7 Components To Consider For The Next Contractor You Hire

For many businesses, mine included, third party vendors and contractors can be a huge asset.  Also like many businesses, mine included, hiring the wrong independent contractor can have disastrous consequences for your business.  Unfortunately, I have learned this the hard way more times than I would like to admit.

So now that you know about my failures, I am going to give you seven things to consider before you hire your next contractor.

Component #1: Only Hire People or Firms That You Absolutely Know Will Get The Job Done-  This seems obvious right?  Almost like a no brainer, until you get caught with your pants down and you need immediate help.  Vetting a work relationship takes time but we had a situation at my consulting firm, The Business Blueprint, where we had more work than we could manage.

What did we do about this situation?  We scrambled because we weren’t ready for it.  We hired a couple of people that we thought would do a good job that we sort of knew but knew nothing about professionally.  The end result?  We got killed on those projects.  Over-budget.  Overdue. Client relationship ruined.

In hindsight, we should have turned the work down or set more realistic timelines for the project.  Instead we went down the overly optimistic path to failure.

Component #2- Hire Locally. I know some people have great success with hiring overseas but it has never been that great for us.  Our best vendor relationships are close to our area so that if we absolutely have to meet about something, we can do it quickly.  The moral of this story is that it seems to be much harder to let someone down who you have looked in the eye and made a promise to.

Component #3- Do They Ask Good Questions?- What I have noticed in hiring vendors is that the great ones ask really good questions about the projects that they work on.  Intuitive vendors and contractors see problems around the corner that maybe you don’t anticipate and this is because they are good at what they do.  Be on the lookout for this as you screen possible vendors and contractors for your next project.

Component #4- Do They Have a Full Time Job?- There are a lot of contractors, especially in the creative realm, that moonlight on the side for others.  There is nothing wrong with this but I have noticed that while some of these folks work great, a lot of them have difficulty managing time.  Think about it this way.  When a contractor who has a full time job has to decide between a project at work that pays the bills and your side project, what do you think they are going to choose?

Component #5- Set Firm Expectation-  Set firm expectations for the relationship right up front.  Don’t be loose with your agreements either.  Make sure you have contracts with your contractors.  Also make sure you have outlined all of the other expectations that range from fees to confidentiality.

Component #6- Remember that it’s a two-way street.- A great contractor/vendor relationship is dependent upon building a great relationship.  That relationship is built upon solid communication.  There have been a couple of times for us where a project got started on the wrong foot and it’s usually because we didn’t communicate need effectively.  Don’t make the vendor/contractor have to figure everything out the hard way.

Component #7- Know when to walk away.-  The country philosopher, Kenny Rogers, said this back in the early 80s about gambling.  The same is true for relationships.  My rule of thumb now is that if a vendor or contractor we hire is late on their first project, they are done working with us.  There are a lot of contractors that don’t know how to get a project done on time.  On the flip side, there are a lot of contractors who do.  Don’t settle for mediocre people on your projects.

We have held on to people way too long in the past and we regretted it and at the same time learned a huge lesson about how to handle these situations in the future.

If you have been utilizing a lot of vendors and contractors for your business then you know that it can be a frustrating process to find great help.  But great help is out there for you.  You just have to know what you want and demand that you receive it.

What are some things that you have used to hire great contractors and vendors?  I would love to add to this list.

Tags: hiring, independent contractors, small business, vendors
Posted in New Work Revolution | Comments Off