We received a call just after midnight from a server administrator who was having difficulties with his mail server - to the point that his international clients were unable to receive email at the middle of their peak period.  Nobody else picked up the phone ... we did!

During the early days of running my company I brought in the services of many contractors, as I was working full time and didn't have the time to complete complex coding work while managing the day to day running of the business, however I had so many negative experiences ranging from poor coding to contractors vanishing part way through a job, that I really never thought I would be able to use a contractor effectively for any part of my business. Recently I've had a few experiences which have changed my perspective on working with freelance contractors, so I thought I would write a quick blog to share my experiences.