WHAT’S THE POINT?
People always ask me, “How do I know who to hire?” It’s a tough call, because frequently when you are hiring a professional service it is precisely because you do not know a lot about what you are hiring someone else to do. From accounting to marketing to even lawyering, the problem of deciding who is going to be good for you is a tough choice. But I’ve got some tips on what to look for in a professional service provider.
Whatever business you are in, whether it is service-based or product-based, you will need the services of a good accountant, a good lawyer and a good marketing person. What I recommend is that you look for someone with a varied and diverse background and lots of real world experience at being an entrepreneur. This is not the time to hire the $400-an-hour Yale undergraduate/Harvard Law school-second-year-associate attorney still wet behind the ears. What you need is someone who has experience in negotiating with the vendors and advertising people that you will be dealing with on a daily basis.
You need to find someone who knows where the vendors are going to hide their profit and what “extra charges” you can expect to find and what you can avoid. This only comes from someone who has been there. If they cannot provide you with a resume and some client references, do not hire them.
ACCOUNTANTS Accountants are wonderful at telling you where you spent your money; they are not so good at telling you where you should spend your money. One description of accountants is that they are like sitting backwards on a train, you get to see where you’ve been in great detail but have no idea where you are going.
You are the engineer of your train and you need to have people who will help you see beyond the blind curves up ahead. A good accountant is one who has developed a specialty in your industry. Ask the successful competition — the ones who have been around for awhile. If you want to ask indirectly, have a secretary call and pose as someone doing some background research on accounting practices in general. Most people will easily give up the information you want.
MARKETING PROFESSIONALS Marketing professionals come in various specialties — there are packaging specialists, advertising people, publicity and special events managers, product tie-in specialists and the generalists who do a little of all of the above. The services of a marketing professional can make or break your company. The best ones will provide you with concrete, measurable results in a realistic timeframe. When dealing with a marketing professional, you need to be in charge of what your goals are, communicate them clearly and then let the marketing people take the ball and run with it... but not too far.
They are good at spending money, and it spends easier when it’s yours, not theirs. You need to keep a tight rein on where and when they are spending your dollars. You will be told that you need to spend money to make money, that to increase your sales you need to increase your advertising budget, that to double your sales you need to double your marketing budget. To a degree, all of these are true, but within reason.
One of the hallmarks of a good marketing company is the ability to create a buzz, a certain excitement on a budget, that does-n’t mean Old Woman-in-the-Shoe budget, but it also doesn’t mean Santa’s budget either. A good campaign will involve a great deal of “free” publicity from the media and that is also, by the way, the most convincing to the general public.
BUSINESS CONSULTANTS The business of business consultants is to look at your company and give you quantifiable results based on their input to increase your bottom line. Sometimes that means improving systems, product design, sales materials, and administrative procedures and negotiating with your vendors to get better deals.
Consultants can be excellent sources of knowledge and connections that you can “rent” to avoid getting into the long-term time and expense of hiring. With a consultant, you get just as much expertise and knowledge as you need. That is the plus side of the consulting business. On the minus side, they can just as easily become entrenched and hold you hostage, based on their connections and knowledge.
LAWYERS The good news is that an experienced business lawyer can offer you several options no matter what you are trying to do. The experienced attorney has the ability to open doors for you and to bring you the strength of their ability to see the big picture. On the other hand, an attorney can also see you as a cash cow, and if you do not see results and get the answers you want, you need to move on to a new attorney quickly.
What you should be looking for is someone who can demonstrate to you that they understand not just the legal aspects of what you want to accomplish, but also the bigger picture. The good business attorney sees how marketing, sales, administration, manufacturing, federal and state regulation and taxation fit together in your company. The sharp attorney can take your two-minute pitch and develop a feel for the whole company.
The type of attorney you want to hire is one who has experience in real world business situations, strong connections and an understanding of your complex business. You should walk away from a meeting with your attorney extremely impressed with their understanding of your situation and the needs of your company. Hire the individual lawyer who feels like a business partner.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 15, 2005. Read the original PDF.