On Words and Business

Once you’ve made the decision to outsource your creative services (writing, editorial, design, illustration, photography), you are partway to getting what you need. Now it’s time to hire someone, either a freelancer or an agency, to do the work.

Here are 6 things to think about before you hire someone.

1. Look for individuals or agencies that are credible. A freelancer may be someone you know or the agency may have been recommended to you by a trusted friend or advisor. If the individual or agency is new to you or you don’t have a mutual connection, look for references or client lists; and check them.
2. Look for someone who will discuss how they’ll support your project. If they aren’t willing to talk about how they work, or their ideas for working together, don’t do business with them. You need evidence of ability to execute.
3. Look for someone who can support you where you need it. If your project can be done virtually, you can find an outsourcer anywhere. If you need someone who’s able to attend on-site meetings, though, you’re more limited in your selection.
4. Relationships, personality, and cultural fit are important. If you’re relying on the creativity and thinking process of someone outside your firm, you need to feel comfortable that those talents will be channeled in a direction you can work with. That doesn’t mean you should find someone whose thought process or ideas parrot your own–you’re looking for creativity, which may mean challenging your existing notions. The new life that an outside agency or freelancer can bring is part of why outsourcing creative services is so popular and successful.
5. Talk about budget. Everyone likes to pay as little as possible for the services they get. And everyone likes to be paid as much as possible for the services they provide. To get a fair bid before agreeing to the work, give as much detailed information about your needs as possible, so the scope of work is clear and expectations can be set. When you review the bid, remember what’s most important for your company or this project. If low cost is what you need, by all means go for the lowest bidder. If high quality and industry experience is critical to the success of a project, the lowest bidder probably isn’t the way to go.
6. Go with your gut. When you’re working with freelancers or small agencies, you might not be able to see samples of work in your industry or a portfolio with the exact type of project you need help with. So look for the potential in their other projects. Look for a passion for the industry, your company, or the work. Your gut may just be sensing that great creative idea hidden in the mind of your new outsourcer.

Next Thursday
What to do if you outsource a creative services job and something goes horribly wrong.

From the folks at Flying Solo, some taxi driver wisdom:

• Avoid stress by starting slowly
• Don’t focus on earnings

Some additional wisdom from two great Boston cabbies:

• Be a trusted resource. After a news story here about a woman who jumped out of a moving cab because she feared the cab driver, I had a most interesting conversation with a cabbie. He said to me: My job is to keep you safe, not just get you where you’re going.
• Understand your customers needs. As one cabbie noted in our trip-long conversation about the ways of the world, not everyone is a chatty passenger. (I’m actually pretty mercurial about cab conversations, so on any given day it could go either way.) He sees it as his job to assess a passenger’s conversation quotient and offer as much or little conversation as the passenger needs.

With the economy as it is these days, you may be searching for a little outside help with some of your creative needs.

Hiring a writer or designer to work with you on a project can inspire all sorts of emotions.

• Fear: What if she doesn’t “get” us? What if he can’t write his way out of a paper bag?
• Joy: Thank goodness, now I don’t have to design it!
• Or plain old ambivalence: Whatever. As long as it doesn’t interfere with the rest of  my work.

No matter the emotion, if you’re thinking about outsourcing creative services (writing, editorial, design, illustration, photography) there are some questions to ask before you make the decision. The more specific you are about what you want and don’t want, the better chance you’ll actually get what you want. Then, if you do decide to outsource, you’ve improved your chances of finding someone who will deliver what you need.

The first thing to think about is whether or not you really need or want to outsource this project or function. Outsourcing has many benefits, but they may not be the right thing for this project or team.

Ask yourself:

• Will outsourcing this result in cost or time savings?
• What is the benefit to us to have someone out-of-house write or design this?
• Will outsourcing this allow us to focus on our core business and value-added activities?
• Is this an expertise we need to outsource because we don’t have it (or can’t afford to have it) in-house?
• Do we need the flexibility and scalability we can’t achieve with our current staff or organizational structure?
• Can we afford (time, talent, money) to manage an outside contractor/consultant?
• Can we benefit from having someone from outside thinking about this project?
• Can we afford to pay someone what this work is worth?

The only right answers are those that lead you to a workable solution–one that gets your project done professionally, on time, and on budget.

Maybe hiring an outside designer won’t save you time or money, but that isn’t the driving force for this project. Perhaps a new perspective from someone outside your firm is more important for this piece. Or you realize that, although you would like to hire a freelance writer, the budget for this project just doesn’t allow you to pay an outside contractor.

Next Thursday
Look for information on what to think about once you’ve decided to outsource.

A fun diversion: www.wheresgeorge.com

It’s just a fun way to follow the money.

This site has been around for a while and I was just reminded of it. I received a dollar bill with the stamp on it and logged it in.

The guy who entered this dollar bill has entered about 2,400 other bills.  Surprisingly, it took one year and 118 days for this bill to be logged in the second time, and it has only traveled 30 miles from its origin. I wonder where it was for the last 483 days and why no one else logged it in.

Have you ever tracked your money this way?

The Kindergarten - 7th grade winner of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Evelope Art Contest.

Click on the image to see all the winners!

In Don’t Worry, Be Happy in a recent issue of Fortune magazine, Stanley Bing renounces the following types of bad influences, in re our economic situation :

• Executioners
• Rear admirals
• Insecurity analysts
• Economists
• Weasels

“My goal is to live through this situation and to worry as little as possible and be as happy as I can while doing so.”

A voice of reason.

Thank you Stanley Bing. Whoever you are.