The fact is that right now I am just trying to be a better designer/developer and do not feel “ready” to make the leap yet.

The more I think about these things though, I realise that I am actually not superhuman, and at some point, something will need to give. I hate this current position where I have enough work to fill my week, but am not yet confident/financially secure enough to think about paying other people, you know?

I have these romantic notions of growing later on… but yeah… I think making that shift from “I just play with Photoshop/Flash/PHP and get paid” to full “agency” is a scary thought!

Anyway, I am so glad the Freelance Blog linked to you — this was very informative and I have now subbed to the RSS :)

@Robert – specifics are tough. There are accounting services that will come in to take care of billables/payables and/or payroll, but we actually have someone on the team that takes care of all that. We’ve tried to make our benefits as strong as an 11 person group can get (dental and vision are tough for small group.) If nothing else, it makes it easier to hire / keep the right people.

Good luck to you.

Great post. My company, ADS, is at the point where we are now hiring more full-time employees and are hiring our contractors as full-timers. We are also looking at benefits packages and payroll services. If you have any recommendations please let me know. It is very exciting, and as one who is more business oriented than tech oriented (though I did 8 years of IT/PM and 4 years of programming) I am most likely less apprehensive than others at going whole hog, and hiring/managing a team of people.

On a side note, I have been working like a machine for years with business/school/non-profit and thrive in the chaos. Bring it on!

Better yet is when you try to schedule time to clean out your garage, and the best you can do is pencil something in for two weeks from Saturday…

We’re at 6 people right now, by the way, and I feel like we need 2 more. But that just might make life more difficult.

@Deane – two fingers, pointing at eyes.

I don’t know that I’d call you guys “small,” though. Eleven years / 10/11 people / doing work for Guy Kawasaki and Incase… that seems like a long way from where I am today.

There’s a widely held belief that business owners control their work schedule.

Joe and I have had a laugh about this. When we were both in corporate IT, we’d often say, “Man, if we were in business for ourselves, we wouldn’t have to answer to anyone.”

Good Lord, what a delusion that was. I’m more beholden to other people now than I could have ever dreamed about when I worked for the The Man.

I have sold my life to my clients. Each day, I wonder if I priced it right.

By the way, we were rocking at five people – no issues. At seven, keeping things balanced got difficult. At 10/11, our biggest issue is keeping up with demand. 13 seems like a great number.

I do think the best model is to partner, outsource, contract all non-competencies and focus on what is done best. Yet, that requires planning ahead for time delays and coordination or schedules.

What I used to view as wasted overhead (i.e. a Great Project Manager) may just be the best addition to a scaling team. That may be the direction to head…I need to ponder and make sure not to screw up balance.