them with a direct mentor - similar to what you’re talking about. In the Philippines, where our office is, there’s lots of Microsoft and Java taught in the College, but no PHP. If they have a good grounding in programming, it doesn’t take too long to bring them up to speed, but yes, don’t count on getting much productive out of them for the first few months.
Find tutorials online that they can go through. Train them in Agile or whatever methodology you prefer. Once they’re ready to do small steps, let them try.
for 15-30 pounds an hour depending upon their skill level. Or you could hire an Indian guy for $5/day or something silly.