I would like to outsource development but can't break the mental barrier
I've hired many in-house programmers in the past. I've had the good, bad and ugly experience. As a coder myself, I recognize that in some of the bad cases I should have been more involved in the hiring process. Too busy running other aspects of a manufacturing business at the time.
I've also seen productivity issues first hand. Hell, I have productivity issues of my own. We are only human.
And, lastly, I've had work flat out stolen. After about six months I let go a marketing manager who had been in charge of developing our website. He went to work for a competitor and had them hire my (freelance) web developer to duplicate all of the internal and external functionality that we spent a year developing and fine-tuning.
I am no-longer in manufacturing. My new world is 100% software-based. And I have tons of projects I'd like to tackle. I can't do it all myself or in-house. But, when I think about the idea of outsourcing development I get images of my past experience that are keeping me from pulling the trigger.
I keep reading about people doing this here on HN and other sites. I can't, from my current vantage point, possibly imagine hiring someone clear across the world to, effectively, hand them my ideas and have them built. This isn't a case of American egocentrism at all. I am very well travelled, multi-cultural and speak a few languages. No issues there. I guess it boils down to trust.
How do you do it? Does one just jump in to it with a degree of innocence and hope for the best?