Peanuts and monkeys.

It’s well known, but amazing how often people are willing to succumb
to the temptation to save a buck - even at the expense of quality or a long term relationship.

Hiring or paying for experience is always going to cost you more than the lowest quote you can manage. When your looking for the cheapest possible quote though you’re rarely making a proper value judgement including quality as a component. Cheap work all top often is just that: cheap. Good value doesn’t just mean the cheapest.

Not all employees or contractors are created equal. This applies to everyone sales, techies, designers and support staff. Cheap out on them and you will suffer. Speaking from experience and repeating industry wisdom one good coder or designer is worth orders of magnitude more than a weak one. It bears repeating, a good coder or desginer is not just 5%, 10% or even 25% better than a weak one - they are 200%, 300% or more better. The same variation appears in almost all organisations in almost all roles that require any sort of special skill. Your best and your worst sales staff will show the same sort of variation - the good will be very, very good.

On top of just being better, an experienced designer or coder working in a team long term will get it right first time without a lot of questions or explination. They’ve been working with the team for long enough they know most of the details without needing to be told. You’ve invested in their knowledge - you’ve effectively paid to develop the brain that if you’re making a value judgement based on cost alone will be walking out the door with value worth thousands.

Trying to cut costs by hiring cheaper staff or contractors can quickly backfire on you in a very severe manner. Your staff are your biggest cost, you’ve invested more in them than any other area of your business. Throwing that investment away for a cheaper alternative might seem like it can make sense from a purely numeric point of view but it’s missing the true value they’re bringing.