Choosing the Right Subcontractors

A common tip given to service providers who are growing their business is to outsource those things   that you don’t like to do – like accounting or cleaning your house. 

While that’s good advice, it’s often not going to be what grows your business. Instead, you need to look at hiring people whose skills are the same as yours or complement yours.

Hiring Service Providers Like You

Hiring a bookkeeper will free up your time – but there are still only so many hours in your day and you can only multi-task so much before your work starts to degrade.

Subcontracting out your work to someone who does the same work you do is as close as you’ll get to cloning yourself. You know the work like the back of your hand, so you’ll have a very specific idea of what you want done. This will help with communication and help insure consistent quality for your clients. And it will allow your company to take on more work.

For example, if you are an affiliate manager, you may have enough time to write 3 promotional articles, create two graphics and answer 200 questions in a week. Hire a subcontractor who does the same things you do and, suddenly, you can write 9 articles, create 6 graphics and assist in answering 20 questions in that week. At the same time, your subcontractor is answering the rest of the questions and creating articles and graphics as well.

Add another subcontractor to the mix and you can see how much more work you can get done.

Hiring for Complementary Skills

On the other hand, what happens if you hire someone with complementary skills?

For example, if you’re a virtual assistant who specializes in website management, you might hire a subcontractor who is really good at writing. Presto! She writes the content, you add it to the website and your client is tickled pink.

You could even expand your services to email marketing, article marketing and other areas of website management and Internet marketing. Expanding your available skill set allows you to provide more services to your clients, who will then pay more for your work.

Hiring Process

Once you’ve decide what you are looking for in a subcontractor, you’ll need to find the right person. This includes:

1. Asking for recommendations from your colleagues
2. Reviewing portfolios of potential candidates
3. Interviewing subcontractors
4. Asking for and following up with referrals
5. Evaluating how your personality works with the candidate’s
6. Determining the subcontractor’s work ethic

After you’ve decided you want to hire someone, make sure you go through a trial period. Sometimes you don’t know how well someone will work out until you’ve actually worked with them.

Then make sure you both sign a contract. A contract is important because it spells out exactly what is expected from both parties. It also gives a professional and fair way for either party to exit the contract.

You can find several sample contracts online – but always make sure you have an attorney who specializes in contracts review it for you. Following these guidelines will help you make the right choice when hiring a subcontractor.

Hiring subcontractors can be a relatively inexpensive way to grow your business quickly and efficiently. It’s a win-win situation for you, the service provider who gets the help she needs, and the subcontractor, who gets the work she needs.

Contact Lighthouse Virtual Solutions and see what we can do to help you with YOUR subcontractors needs. Please contact us at 704-995-3048 for your FREE 30-minute consultation.