We keep hiring freelancer programmers for working on our network and over time I’ve learnt a few things which MUST ALWAYS be kept in mind when working with freelance programmers.

That’s not to say that every programmer is going to let you down but I’ve found it to be very useful to be very skeptic of every new person I hire. And there is nothing wrong with that — it is better to play it safe rather than get burnt.

Tip #1 — Always Talk on Phone

Sure this isn’t going to save you from bad programmers but it will put a more personal touch in the whole transaction. Not only will it make the other person trust you more and take you more seriously but you can also get to know a LOT about them from their talk.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, I’d strongly recommend that you read BLINK by Malcolm Gladwell.

Tip #2 — Never Talk Business on Phone

And neither should be talking about their girlfriends or how that girl at bar punched the geeky guy you are talking to last night. What I mean here is that you should NOT close the project and discuss specifications over phone. You should do that by email as you will have a written record in case of dispute.

Tip #3 — Pay by a Way you can Chargeback.

PayPal and Credit Cards are good idea. Wire Transfers and Cheques are NOT. If you hire via some freelancer sites like rentacoder.com, they have an internal escrow system — use that. The whole idea is to have a third party which you can involve if thing go downhill.

Tip #4 — Pay as You Go

Try to work out milestone based payments. And NEVER EVER pay 100% upfront — I mean NEVER. If you can’t have milestones based payment, pay something like 30-50% advance and 50% on project completion. If someone is not willing to have this arrangement — with only exception of escrow — move on!

Tip #5 — Look Out for Promises

Here are two things that separate Serious Coders from Noobies — 1. Serious Coders will always ask about the deadline. 2. They will never over-promise. I will sometimes throw in some flukes just to see how the coder responds to it.

If a person seems to be to eager to do “anything” to get your money, it’s better you find some other coder.

Bonus Tip — DO a Background Search. Search for their name in Google. Here are some more tips on Employee Background Check.

So I recently joined a Gym called Talwalkars, which happens to be the largest fitness chain in India. The moment I walked into it, I could feel secret service in action.

Most people who know me know that I am very choosy and never so easily impressed with anything — and, I am sure that designers who work for me would be more than glad to talk about it — but this place was different.

Even though I should have been worrying about my tummy tires, I was more concerned with finding out how exactly are running their business. And very soon I found out that their branch manager Nissreen was to be blamed err. I mean credited for it.

Let’s talk about how she does it!

The day I called Talwalks to ask if they were open for business and if I could come over to get a membership, the person on the other end of the line told me that if I could wait three more days as they are coming up a new discount.

Even though the discount was just about $150 but it was not just about money, it was about the fact that they kept their customer above their profits. It was about a feeling that they care.

It ain’t no secret that I hate filling up forms. So while I was filling up my membership form, Nissreen handed me another form for some sort of lucky draw they were having, I told her that she was such a little devil for making me do something I really hated.

She said I should because I could win something. To that I replied something in terms of that Lady Luck and I always have a breakup when it came to lucky draws and Nissreen said that she will make sure that I win something. So I jokingly cut a deal with her that I’d split half of the booty with her.

Two lucky draws pass and still no soup!

So, just trying to pull Nissreen’s leg, I sent her an email that we both have a deal; and, if she forgets that then someone gets kidnapped.

When I reached the Gym from the Golf Club next day, the girl at the reception handed me over an envelope with a letter informing me that I’ve won 25 sittings of massage! Okay that was a bit of prize-fixing but hey it’s always hawt to win something. Heh.

While she may not have intended it that way for sure, but here we have the reciprocation principle at play. Do you think I am going to leave these people anytime soon or tell people not to join them?

When you are enthusiastic about something, it just doesn’t show on your face but even spreads like a virus. If the boss is enthusiastic then nearly everyone tries to behave the same way. It’s called social proof.

Go around, talk to people and try to understand them. What do they do and what their interests and preferences are. Make it personal. Get a sense of humor and kid around. Try and build a personal bond with your customers. And I’d say that Nissreen seems to have mastered this skill.

You might have already guessed by this post that I am pretty impressed by the way she runs her business. When I brought that point up, I was even more amazed to find out that Nissreen didn’t have any formal business management training* or an ownership stake in the branch. I just hope that the owners realize what a person they have on roll and pay her for what she is worth. You know, poaching good employees is a wonderful time-pass for some entrepreneurs.

That was my observation of the whole thing. Next, when I am a bit free from the freaky-crazy schedule I am having these days because of four new projects, I am going to kidnap Nissreen for some time and do a video-cast with her to understand how she does it so well. =)

* It is always very inspirational to meet another street-smart exec out there.

Phew! What a busy day it has been since the morning. I’ve been interviewing web-designers and programmers that I want to hire for my company.

“Who to Hire” is perhaps one of the most difficult decisions any entrepreneur has to make. After all, the success of any venture depends on the people running it.

So, the question is — What to Keep in Mind When Hiring Someone.

Well, since I’ve always used distributed teams and never really hired a full time employee, I also had the very same question on my mind before today’s interviews. To find an answer, I headed to the best consultant one can ever get — online forums.

