Mar 04 2008
Smart Outsourcing
Respect your business by giving it the protection it deserves.
As you know, I am a huge believer in delegating and outsourcing to get your business where it needs to be. After all, you can’t be an expert at everything, and there are only so many hours in the day.
BUT…you have to maintain control of your business.
Just today I spoke to a potential customer who let her web designer/developer go at the end of their contract. She did not like the website, and after viewing it I can see why. The developer inserted pages of affiliate links to benefit himself as well as some totally unrelated pages linking back to his hobbies.
When she did not renew the service contract with him, he put up a semi-pornographic picture on the front page and told her the site “must have been hacked” and he could fix it for $5000. Not only is her website content unavailable to her right now, she has potential customers coming to the website and being greeted by the image of a scantily-dressed teenage girl smoking a cigarette. There are other details that make this an absolutely heartbreaking small business story, but you get the general idea.
Yes, she has legal options she can pursue, and yes she will eventually gain access to her domain name and probably get damages from this vendor. But it doesn’t do her any good to know this in the meantime while her business is at a complete standstill.
Remember that you have the ultimate say-so in your business…that’s why you are the boss. So keep track of your usernames, passwords, accounts, important documents, and backups. You can certainly have help managing them, but the ultimate ownership should always be yours and never turned over completely to another person. Read your contracts closely, make sure full payment equals full ownership and that you can take your property with you if you no longer want to do business with that person or company.
A quality vendor will never try to hold you hostage to keep you as a customer after your transaction is complete.
Posts
Hello,
Thanks for your very appropriate post in this “buyer beware” market. We work with small businesses everyday, and I can’t tell you how many horror stories we have heard from entrepreneurs who placed their faith in the wrong company. Making the decision to outsource is not an easy one, and it is sad to think about companies like the one you mention taking advantage of people in need.
A good rule of thumb for those looking to outsource services is to ask for multiple references, and those references should be related to the services that you are seeking. Don’t be afraid to ask. If a company is not willing to have “100% referencability”, there is a reason.
Look for testimonials, and trust your gut. Great post!
Kelly
www.enginesolutionsus.com