You may not get back what you have invested from the person you hired. The reason being is because a stock vector may not sell at the end of the day or at worst, gets rejected. Here is an example of what you will get per vector depending on the quality of the vector. Bear in mind all of the figures below are just estimations and may not be accurate at all.
An antique abacus vector.
Skills required: Average.
Production time: 3 hours.
Earning after first 6 months: $1.00
Hiring a freelance to create: $50.00.
100 road sign vector.
Skills required: Average
Production time: 10 days.
Earning after 6 months: $50.00.
Hiring a freelance to create: $500.00
An antique abacus vector.
Skills required: Average.
Production time: 3 hours.
Earning after first 6 months: $1.00
Hiring a freelance to create: $50.00.
100 road sign vector.
Skills required: Average
Production time: 10 days.
Earning after 6 months: $50.00.
Hiring a freelance to create: $500.00
2. Management.
Hiring someone means you have to look into his work to ensure that there is quality control. You also need to have discussion (waste of time) with him and sometimes you have to look at his angry face when you comment on his works. This is called management. And managements means more investment.
3. Potential of infringement.
How do you know that a vector he produced are not stolen from somewhere else? Will you check? There are millions of vector out there and most are free. Bear in mind that this is a very serious offend if your portfolio contains a copied of others people work. You may get your whole account banned for just 1 vector.
4. He may become your competitor.
Now, isn't that something common and shouldn't be a concern? Yes, it is common if you are in car repair industry, hair dressing, or software house, but vector stock industry is different. Imagine your portfolio is popular with seamless pattern design, and this guy who has been working for you has learned all the necessary skills to produce back the similar, but better vectors. He may soon start a new portfolio that competes with you on the same category. You have to understand that you have no advantage in this because buyers don't really care much about your reputation, nor do they have emotional attachment with you.
5. He can do it too.
When you are making a lot of money from him, he will sooner or later realize that he can do this on his own. This will happen a lot sooner than you can expect.You must understand that anyone with illustration skills can do this on his own. All he need is a computer, a software, and some keywording skills. Nothing more, right? This is not an industry whereby you need a lot of resources to start.
6. He may moonlight from you.
What's stopping him from producing higher quality vector for his own portfolio, and producing lower quality one for you?
7. You learn less.
On a technical side, you will be spending a lot of time managing your workers. Will you still have time sharpening your skills on illustration? Afterall, the most important aspect in this industry is your illustration skills.
The above reasons make sense if you applied it on vector stock. However, if you are in stock photography, then the above 7 reasons do not applied anymore. The overhead to become a big and successful stock photography contributor is very high. You need cameras, models, studio, photography equipments, and travelling expenses.
