Epic Escapes is the newest travel agency in town. Evie Edwards launched the business just over a year ago, pouring her passion for people and prodigious places into her community. The reception for her business was explosive, and she immediately had to hire help to keep up with demand so she could, herself, continue to travel.
After reading Should You Hire or Outsource? Financial Benefits of Scaling Lean, she decided to outsource most of her needs to keep her business lean and focused. It didn’t take long, however, to see that she was hiring vendors and contractors that weren’t a good fit for her or her business. Her expectations weren’t being met, vendors weren’t delivering, and hiring people from different time zones meant she was losing sleep to be available for them.
After weeks of stress, it finally dawned on Evie: she would never book an epic escape to snowy Alaska for her clients who are heat-loving beach goers…so why would she outsource work to someone who is clearly not a good fit for her company? She needed to do more than just hire. She needed to get to know her potential vendors and contractors – just like she did her clients – before extending an offer to work together.
It can be stressful to delegate important business responsibilities and not know if you are going to regret your decision later. Let me be your financial travel agent to help guide you to where you need to look for the best resources for your business. I can determine what your exact needs are and put together a custom plan to evaluate potential vendors and contractors. Schedule a call with me today to get started.
Best Practices for Evaluating Potential Vendors & Contractors
While your plan to evaluate vendors should be tailored to your exact needs and fit, there are five best practices that I recommend everyone follow.
1. Before doing anything, decide who will internally manage vendors and contractors.
If you are a team of one, like Evie at Epic Escapes, it’s you. But if you have a small, lean team, it’s critical to assign a point person before travelling down the path of outsourcing. Not only will this person manage the relationship with the vendor or contractor, they will oversee their work/deliverables and will be in charge of answering all questions and concerns from (or about) the partner. Set management expectations up front so there are no surprises, conflicts, or tensions once a hire happens. It doesn’t mean that no one else can ever interact with the hire, but it helps to have one person who is in charge.
Pro tip: Whoever gets this important role needs to be involved in the hiring process, as does everyone else who will interact or be affected by the potential partnership.
2. Start filling the candidate pool with referrals first.
Ask for referrals from people you trust before widening your net. The quality of candidates will be much higher coming from people who know you and your business, as they will have your best interests in mind. Plus, their reputation is on the line if they send you a dud!
Pro tip: Don’t be afraid to ask anyone and everyone that you know (and trust) for help finding a good fit. Most people are more than willing to help, and will be proud to know they found your star partner if it works out. You may be surprised by where your best referrals come from!
3. Make sure there’s a personality fit with your business and with the person who will manage the vendor.
In other words, you need to make sure everyone gets along! Too much friction or butting heads will cause inefficient communication and potentially chip away at your goals. By ensuring there is a great personality fit before the hire, you are protecting your business from obstacles that don’t need to be there.
Pro tip: It’s important to acknowledge any concerns of the vendor/contractor manager before starting the interview/evaluation process. They may be feeling worried their position is being lessened or eliminated if you are bringing in extra help. If that’s the case, the relationship may be doomed from the start if the manager isn’t open to receiving help or suggestions from the new partner. Be an active listener, clear communicator, and avid supporter of your employee from the very beginning.
4. Clarify long-term expectations with the vendor or contractor.
I’ve seen many problems arise once both parties get comfortable with the arrangement – things start to slip and either no one notices, or the business lets it slide because they’ve been in a partnership for a while.
For example: if you are hiring an HR partner, you want to find a company that can seamlessly transition you to a new account representative if internal turnover happens on their end. If you are a year into your arrangement, you might feel obligated or too busy to find someone else, even if they drop the ball. That’s no good – you are no longer getting what you are paying for! If you decide to outsource a role, ensure you receive the benefits you are promised and come to expect for the duration of the partnership.
Pro tip: If hiring a company, do your homework ahead of time to determine the type of business they are from the onset. Here are a few questions to help you vet potential partner businesses:
- What is the median tenure of your staff at various levels?
- Do you have high turnover rates at the level I will be hiring?
- Can you supply a list of client references?
5. Decide if off-shore hiring is realistic for your business workflow.
Evie was immediately drawn to hiring off-shores because it seemed to fit so well with her business. After all, she sends people all over the world on epic escapes! The cost was significantly lower, and she felt good about helping someone overseas make a great living wage in their area.
However, the time zone difference ended up being a nightmare for the tasks she needed help with. And unfortunately, the contractor hired wasn’t a native english speaker, which turned out to be a problem she hadn’t anticipated. Language nuances made for unclear communication with a lot of unnecessary back and forth.
If you decide to look overseas to hire, here are some questions you can ask to ensure a good fit:
- What time/zone hours do you work?
- (Ask the following questions if they promise to flex to your time zone… it may mean their workday begins at 11pm local time.)
- Have you worked those hours before?
- Are you used to it?
- Do you anticipate being able to manage your personal life with those hours?
Pro tip: Staffing agencies based in the US offer a much easier pathway to off-shore hires since you get to skip the paperwork associated with having foreign-based employees. Trust me, you don’t want that headache!
Bonus pro tip: It might seem odd at first, but it’s always good to check if the foreign country you may hire in has a stable electrical and internet grid. Will the hire be able to stay connected when they should be or will power/internet interruptions cause you to miss critical deadlines? Do they have a backup plan if the grid does go out? Does their back up plan actually solve the problem? (If their staff are all in the same country, their backup isn’t going to help during a massive power outage.) If you have tight deadlines, you need to find someone who is available when you need them.
Hiring With Your Financial Health in Mind
If you partner with me to be your financial travel agent and Fractional CFO, I won’t let you get caught in a drought when you had planned for an epic financial fishing trip. Schedule a call with me today and let’s chat about the hiring options that will put you on the right path towards financial health.
