I don’t know about you, but to be honest, sometimes I’ve given more thought about what to eat for dinner than I did to choosing a vendor.  (That might say a lot about how important food is to me!)

Owning a business is hard.  You cover a lot of ground. 

Marketing, sales, operations, bookkeeping, technology, taxes, customer service, branding, material development, legal, human resources, insurance.  Let’s not forget social media, which may be “free” but has taken on a life of its own. 

You may not be the size of General Motors, but you still have the same general functions to accomplish as the big guys.    You don’t have the resources of time and money that are available to GM.

So what do you do?  You outsource, hire independent contractors.  You use vendors.

As small business owners, we need great attorneys, CPA’s, marketing consultants, insurance agents and financial planners.  We need them to respect our time and our budgets.

Those choices can be just as critical as hiring your top employee.  Yet we don’t often think about the factors that go in to those decisions.

I confess, I’ve made some big mistakes when choosing vendors.  An attorney that didn’t properly think through a contract (not you Dan).  A cloud-based software that was unreliable.  A virtual assistant that didn’t share my … uh, perfectionism.

Those bad decisions cost money, not to mention the wasted time and opportunity cost.  Sometimes they cause heartache.  Ouch.

Female entrepreneurs are busy women!  We often make quick choices because it’s expedient – we don’t have a lot of time to kill. 

We meet someone at a networking event – they’re in an industry we just happen to need.  What a stroke of luck! That person becomes our social media consultant, our financial planner, our insurance agent.

Did we really give those decisions enough thought?

Think about it.  We rely on our vendors for expert advice, for their wisdom in areas we’d rather not even think about.  We trust them with our most private information.

I think it’s time we give nearly as much thought to choosing our vendors as we do to choosing spouses or partners!  (Maybe more?)

Next time you need to reach out to an outside source – a vendor, an independent contractor, a consultant – here are a few questions to ask yourself (and them):

• What do you know about their values?  Do they match yours?  “Tell me about how you work with your customers/clients…”
• Is their work style compatible with yours?  Do they like to get ahead of the curve and anticipate needs?  Are they flexible?  Do they do things at the last minute?    “Please describe for me how you see an ideal relationship working with your clients.”
• What do they really mean by “great customer service?”  “Would you please elaborate on what you mean by  great customer service?”
• Are they an expert in their field, on the leading edge, or just keeping up with the pace?  Check them out on LinkedIn.   “What do you do to keep up with trends and changes in your field?”
• Do they really understand your industry and your business model?  “How many clients have you worked with in my industry?”
• Get references.  And call them.  Ask the references very specific questions, like, “Can you give me an example of how this firm went above and beyond for you?”

Be your own Matchmaker.  Have a clear understanding of what YOU want and what YOU need.  Then start asking deeper questions.

Listen to the answers to see if they match your needs.  You’ll have a much better idea about compatibility. It may take a little more time on the front end, but will save you time and money in the long run.

 Now…what’s for dinner?