Hiring a Shopware freelancer instead of an employee might have several advantages but comes with disadvantages too. Depending on your budget and the type and category of developer you find, you might want to decide for one or the other model.
Availability
The freelancer you are about to interview may tend to have several projects at a time. That can be an issue when the developer is out of a sudden, not available for pushing your IT project. You might want to communicate in advance when you really need the developer, and also tell him in advance when you have less work for him. This communication is beneficial for booth parties as you and the developer can balance the resources more precise.
Expertise exchange
What can be beneficial for you is when your developer has different clients, is the knowledge exchange. So he might run into different problems which are common to a certain IT System. So once your developer had this situation in other clients projects and solved the problem, the solution will be cheaper available to you. Or you come around to waste a lot of money knowing in advance that certain things simply don’t work, due to his experience in other projects.
Budget & payment
Yes, Freelancer are usually a bit more expensive per hour, but you don’t have him on your cheek when you really have no need for him. And it’s less legal struggle to get rid of a freelancer, as you simply don’t engage him anymore.
I think that logic is clear to you, but I suggest one important thing. Pay him on fixed days and reliable. Especially when he does a good job. When you ever in your life were in a situation where you didn’t know when you will be liquid, you might understand this. He will have bills to pay, and this always on time. And nothing is more annoying than not even to be able to tell when one can do that. So pay on a fixed day and you keep everybody happy.
Eagle Mentality
A freelancer at some point in his life went through a similar process as you, probably. He decided to go less fear driven and way more risky through life. He wants more freedom and more responsibility and less dependence to someone who might use him just as another machine to simply make money. As a self-employed, you have to think about how to get more clients, for instance.
This quality in him might help you. He does not only see the source code of a platform but the whole business process. When he understands that a web project is not simply a technical thing, but has a marketing and usability dimension too, then you can highly profit from the symbiosis.
Chicken we have enough on the planet. You need to catch an eagle to lift off properly.
