Updated May 20, 2024
There were many reasons why I chose to work alone for the past seven years while running my agency. Primarily I didn’t want the responsibility to hire, manage and potentially fire people. Navigating the global compliance is also a complicated issue, each country is vastly different and it seems to be a lot for one person to manage.
Trusting someone and then deciding they’re the right person to do the job is also extremely hard, it’s not trivial to find the right talent, for the right price, and at the right time.
Fundamentally, hiring is hard.
But in the past year, I’ve seen a shift in the market where global talents are rapidly coming online and increasingly becoming better suited for all development work - even very senior engineering work typically reserved for North American engineers. So I’ve decided in the last couple of month to learn the in-and-outs of tapping into the abundant global talent pool.
If you’re interested what I have to say on the matter, read on.
Defining the mission statement
The number one question I get asked after writing the Solo dev agency playbook is why have I not hired anyone yet?
My answer has always been that I still get immense joy getting my hands dirty and get involved in building things. But increasingly in the past year or so, I’m realizing that I’d rather focus my attention on high leverage activities like building systems where if I’m away, everything can keep going without me. With an improved system, one can then have the freedom to pursuit success in their passion.
In order to do things better, one must learn do less first.
My purpose with this research is to shift mindset of business owners (including myself) from doing more into doing things better, by showcasing how hiring global talents can provide a key component in achieving better results WHILE having the added bonus of maintaining a good margin.
Second, I think it’s a complete myth that most business only care about “cost saving”. A good business is complex in their requirements - often a delicate balance between cost and value delivered for their customers. I hope to address the parts that goes into a complex system once you introduce contractors to a one person agency.
Lastly, there are many misconceptions in hiring global talents. After years of brushing off these talents based on the belief of “you get what you pay for”, I had to re-evaluate the truth. The market dynamic of global talent has shifted and it’s no longer useful to benchmark quality based on geopolitical borders. We’re truly reaching the next stage of globalization where talent can be unlocked in any country and any timezone.
I dived deep into the “why” on a recent podcast with the Head of Content at Paralect ([2])