Given the financial crisis, there have been a lot of posts about trimming costs by laying people off. But there may also be opportunities to save money by hiring people. This (generally) does not apply to tiny startups but only to businesses that have achieved a certain scale and employ consultants. It is often the case that consultants are brought in to work on a specific project but wind up working on essentially a recurring basis. So in times like this it’s a good idea to look at all your consultants and their bills and figure out whether they really are working on one-off distinct skill set projects (e.g. iphone app) or are engaged in things that ought to be a core competency and could be accomplished for less money by hiring someone fulltime.
