by
Nick J Benson
Questions to Ask
Whether you are hiring a provider, or you are a
provider who is going to be working for a
company, there are a few standard questions and
points that you must touch on. By covering these
areas before you get started, you will ensure
yourself of not having any major problems down
the road. One of the biggest reasons that
companies and providers have a hard time getting
along is because they do not ask the appropriate
questions up front.
Listed below are five questions to ask, and
points to discuss before you get started on your
project.
Question 1. Both companies and
providers should ask the other for background
information before any agreement is put into
place. By doing this, you will ensure yourself
of knowing who you are dealing with. It is
common place for companies to ask providers for
a resume, work samples, and a past list of
clients. This will allow you to learn as much
about the person and their experience as
possible. But on the other side, many providers
often times forget to ask questions of the party
that is going to be hiring them. This can turn
out to be a huge mistake. There are a lot of
companies that are not financially stable, and
may have a hard time paying you according to
terms. By gathering information about the
company that is hiring you, you will be able to
find out if there are any special circumstances
that you should be aware of.
Question 2. In any business
transaction there is money that is going to be
exchanging hands. For both parties, this is
often times one of the most important points of
the project. The first thing that both parties
will need to do is agree upon a price that is
fair to both parties. On many occasions it will
take a couple of offers and counter offers to
find a good price; this is touched on in more
depth in Chapter Five. After both parties have
agreed to a price for the project, a written
agreement should be written up by one or both of
the parties. Every year hundreds of outsourced
projects get completed without a written
agreement in place. Even though it is possible
to do business without an agreement or contract,
both sides will be putting themselves at risk.
In the agreement, the financial terms should be
clearly stated so that both sides understand.
Your agreement should include the total cost of
the project, as well as any overtime costs that
you have agreed upon. Also, make sure that the
agreement states when payment is supposed to
take place, as well as the method of payment.
This is important because there are many
different payment options available such as
check, money order, bank transfer, or online
systems such as PayPal.
Question 3. To go along with point number
three, you will also want to detail costs for
any overtime or revisions that will need to be
done. This can be agreed upon in two ways. First
off, you can decide that the overall cost of the
project includes all revisions and any overtime
hours that may incur. If one of the parties is
not comfortable with this method, you can set up
another way of payment. You can either decide on
a per hour rate, or a per revision rate. Each
one has its advantages and disadvantages to both
sides, and should be outlined up front.
Question 4. When you outsource a project,
chances are that you are going to have a
timeframe in which it needs to be completed.
This is something that needs to be worked out
with the provider in order to avoid mistakes and
set backs. Not only will setting a time line be
beneficial to the company, it is also needed so
that the provider can set aside the appropriate
amount of time that they need in order to
complete the project. In addition to a final due
date, you may also want to set up reviews and
check points during the project. This way you
will be able to assess the work, and make sure
that everything is moving along as scheduled.
Question 5. The method of delivering good
or services is an important topic that needs to
be discussed up front. For copywriting and
ghostwriting jobs this is very important because
there are several different ways to transfer the
work back and forth. The company that is
outsourcing the project should have an idea of
what form they want the work delivered in, and
then work with the provider to make sure that
this is doable. When you are dealing with
writing projects there are a number of different
programs that your project can be completed in.
They include: Microsoft Word, plain text
programs, PDF files, and a couple of other less
popular options. At the same time, you may also
want your provider to send you a hard copy of
the project via fax or mail, or a copy of a disc
so that you can download everything onto your
computer. The same standards hold true when you
are dealing with software projects. If you do
not make it perfectly clear up front how you
expect to transfer the work, you may end up
finding out in the end that one party cannot
accept a certain type of program. |
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