Running an eCommerce business is the demand in today's world of the internet and once you set up the business, you will have lots of orders to fill then you might have this question, "Who can assist me complete my orders?"
You might be wondering whether you should hire a virtual assistant or somebody else. Sometimes or the other, you will have this feeling after you spend 50+ hours a week meeting the business goal.
However, even if you make a final choice of hiring somebody for your online store, you will have these questions in your mind:
- What about the quality that they will deliver?
- What if they don't have accurate information about their work?
- What about handing over taxes to somebody else?
- Should I pay $80 to somebody else?
So, in this article I will provide the solution to your every query. Let's dive right in..!!
What makes independent contractors prove better than full-time employees?
When you want to hire somebody for your business, there are two options that you can go with. You can either hire a full-time employee or a contractor and pay per work.
Hiring an EmployeeWhen you hire a full-time employee, there are a few things that you have to fulfill, like a 401k plan, regular salary, insurance, and other benefits since they are your regular employees.
Hiring a ContractorOn the other hand, when you hire a contractor, you just have to pay them for what they have done for you. Like when you hire them to do the marketing part only then you need to pay them for the hours that they spent in marketing only.
They bill you for the tasks performed by them and they work under a business name. You can't give them any other task than what they have committed you for, but if you do so, they simply bill for it.
You need to be very careful in choosing the type of employee for you because you do not follow the proper legal procedures, and you might be in trouble.
Which one should you choose?
Although it is quite easy to hire a contractor and easy to remove them as you can terminate their services whenever you want, that can be very expensive and on top of that, they built their empire, not just yours.
Employees are good in certain areas like you can plan your company's plans because they are going to stay with you longer than contractors. You can't guarantee that a contractor who has worked with you, will be with you in the future.
An employee is part of your permanent team wherein a contractor isn't. However, keeping an employee has some other formalities that you have to do, like a 401k plan, insurance, medical, etc.
Roles to hire for
After discussing all the legal aspects of hiring contractors, let's talk about the roles that you can hire them for.
There are many roles that you can hire them for, let's discuss the multiple roles available but before that keep these in mind.
- Which parts of your tasks can you outsource?
- Which tasks should I assign them?
- Which tasks consume the maximum time and generate less?
When you will be asking these questions, you will get some concrete ideas of how you can assign and what you can assign, like:
- Marketer
- Order fulfiller
- Developer
- SEO specialist
- Social Media Manager/marketer
- Virtual assistant
- Product photographer
- Graphic designer
- Content writer
How to pick the right candidate?
Choosing the right person for your business is as important for you as laying the foundation of a building because a team is a foundation of a business. After all, you can build empires on your team only.
Many big entrepreneurs have said that for the success of a business, there is a need for a successful team.
Let's figure out where to find the best team for your business.
There are various platforms from which you can hire your first independent contractor. Here you can find contractors based on various parameters like experience, skills, ratings, etc.
Here are the best platforms to hire Independent Contractors
1) Your Web
This is considered the most reliable source of hiring independent contractors and the reason behind that is their 'review'. People in your network might have hired someone already and have words about their way of working. This way you can save your time in testing people's skills.
2) Social networks
Many people rely on social media for job searches. They upload their profile on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc, and based on their skills, you can hire them for your tasks.
3) Job Boards
There are many jobs available on job boards like https://problogger.com/jobs/ where real jobs are available. I found my first job as a VA on it.
Although there are many other ways by which you can hire your first independent contractor, I consider them the most suitable.
How do I ensure their suitability?
There are two types of tasks for which you will hire independent contractors, one for a particular task only and another for regular employment. If you need them for a particular task only then just don't think whether they will stay for long or not, this should be your concern when you hire them for long.
To finalize hiring the candidate, you should interview them face to face and there is a set of few questions that you should ask them to know more about them.
Questions to ask before hiring
- 1. What kind of relationship have you had with your previous employers? Describe the best and the worst.
This will reveal important aspects of their character of behavior.
- 2. What do you think is better? The perfect and late or the good and on time?
It will unveil their skills in meeting the deadlines.
( here you will get to know about their responsibility taking character)
- 4. What is that one thing that you would like to do forever?
(Now, you will get to know about their hobby)
- 5. How would you present your company's services to me?
( It will show their selling skills)
Trial Assignment
Before making the final hiring decision, give them a trial assignment so that you can test their skills on a real-time basis.
This is not required to be an important one where you cannot afford experiments. Give them a task for testing purposes only.
Once they finish their assignment, judge them on their skills, deadline, quality, etc.
Final Candidate Review
Once the candidate has completed the interview and trial period, go for the final review to make a better decision.
Ask these questions for a better choice:
- Are they fit enough for the required profile?
- Do you think that they will respect deadlines?
- Are they good at their work?
Finally, they will better assist you in your tasks and make your work easier.
If you are convinced that he is the right choice, then hire them without a second thought.
Final Thoughts
Hiring an independent contractor for your business is a crucial task and choosing the right candidate makes your decision more important.
You cannot blindly hire anybody just because the packaging is good but you need to check whether they are good at their work or not.
Choosing the right candidate will grow your business, however, the wrong candidate can spoil your business too.
I hope that this article will help you make a better hiring decision.
