Contractor Management Made Easy

Option 2 – Use a Project Manager

johntabita has contracted a Project Manager to… er… manage his contractors!

A Project Manager is trained in project management, and they have the skills (and responsibility) to successfully act as middleman in the relationship. In this scenario, you as the business owner might establish the relationship, pitch to, and land the client. You then introduce your Project Manager, whose job it is to effectively liaise between yourself, the client, and any contracted staff to get the job done on time and on budget.

Says johntabita, “As far as owning the client relationship, having the Project Manager as your point of contact should reduce the risk of your sub-contractors stealing clients. Just find someone who doesn't do Web development so there's no conflict."

He mentioned that, in addition to the anticipated benefits of contracting a Project Manager, the person he’d contracted “has also helped us break our workflow into phases, developed a workflow methodology, and tweaked our task tracking software so that it's more like PM software.”

LeoWebDesign, however, points out a potential pitfall with this solution.

“The sub-contracting of the project management …would give the client a primary point of contact and free up more time for you. [But] if you really want to be completely in tune with your business and clients, then you really need to be the contact. Otherwise, you’re just a sales person. I would think it would be hard to build an ongoing relationship that way.

“It is important to check in regularly with the client so they know that you are the one "heading up the project". Keeping in touch on a regular basis is necessary to build a relationship and resolve any issues for the client ASAP.”

One solution he tabled was to take a per-job approach to delegating client management. “You could also decide to maintain total control for all the larger clients and allow contractors more direct contact for the smaller stuff. I know this actually seems backwards because the larger projects require much more dialogue, but it does free up some time for you, while reducing the risk that you’ll lose the big money.”

johntabita supported this, adding, “Spend 90% of your time selling and getting more business, and 10% following up with the clients and your Project Manager to ensure everything is going well. That way, your clients will not perceive you just as the sales guy, but rather as the head of a company that is concerned with their well-being and satisfaction.”

And of course, if you’re uncomfortable with outsourcing the Project Management role, you could always consider hiring a staff member to take on this position.

Option 3 – Hire Contractors Your Can Trust

The Community also believed the problem could be addressed with a careful contractor selection process and stringent proving period.

As LeoWebDesign says, if you can’t trust your contractors with your clients, you may “have trust and confidentiality issues, not necessarily "management" issues.

“It is important to try to find someone that you trust. This isn't easy. I would try to develop a relationship with a contractor slowly. Don't throw part of a $20,000 job to a new guy if you can help it. Start a new guy out with something smaller to test the waters. Give him part of a job from someone that isn't one of your best clients. That way if you lose the client it isn't as big of a deal and you can cut the contractor off before a major loss occurs. A good test is to let the contractor "accidentally" know the client’s details to see if they contact the client.”

LeoWebDesign also highlights the importance of establishing the ground rules up-front in any contractor relationship. ”If you supply [the contractor] a decent amount of work, you might want to let them know upfront that if there is breach of trust then the workflow will stop.”

Trust is essential to any partnership, especially when your livelihood is at stake! Working hard to source that trustworthy person is only part of the equation. Test them and allow them the opportunity to earn your trust over time -- this is crucial to the relationship’s success.