Ideally, yes, but that's not how it works in general. It's not unusual for some departments (like HR) to operate at a loss, with the costs covered by other par

Ideally, yes, but that's not how it works in general. It's not unusual for some departments (like HR) to operate at a loss, with the costs covered by other parts of the business, or for one product to be a loss leader that guides customers to more profitable products and services. In any case, the problem of covering those costs doesn't go away by making the employee a contractor, but it pushes the cost off to the worker.