Pay Your Consultants and Professionals Well

As an entrepreneur, there are certain things you can’t do yourself. Though you might try to understand it, you might not be able to master it. Many professional verticals require years of learning and experience to achieve mastery level.

In my business, I understand design and copywriting to some extent, but I am not a master at it. And as long as I can have consultants and professionals help me in areas that I am not strong at, I don’t need to master it.

I don’t mind mastering other subjects, but there is an opportunity cost. I will be taking time and resources away to master a different subject that my own area of expertise.

Though I recommend entrepreneurs to be frugal and very calculative with their spends, I would always prefer paying professionals well. I do not bargain with professionals and consultants to get work done at a cheap cost.

Qualitative work like design and copywriting cannot be measured. If someone is better at a skill than me, I would always prefer to pay what they ask for. They power my business and help me make more revenue. It is an investment and not an expense.

To encourage your professionals and consultants to give their best work, make them part of your team. Share your vision with them and the purpose of your entrepreneurship journey. Without involving them at that level, you can expect work from them that surpasses your expectations.

Take part in the work they do and give feedback at appropriate intervals. Do not micro-manage them and at the same time do not be completely uninvolved in their work. Strike a balance when working with professionals and consultants.

One of the biggest challenges that you will face when you are working with consultants is that you cannot measure their work easily. Since the work is qualitative, you have to make sure that they really care about their work. The only way to make them care about the work is to make them part of your team in as many areas as possible.

Make sure that they give their best by working with them. Their work will be so much of value to your business that no matter how much you pay them, you will always end up making more money with their work than without them.

If you do not pay your consultants and professionals well, your competitors will. Most of the freelance work professionals are genuine in what they charge for.

If they are charging high for something, its not that they are greedy, but their work is worth that much. As an entrepreneur, it is your responsibility to make sure that good work can be converted into revenue and profits.

If you cannot take the best work by the best professional and turn it into revenue. You will not be able to take mediocre work from mediocre professionals and turn it into revenue either.

If you want to be at the top of your game, the best in the business, then you need professionals and consultants who can deliver the best. And the best doesn’t come cheap.

Finding The Best Professionals

Now that I have convinced you to work with the best and pay them well, the next question is – where to find those people?

It is easier said than done to find the best professionals and consultants in the market. You have to find talent below the carpet. Most of the good ones are hidden in a hay stack of bad service providers.

Some professionals will market themselves very well and might say the right things at the right time. Superficial consultants do superficial work. They market their work as extraordinary when it is mediocre.

You need to dig deep looking for the best professionals in the market. Once you find good professionals, work with them on a project that doesn’t require a lot of involvement in terms of time, energy and money. Date them before you marry them.

Apart from the quality of work they do, good professionals are also good listeners, good collaborators, will be punctual and will be a little more straight forward in their communication.

Start working with multiple professionals on an experimental basis and see which one sticks. You will strike a chord with one of them and you will be able to build a good professional relationship with them.

The best companies in the world have the best working for them. You cannot build a great company without great people. And certain people might never want to work full time with you, nor you need them full time.

The effort invested in finding the best professionals will never go wasted. If you can’t work with a professional for the long term, you will still make good friends with them and even learn from them.

“Don’t ask for the price of the spade, when you are digging for the gold.”

So what do you think?

Are you paying your professionals well and getting the best in the market?