The tech guys are really getting younger--and cheaper--these days. When the owner of an auto salvage business was looking for someone to design a website for him not too long ago, he landed on a pair of nine year olds, reports David Freedman at The New York Times. The kids--children of a customer--did a great job and charged just $700.

It can be tempting to turn to youth for help, particularly because kids work for cheap. The rapid pace of information technology means that the most recently trained individuals tend to have the most cutting-edge skills. But if data security, mission-critical applications or complex transactions are important to the business, it is wise to stick with professionals for IT services, Freedman writes.

"There's a pretty good chance with a kid you'll end up having the systems fail at some point, you'll lose data, and you'll have a professional come in to clean up the mess for far more than you would have paid to have him come in, in the first place," said Steven Freidkin, chief executive of Ntiva, who was setting up networks for businesses when he was 13. "I can tell you about 30 examples from this year alone where I had to fix that sort of situation."

For more:
- see David Freedman's article at The New York Times

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