In this post, we consider the annualized cost of hiring a data scientist as an employee, and offer our services on a contract basis as a viable alternative. Problem The hidden costs of hiring begin long before an offer is made and continue long after. Newly-posted jobs require an average of 42 days to fill. (1) Professional onboarding costs include the inevitable orientation period during which new hires earn full salary but have yet to attain full productivity.

Cash may be king, but cashflow is god—at least for small businesses, who can be simultaneously profitable yet bankrupt. A creditor, perhaps with cash flow problems of its own, need only delay the payment of its accounts receivable long enough such that the small business in question lacks the resources to meet its short-term obligations. Unfortunately, even fractional CFOs may be disinterested in a small business due to its size. The responsibility of cash flow management therefore falls frequently on the shoulders of those who feel ill equipped to manage what amounts to the differencing of statistical distributions over time.