From Freelancer to Small Agency: Taking the Leap and Hiring My First Employee

After 11 years of running my Umbraco and .NET consultancy as a one-man company, I took the plunge in 2024 and hired my first employee. It's one of the biggest decisions I've made in business, and I've had a few fellow freelancers reach out recently asking about it - so I thought I'd put my thoughts down for anyone considering the same move.

This isn't a definitive guide. It's just what worked for me at Nevitech IT Solutions Ltd, based in Kent, specialising in Umbraco CMS builds and .NET development. Your mileage may vary, but hopefully there's something useful here.

I'd been freelancing on my own since 2013, building websites and applications for clients across Kent and beyond. Over the years the work grew, the pipeline got busier, and I found myself turning down projects or stretching myself thin to deliver. That's a nice problem to have, but it's also a warning sign: you either scale up or you cap out.

I hadn't really planned on taking on someone junior - but the right person came along at the right time, and it seemed like a good opportunity, albeit a risk for both of us. I'm a believer in creating opportunities for people and opening doors, so I was happy to take the leap.

This is probably the first big decision you'll need to make, and it comes down to what you can afford and how much time you can invest.

Hiring at Mid-level or Senior

Taking on a mid-level developer, you're probably looking at around £40k, and £50k+ for a senior. The upside is they'll hit the ground running - you can hand them work and they'll get on with it. If you haven't got the time to mentor and train someone, that may be your only realistic option.

Hiring at Junior Level

Going junior is a very different proposition. The person I hired had no Umbraco skills when they started - just some front-end and React experience. I've since invested heavily in them: mentoring, pairing on work, and putting them through all the Umbraco training to get them certified as an Umbraco Certified Master. That takes a lot of time and effort, but because junior-level salaries are naturally lower than mid or senior, my monthly costs were manageable in those early months while I grew the pipeline to support a second person. They've had decent pay rises over the two years as they've progressed, but the initial financial risk was much smaller than hiring at senior level would have been.

Be realistic though: your own productivity will take a hit, at least initially. You need to factor that in.

For the first year or so, I tried to give my employee work I knew they could do - or could manage with some help and pointers from me. I was essentially running two jobs: my own client work, and being a mentor/manager/trainer on top.

It has paid off though. After about a year I could see their productivity increase, and I could give them more complex work to get on with independently, with less and less guidance. They still ask questions, but two years in I spend far less time showing and guiding. They're now a fully-fledged developer handling their own project work, and I recently promoted them from Junior Developer to Developer to reflect that.

If you're considering the junior route, go in with realistic expectations about the timeline. A year of heavy investment is about right before you start seeing meaningful returns.

One thing nobody really prepares you for as a freelancer-turned-employer is the manager mindset. You suddenly have to think about someone else's livelihood, their career development, their day-to-day workload, and whether you have enough income coming in to pay their salary month after month.

I'm constantly thinking ahead about what they can work on next, making sure there's a plan - even if it only covers a few days or weeks at a time. I'd rather they're busy and content, even if it means I end up doing all the client communication, chasing projects and new work, and dealing with admin.

That mental load is real, and it's worth being honest with yourself about whether you're up for it before you hire.

Salary is the obvious cost, but it's far from the only one.

Budgeting Beyond the Salary

Here's what else you need to budget for:

• Employer's National Insurance - a significant additional cost on top of salary

• Pension contributions - you're legally required to contribute

• Holiday allowance - statutory minimum is 28 days including bank holidays

• Payroll processing - I use BrightPay, which makes monthly payroll just a few clicks

• Hardware - laptop, monitor, peripherals, desk setup

• Software licences - Office, Visual Studio, and any other tools you need them to use

• Training costs

Why a Financial Buffer Matters

I was in the fortunate position of having good reserves in my business account, so I could take the risk knowing I could pay the salary for a while if things were quiet. Thankfully, that's never actually happened - even in the quieter months - but having that buffer was essential for me to feel comfortable making the hire.

If you don't have reserves, I'd strongly recommend building them up before you hire. Cash flow anxiety when you're responsible for someone else's income is not a fun place to be.

Employment Contracts and Probation

Get an employment contract in place. Don't skip this. Include a probation period (typically 3 or 6 months) so that if things don't work out you can part ways easily and without drama. I used an online template I purchased, which covered everything I needed.

Your Other Legal Obligations

You'll also want to make sure you understand your obligations around things like workplace pension enrolment, right-to-work checks, and employer's liability insurance (which is a legal requirement).

I was lucky to find someone with a genuine willingness to learn, who wanted to get into IT - they came from a retail background - and shared some of the same values as me. In a lot of ways they reminded me of what I was like when I started out.

Technical skills can be taught. Attitude, work ethic, and cultural fit are much harder to change. For a small operation like mine, where you're going to be spending a lot of time working closely together, getting that fit right matters more than ticking boxes on a CV.

Before I committed to employing anyone permanently, I brought the person I eventually hired in for a few paid trial days. This is something I'd genuinely recommend to any freelancer considering their first hire.

The idea was simple: a handful of paid days working on real project tasks, treated more or less as they would be as an employee. It gave both of us a chance to see how we worked together before signing contracts and making long-term commitments.

For me, it was a chance to see how they approached problems, how they communicated, whether they asked the right questions, and whether their skills genuinely matched what they'd said on paper. For them, it was a chance to see what working with me was actually like - without either of us burning any bridges if it didn't feel right.

Trial days aren't a substitute for proper interviews, and they're not a legal workaround for skipping employment processes - they're a low-risk way to test the working relationship. Pay them properly for their time, give them real work, and treat it as a genuine two-way conversation.

I'm also lucky that my employee lives quite close, so we've settled into a hybrid pattern: they come to my home office twice a week, and work from home the other days. That means we get regular in-person time - which is invaluable for mentoring and building rapport - without either of us feeling like we're commuting unnecessarily.

If you're considering hiring remotely, think carefully about how you'll handle the mentoring side, especially with a junior. Video calls are fine for quick questions, but there's no real substitute for sitting next to someone and working through a tricky problem together.

Yes. Unambiguously yes.

It was a gamble for both of us - they took a chance leaving their previous career, and I took a chance on my ability to pay them, train them, and keep the business growing. But it's worked out well. Nevitech IT Solutions Ltd can now take on more work and deliver more ambitiously, and I'm no longer the single point of failure on every project.

There are things I'd probably do differently with hindsight, and there are things I haven't covered here because every situation is different. But if you're a freelancer who's sitting at capacity and wondering whether to take the leap - my honest advice is: if the numbers work and you find the right person, do it.

Just go in with your eyes open.