Onboarding Contractors: Setting Your Business Up to Scale in 2022 – Part 1
Running a successful e-commerce business and being your own boss can sometimes feel like you’re working 24/7. As the lady in charge, you should be able to step away from your desk, laptop, and phone without feeling like your business is going to fall apart. And having time for the people and things you love is essential to a healthy work/life balance and your overall success.
Part of being an amazing She-E-O is knowing when to delegate. But one of the biggest things I see stopping far too many DTC business owners is the onboarding of new employees. Don’t worry I won’t let it stop you.
But, before we can get into my checklist for onboarding and some must-have standard operating procedures, I need you to understand an incredibly important concept – knowing when to outsource.
How Do You Know It’s Time to Outsource?
Do you find yourself dreading specific tasks or putting certain things off until they’ve piled up and you’re overwhelmed? Maybe certain things are falling through the cracks, or something needs to get done, but it’s not your forte. That’s when it’s time to outsource!
Outsourcing can take a lot off your plate. Instead of stressing over finishing the tasks you dread, it allows you to focus on the parts of your business that you love and do best. Hate crunching numbers? Outsource your books to an accountant. Need to rewrite your website’s landing pages or product descriptions? Outsource to a copywriter.
Hiring the right freelancers might take some time, but with the right team, you’ll soon be performing better than ever while actually having the free time to enjoy something besides work.
Whether you’re a one-woman show or you have a handful of employees, if certain things are falling through the cracks, hiring, and onboarding contractors is a viable (and often necessary) solution.
Outsourcing to the Right People
Thankfully, as an e-commerce business, the geographic location of employees doesn’t matter, opening you up to a wealth of wonderful freelancers who are experts in their field.
There are an array of online global marketplaces that are great places to begin your search. Here are some of my faves:
Upwork
Fiverr
Freelancing Females
Freelancer.com
Guru
FlexJobs
LinkedIn
Indeed
If you prefer local contractors, leverage organizations in your area that support local freelancers and business owners. Some of these organizations, like BabeCrafted in Tampa, are female-centric and allow you to scroll through their directories to find qualified local freelancers ready to help you. You can use these sites to help you with the onboarding of new employees, including virtual assistants, inventory managers, customer service reps, digital marketing coordinators, product photographers, and so much more.
Once you've found the right fit, your next step is the actual onboarding of new employees to ensure they understand you, your company, and all the resources you’re providing to them.
How the Proper Onboarding of New Employees Sets Everyone Up for Success
Some people might use the words onboarding versus orientation interchangeably, but they’re not the same! Orientation is a one-time general event that welcomes new employees. So, what is an onboarding process then? It’s a period of training and knowledge transfer of standard operating procedures (and possibly an official orientation!) that introduces new employees to their job.
Before jumping into hiring contractors, make sure you’ve created a checklist for onboarding including clearly defined standard operating procedures, best practices for project management software tools like ClickUp, templates, and administrative documents to make the onboarding experience smoother for everyone. If the onboarding experience is unorganized, too slow, or cumbersome, you’ll likely lose your contractors to another company with better processes.
The onboarding of new employees starts before their first day. Here’s what you need to do:
Get your contractor’s contact details and set up their legal and accounting paperwork, such as:
Contracts: Include project scope, deliverables, timelines, pricing and rates, and non-disclosure agreements
W-9: tax form for self-employed workers
1099: document to report income to the IRS from contractors and freelancers who received $600 or more during a particular tax year
Proper invoicing procedures: If you’re using a payment system, like Quickbooks, have your contractor set up their account before their first day. If you’re expecting them to send you an invoice, lay out exactly what information you need on the invoice, along with expected payment dates.
Use a website like DocuSign or Eversign to upload documents that require signatures to make the paperwork process smooth and easy.
Key Elements In Your Checklist for Onboarding
When you’re ready to outsource, it’s important that your onboarding process comes together beforehand. You’ll want to make a great first impression, and there’s nothing more stressful than a contractor starting a job at an unorganized company that’s not sure how to train them or make the most of their time. Here are a few key tips:
Create accounts for your new contractor on all of your software platforms and programs. No matter what tools you use (ClickUp or Asana project management, Canva for design, Grammarly for writing, for example), make sure they have the proper logins.
*Pro tip: LastPass is a great tool to safely share passwords. It saves and locks all of your passwords in a vault, so you can securely share them with contractors in instances when you don’t want to create a unique log in.
Standard operating procedures provide your employees and contractors with the step-by-step processes and policies that help your company stay organized and on track for success. Have these in place before hiring any outside help as they’ll ensure new contractors can hit the ground running without interruption to your current operations.
So, your new freelancer’s first day has arrived! Congrats! Documents are signed, logins have been successfully created, and everyone’s ready to dive right in, right? Maybe not!
Here are a few more items to go over first:
Set up a video conferencing call with yourself, your new hire, and anyone else they’ll work with. Introduce everyone and give some background on your company, business objectives, expectations, deliverables, key milestones, and deadlines.
Demonstrate the e-commerce or inventory software and other project management programs they’ll be using.
Give an overview and schedule of expectations for the first few weeks, including objectives you expect them to meet. Establish how communication works and ensure everyone’s on the same page.
By following a checklist for onboarding, you can ensure you provide your contractors with everything they need to be successful and protect yourself by having all the proper documentation and clear expectations ready to go. Open communication leaves little room for error!
Remember: The more you set your new hires up for success, the more time you’ll have to take that much-needed break. And you’ll feel confident knowing everything’s in good hands while you’re away!
Scale Successfully Through The Onboarding of New Employees with Virtual Sidekic
Before you hire your first contractor or employee, you need to have the above systems and processes in place. Not sure where to begin? Well, you’re in luck because I have the perfect solution!
As your Virtual Sidekic, I can set these systems and processes up for you with my Done-in-a-Day Service. I’ll set up your project management system, such as Asana or ClickUp, create templates for briefs, help you develop standard operating procedures, and create a critically important new hire onboarding checklist. Click here to learn more and set up a discovery call. Let me help you prepare for your onboarding of new employees and contractors, so you can focus on what you do best - being the BOSS!