Forum Moderators: phranque
My sites had become a good amount of tedious work and it was about that time. "That's what employees are for"... is one of the messages I got from this past New Orleans conference hosted by WW.
If you are doing well with Adsense, don't stop. And, don't limit yourself. Good luck, everyone.
How many sites did you have before you decided it was too much for one person?
I am now starting to use freelancers to help design sites, write content and do link development.
I had 20-30 sites up and running before I thought that I might need some help....
EVO
I have my wife as a part time employee to trasnlate my sites.
If I had an in house employee - I would have to "work" all day :)
Good luck to all who mentioned that they are also taking on employees and independent contractors.
I just hired my first freelancer too.
Yes, I did too, but the recommended fees on the NUJ site made me wince. I made a compromise involving royalties which my correspondent was happy with, but even then, if I continued to take on freelancers at the (reduced) upfront rate I paid, I'd be out of business in no time.
I have almost certainly concluded that I won't be taking on any more freelancers any time soon - I can't afford to.
In this case my correspondent is not even an NUJ member but fair pay is fair pay, right?
Better to carry on working on my own...
if I continued to take on freelancers at the (reduced) upfront rate I paid, I'd be out of business in no time.
I take on freelance writers a lot now. My investment return time varies from 6 months to 5 years.
2 years is fine with me. I'm somewhat concerned about the investments that take 3 years or more to return.
But then again, perhaps I shouldn't. Someone once told me a baker needs to work 10 years or more to pay for his oven. And he must get up every 'morning' at 4 am :-)
How much do you pay him/her? Hourly or Sallary? Please give us more details. I am also thinking about hiring someone.
With my Google income, I can afford to pay someone to work for me 8 hours a month. Anybody interested? :)
PS: I pay minimum wage, sorry - no benefits.
If I had an in house employee - I would have to "work" all day
Now there's a scary thought, that would cut into my pub time.
We have a slew of part time writers, and occassionally hire data entry people, but thus far, it's just two of us full time.
We're both thinking about hiring a personal assistant, however -- someone inhouse that could basically do everything we don't have time to do (and I mean everything -- from filing to taking clothes to the dry cleaners to data entry). Has anyone else done this? If so, what's the going rate? We're thinking in the $10-12 range.
S
What happens if you have to downsize or fire them for other reasons? What happens if they get upset and decide to wage a click war on your site?
It's not as if somebody that's working for penauts is going to be worth the money it takes to sue them, so what recourse would you actually have?
And maybe more practically, what happens when they see how well you're doing and decide to go out on their own? I've heard a few people talking about how they worked for so and so, and then decided to start their own competing site on the side.
I should clarify that I'm treating the employee as an independent contractor. Paying a set amount per week but offering incentives. I won't get into the exact pay but it requires 40+ hours per week. The pay is fair for the region where I live and the type of work.
It's working out great so far. In regards to one of the posts above, he is working on such basic tasks and only sees that side of the business. I'm not worried about future competition.
What happens if they get upset and decide to wage a click war on your site?
If they aren't aware of AdSense terms, you would be a fool to explain anything more than never click the ads on the site.
I've heard a few people talking about how they worked for so and so, and then decided to start their own competing site on the side.
That's very common in all fields, those people are called apprentices and assistants.
Ever see a photographers assistant that didn't grow up to be a photographer?
But few things to keep in mind.
Is the new employee reponsible for the core of your business or just light, not important work?
If he/she is, you're better prepare. Should never leave the work for him/her alone while you are cruising the Caribbean or something. (soon or later you will pay the price.)
I used to have a good friend as my partner and I share everything I known from ideas, design, developement, implementation ... marketing proccess to business planning and future strategy.
We have been working well together about a year. Then I went to work on another project while leaving the important core of my business to him. He had made great progress in the development and we were developing products that would be a great threat to my competitors.
When things went out as that good, you would never expected it about to go wrong and I was about to get the consequences of not prepairing. (The fact that friends always watch your back is not working in this case.)
We broke out and he started on his own.
Now, I get more competitors than when I was one year ago. One with much greater thread, much more inside knowledge ... and always seems to known what I've been up to.
Lesson to be learn: (If I can turn the clock back, I would never let too much trust, friendship get in the way of making my judgements again. Always prepare for the worst case scenario)
So regard to the hiring, you should plan out carefully. The more employees you hire, the greater people to help you out to expand your business but you are become more vulnerable and face threads from the inside.
You must control which information to which people you can give.
TN
I sold an online business a few years back that had 13, and don't miss it all ... the employees that is :)
the recommended fees on the NUJ site made me wince
Well the NUJ aren't exactly un-biased are they?
I have almost certainly concluded that I won't be taking on any more freelancers any time soon - I can't afford to.
Another victory for trade unionism there then.
Pay a fair market rate - not what a trade union tells you is a fair market rate!
If you want really good people, pay a good rate, give them interesting work, on good terms with good management.
I should clarify that I'm treating the employee as an independent contractor. ..
Are you actually paying him as an independent contractor, or as an employee? In other words, are you withholding payroll taxes, etc. or just writing him a check for his services?
Well the NUJ aren't exactly un-biased are they?
The NUJ support my profession and they do incredibly good job. I am not about to undermine the NUJ nor pay a freelancer less than I would expect to earn myself as a freelancer. Markets be damned. If I can't afford to pay a freelancer the NUJ rates at present then I will work harder on my business model until I can. I will not bow to liberal economics when it comes to paying a fair day's wage for a fair day's labour. Life is difficult enough as it is, without working for an excuse for wages.
But you said yourself, the NUJ rates made you wince - and that you reached a compromise with your employee that THEY WERE HAPPY WITH.
That's the key. I personally believe it's more important to have happy employees than happy trade unions - I don't believe it amounts to the same thing.
Is it better to employ two or three people on wages THEY consider to be fair - or just one, on the wage a trade union considers to be fair? As an employer, I prefer the former - and I guess most people looking for work would prefer it too.
My point is that a trade union is there to represent the interests of their members - not to provide an even-handed assesment of what constitutes fair pay.
In my book, if the employer and employee are both GENUINELY HAPPY with the rate on offer - there are no losers, and that's fair pay. Anything else will create a winner and a loser, and will be unsatisfactory and probably short-lived.
Just writing a check and sending him a 1099 at the end of the year.
You might want to be careful with this, and do some checking about it.
If you are in the U.S. and pay a person as an independent contractor when they should be treated as an employee (by the IRS determination), you can potentially create a big expensive headache for yourself. When you have someone work for you as an employee, you need to pay payroll taxes for them, etc.
It sounds to me from your posts that the person you hired would probably be considered an employee by the IRS, and not an independent contractor. You might want to do a search on Employee vs. Independent Contractor for more about this, and I really recommend that you speak with a CPA/accountant about it.
Of course this is only a problem if the IRS ever audits you. But if they do and then determine that the person should have been treated as an employee and not as an independent contractor, then you'll be liable for all of the payroll taxes that weren't paid, interest on that, plus a penalty. Ouch.
Sorry, I don't mean to be a downer about this, but am just mentioning this just in case you haven't considered it, or if you didn't know about it. It sounds like you're doing well, and I think it's important to at least be aware of the situation, and maybe it will turn out that you can treat your "employee" as an independent contractor...
