Gabriel Weinberg, respected entrepreneur and angel investor, proposes that until you have significant and growing revenues, you should refrain from hiring any permanent workers and, instead, use freelancers or do it yourself. This is in contrast to the typical funded startup approach, and is very good advice for those attempting to bootstrap their business.
[...] hiring takes money. It increases your burn rate significantly. Companies before product/market fit, i.e. traction, need to stay around long enough until they get it. That can take a lot of time, like years. There are countless cases where companies folded only to miss their moment and see other companies rise up where they might have done so.
This approach will probably not work for everyone, but if you are an experienced and multi-talented founder, I agree that it can be a better approach - allowing you to keep your burn rate low and to spend money on things other than staff costs.
Vinod Khosla