One of the biggest problems you will face when setting up the Internet side of your business is finding a reliable techy. You see, when you bring on a webmaster you are handing over the keys to the castle. They will have your passwords, log ins and control of your website so you need to know you can trust them. This week I share a simple strategy to follow so you can measure just how trustworthy a contractor is (or anyone for that matter) before you commit to working with them.
To find out more, watch this quick video in this week’s episode of Wonderful Web TV. Your Monday dose of Motivation, Mindset and Marketing.
I’d love to hear your comments and any tips you’d like to share. Share your thoughts below. I’ll come back and join in the conversation.
Cheers
Janet
P.S. If you like this episode please, I’d love you to leave a ranking and comment over on itunes.
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Hi Janet, great tips to give small frequent contracts. I have trialled people on a small basis but I think it’s the recruitment that is the hardest part for me. Even with referrals I’ve found problems. I had a webdesigner who came highly recommended and had an excellent portfolio but he took on too much work and became extremely unreliable at the time I hired him.
I’ve used elance in the past and had mixed results. I usually specify a trial period (number of hours or two weeks) or a very small project and then if I like them I will look at hiring them again.
The language is also an issue. I put a job out to tender on odesk for a social media administrator last week and the applicants all rated themselves as 5 out of 5 for English. I’m sorry but NONE of them were 5/5 however several of them had good reviews as it seems that the people who hired them didn’t have good english and grammar either. I find it very time consuming screening applicants that are not good enough. So far no one who has applied is good enough. There is one who is almost there but the dodgy grammar would bother me. I’m almost ready to give up on odesk as none of the 10 applicants are good enough. This leads me to a couple of questions – what do we do if we don’t know anyone who can give us referrals and how much should we expect to pay? I had 2 applicants who were prepared to do it for $1/hour. Seriously!!! All of them were under $10 an hour. I didn’t specify a rate in the advert as I didn’t know the going rate.
One thing I notice with online contractors is that a lot of them require payment in advance. Do you ever do that or do you pay on completion?
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Hey Talia. There is a big difference between outsourcing and building a team. I actually very rarely outsource with the idea of someone who will be a short term project. Instead I try to build a team of people who I can keep using over and over. I try to understand what they most want in the same way I approach understanding my customers. That’s probably why the people I have on my team have been with me for years. They all get to meet each other (via our basecamp communication hub) and, even though each one is only working for me a few hours per month) they all are essential to our business running. I probably pay more than I need to as I (as yet) haven’t brought in cheap overseas people. I do intend to but only if I have someone on my existing team who can manage them as I know it will take a lot of my time to manage someone from a different culture.
Having said that, you can definitely hire people much cheaper from a different culture but you will need to factor in that you will need to double check and edit what they do. That’s OK, just factor that in or also hire someone from your own culture who is responsible for quality control.
I have been looking at a couple of agencies who provide the service of finding the best overseas person for you and others that also help you manage communication. I’ll let you know down the track what I have found. They are all under $10 per hour, often 5 or 6 which is awesome. Just factor in either your time or cost of a local person to project manage until you have fully trained your new person.
As an aside. I wouldn’t bother asking people to self rate. They want the job so may exaggerate. Instead give them a task (eg write 5 facebook status updates on the topic of xxxx and submit to me as part of your application).
Contractor payments: With new people I usually negotiate half now and half later. Once I have invited them to be part of my team or have a “preferred supplier status” we usually pay on completion because it becomes regular invoicing. We talk to them about what works for them. We ALWAYS pay our contractors on time though so they know they never have to chase us.
Hi Janet,
Thank you for sharing your wisdom. It does turn out that managing the multiple roles of an organization is very tiring. It is especially so when you have to rely on others to get your job done. In general, in a place where your can access a lot of people easily, it may be not be a big deal to just ignore someone who does not deliver. But I notice that where you have fewer choices, one also needs to be careful about turning someone down. Sometimes people can be just unreliable and irresponsible, but other times, I feel they could be testing your reliability as well. So how do know when you can trust someone with a bigger task, and when to stop hoping that someone maybe reliable?
