I asked what that person would do in March. Should you hire a full-time developer or a freelancer? The site had a date six weeks out. March, on the offer, was a blank line. I told them to hire for those six weeks.
I build the site or the product, which is what I build. If two streams of work have to move in the same weeks, that hire is a freelance developer or an agency. What one person ships is what a full-stack developer owns. The email in front of me had a salary and a start date. The launch date was already on the calendar.
When the hire is a full-time developer or a freelancer
The contract said full-time. I read March before I read the title. If March is already a list of work, you may need someone on a salary. If March is empty and the only date anyone can say is the launch, hire a freelancer through that date and stop there.
Freelancer
The job has a last week
- The last week is written down
- Someone can use it on a date you can say
- After that week, the logins are in your accounts
Full-time
You still need them after launch
- Month eight and the product is still changing
- A three-week gap would stall customers who already pay
- You still need them after the launch date has passed
The cut
What a full-time developer salary pays for
That $120,000 was a year of one person. The attachment was six pages. Employer tax was not in the number, and neither was the laptop. I still would not have put them on a salary to ship those pages.
A salary is for the Monday after the launch, when someone has to pick the next page and ship a fix without opening a new contract. Customers already pay you every month, and a three-week hole stalls the renewal. They know which report breaks on the first, because they were there for the last one. That memory is what the year is buying.
The attachment was six pages. The offer was twelve months.
I keep the site fee off this page on purpose. Six pages like those are how much a custom website costs. A login people come back to is how much a first version of a web product costs. You stop paying when those jobs ship. The $120,000 keeps coming, which made it the wrong way to buy a launch that already had a date.
What a freelancer is hired to finish
The brief names the week a stranger can send the form, or a customer can finish the one job. That week is the end. It is not a start date on an offer letter. I write that brief before I quote. If the only line in the email is "we need a developer," I don't pick a contract yet.
The week it ships, I put the logins in accounts you can open. Who owns the product after launchis that handoff. Opening a salary so you never have to learn the deploy is a bad trade. If you already employ someone who can ship a fix, I build the piece and walk them through it before I go. I don't hire them a coworker.
The brief on one job said I was done the day those logins worked, so I left. On another, the first customers broke a payment, and I stayed a few weeks on a separate invoice. I did not turn either ending into a name on the about page in January.
When a full-time developer offer is the wrong contract
Some of these emails are a third contract with a salary or a freelance label stuck on the cover. I send those to the page that matches, and I hold the quote until that's clear.
They need a brand and the site in the same month
That is two jobs. The hire is a freelance developer or an agency. I won't put both on one salary.
The offer says head of engineering and the repo is empty
Nobody is writing the product. Hire the person who will. That decision is a fractional CTO or a freelance developer, and a salary with a title on it does not fill the repo.
The version I do take is smaller than it sounds. You already employ someone who can merge a fix. You want the site built, then you want it in their hands. That is a freelance job with a handoff. A few of those are in selected work.
