Hiring is tricky
When you’re a solo 1099, you generally know whether you can do the job a prime hires you to do because you know yourself.
If you decide to expand by hiring employees, you have much less information about an employee’s capabilities.
You may wonder:
- Are they technically qualified? Are they lying on their resume?
- Are they a weirdo or will they get along with the client?
- Do they have any personal issues that might get in the way of them being able to bill enough hours for the year?
So far I’ve lucked out and haven’t hired any mistake employees. To mitigate the risk I have
- Used my network for referrals. If a friend trusts a potential hire than I trust that the person is not a total weirdo
- I have given technical tests (a data analysis one for the types of roles I’ve hired for)
- I meet with the candidates informally (over coffee or beer) to get a feel for their personal history.
This is obviously not a perfect process. I can totally see why companies that need to hire hundreds or thousands of employees have extremely bureaucratic processes designed to get an accurate assessment of a person’s qualifications and “fit” for the company.
I don’t want my company to be like that so I try to keep it informal and casual but there’s still this fear that I will make a bad hire. But this is a path that will eventually help me with my lifestyle goals so it’s worth the risk.
However, if you can maintain your lifestyle and career goals as a solo 1099 and not hire employees, it’s probably worth staying solo.
Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.