Hong Anh
Hey Hong Anh. I find if people are unreliable in quality of work or meeting deadlines when you give them smaller jobs they are the same with the bigger ones. The important thing is to make sure your communication is very very clear. If you give vague instructions (eg, write some articles for me on x topic) you very often won’t get what you want. If you are more specific (eg write 5 articles, 400 words each, n the topic of xxx focusing on a,b, and c. Include a royalty free image for each one that is relevant and refer to links for more info) you will get a better result. If they don’t produce by the deadline, and you are sure your instructions were specific you can try them on something else. If still not OK then politely move on.
Janet, you’re right about building a team versus one-off jobs. I definitely want a reliable team. I always state that it’s a trial job with a view to more work, aka a probationary period, but so far none of them have been a good fit.
As an aside Janet, how do you get on when you befriend your contractors? I’ve run into the problem that once you’re buddies when they have personal problems they want to extend deadlines, after all you’re their “buddy” so you understand they’re not in a good space. I ended up telling one of them we couldn’t continue to work together if she did that because I need someone reliable and constantly renegotiating deadlines and not knowing whether work is going to be delivered is too stressful for me.
I did ask for work samples put the applicants gave links to the facebook pages they manage and in some cases there are multiple people doing status updates so you’re not sure who has posted them. I LOVE the idea of asking them to submit 5 sample FB status posts. It cuts down on time as I don’t need to scroll through the facebook account and I get to see their work.
re: the self-rating, I didn’t ask for that, it’s something that odesk provides. They also provide test results so I look for people who have completed their tests for English and any other relevant skills, but even people who score in the top 10% for English aren’t great because they are in the top 10% of contractors, not the top 10% of the general population.
I’m coming to the conclusion it’s better to pay more and do less supervision or to hire someone that can weed out the candidates for me.
Half up front sounds like a good idea. I always pay on time. Once the work is delivered and signed off I’m happy to pay.
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Re befriending contractors: I would consider all my contractors friends. I cut them slack on things such as sick kids or big personal problems and genuinely care about them. But at the same time, a true friend respects your needs and boundaries. You just need to be clear. For eg, I have on occasions had to say “I know this is a big problem and it is affecting your work. Let me know if you can meet the deadline or if I need to bring someone else in just for this occasion”. It’s one thing for someone to be unreliable from the beginning. It’s another for someone who is usually great to start having problems. In means they may need to your support but you will need to find someone to replace them for the short term or even better expect them to find someone for you. If they keep putting you last and meet other people’s deadlines before yours, then you are not being clear enough on your expectations and boundaries.
Janet
Thank you for this great tip.
It is a great reminder to start small. The more clear I am on my needs the easier it has been for me to connect with the right contractors. I have found this to be the case online and offline in my business.
Terri Cooper
http://www.weight-loss-hypnosis.ca
Yep clarity on your part certainly makes it much easier to outsource. So many people expect the contractor to make the decisions for them.
Hi Janet,
Great topic as always.
I agree that building trust when outsourcing involves little ‘credibility tests’ too see how reliable someone is.
Also most important for me is feeling confident that contractors understand my business and what I am trying to achieve. I do this by involving them wherever possible in what I am doing- for example, helping me exhibit at an Expo or read some of my articles or log on and sign up to my online course and become a participant in my program.
With a good understanding of my business and a real interest in what I do contractors are much better equipped to deliver a service that will be beneficial to Lifelong Careers.
What does everyoen else think? Do you use these strategies too?
Cheers, Tanya
Great point Tanya about involving them in understanding your business. It also allows them to be proactive .
Thank you Janet for the info in this post.
I have yet to start looking for people to outsource to, as a matter of fact I am not sure exactly what I can ask and pay someone to do for me. Reading all the comments has given me ideas though.
Thanks again
Claire