It sometimes amazes me to see how easy it is to get tons of useful tips and advice from the veterans by posting on forums. However, there is one small problem — most of the advice on forums is disorganized and gets buried under useless crap pretty fast.

Anyway, I posted my question at various forums and literally hundreds of people replied with their tips. Below is the summary of all the things to keep in mind when hiring someone –

1. What are you looking for in Terms of Personality. What main personality traits would the perfect candidate for this job will have? What values are you looking for?

Also remember — you are not looking for your clones. Try to find people who can compliment your weaknesses as too many people with the same strengths mean you also probably have the same weaknesses.

2. What are “Key Incentives”. Financial Rewards for achieving targets, opportunity to experience how to work with international team and an opportunity for growth. What else?

3. Experience of the Employee. Experience in a similar position should preferable but not necessary. It is far more important that the person be inquisitive and willing to work.

4. What kind of training will you provide? Will you be providing any formal training or resources for the job?

5. Are they in it for the “Long Run”? How long will they stick to the Job? Are they in it for the long term or they are just hanging around till they find a better opportunity?

6. How likely is the Candidate to take your business ideas and run with them along. The less likely he or she is, the better it is for you.

7. Don’t hire someone just because “they seem like a nice person”. CHECK THEIR REFERENCES! However, don’t be too obsessed about degrees and references – take a look at their skills and their personality too.

8. Never hire anyone who refuses to recognize the validity in an issue simple because they dislike the person or groups that advocate it. For example, do not hire a person who is a global warming skeptic simply because he or she does not like Al Gore or simply because he or she does not like anything advocated by the left wing democratic party whether it be right or wrong.

In other words look for a person who would let the facts prevail….not personal opinions.

9. Don’t Listen to What is being Said, but HOW it is Being Said. See if the person makes excuses and goes out of his or her way to show how their previous failures were not their fault.

10. Look for gaps in employment and question that. Chances are they were with a company they don’t want to mention.

11. Talk about personal matters, get to really know the person. This does throw many applicants off guard and this is where you see their true being, plus you can put them at ease.

See if they glow when discussing something they enjoy, then see if that same glow is there when discussing the position. Like poker, you have to read people and know when they are bluffing or not.

12. Set Specific Goals and Outline Your Business Plan, What You are About and What You Expect. However, be sure to let them know you are looking for someone who will not only follow the business plan, but to help further it.

13. Interview SEVERAL candidates. Don’t settle on the first one just because they interviewed well. Ask tough questions during the interview and really try to size up whether they will be able to adequately perform the duties without micro- management.

14. Don’t ever forget that they are an employee. Some people get too friendly with their employees and then the employees start to slack off. If you want a friend, get a dog.

15. Pay Fair. They aren’t stupid and they will learn your business model and rinse and repeat on their own a lot quicker if you pay crap wages.

And on the final note, here’s an excellent advice that Garyrcanuck posted on DNForum.com –

A friend of mine who just happens to be a very successful businessman and also an avid golfer, explained to me how he goes about finding a top notch employee in a day.

The secret he said is to take the prospect golfing (if he does not golf you probably do not want him/her).

During the 18 hole game you will see how honest the prospect is, their attitude, like do they make excuses, blame the weather, blame everthing.

Do you feel comfortable with this person and so on?

You folks that play golf will know what I mean.

Then lastly you will go to the 19th hole for refreshments. Here, of course, you will see how he performs with a few drinks in him. Also how he handles himself in company. Are they full of BS or do they listen to the topic at hand then after a pause, comment. Again are you comfortable with this person? Do you believe that they will represent your business, the way you want?

I imagine there are other situations you could use, but the bottom line is to spend a day with your prospect. Preferably in a situation where they have to participate.

After you have had a chance to review the prospects personal aspects, you can move on to see how qualified they are in the position you wish to fill.

Happy Hiring!

PS: Thanks to everyone who chipped in their opinions at WF, DNf, SP and WHT. And also Egor — who happens to be the most wonderful designer I’ve ever worked with.

I stumbled across a thread on one of the better forums that I hangout on, WickedFire.com, about outsourcing. Basically, the thread starter had made a rant about how everytime he has outsourced, the results have sucked real hard. And he’s not alone.

One of the greatest mysteries of all time is that if nearly every entrepreneur who has ever outsourced to India (or other popular outsourcing destinations) has had a bad experience then why are more and more companies pouring millions in there?

What is exactly going on? If crappy work is what these companies are after, then why bother sending it to India when high-school kids in US can do crappier work at even lower costs.

I’ve been outsourcing to others and doing outsourcing for others myself since 1999. I’ve seen this industry evolve from virtually nothing to the giant it is today. In this article I am going to talk about why results of outsourced work always stink and how to avoid it.

If you take a look at the talent pool in India, you will find that there are three verities of people - the geniuses, the ‘lets just get it done’ and the wannabes.

These geniuses are what Harvard Business Review calls the ‘Clever People’ and they know their worth. This variety is the one which either gets hired by top-notch companies like Google or they become entrepreneurs. Get a Hint?

The ‘Lets Just Get it Done’ variety is the kind which has the technical skills to get things done and are the target for headhunters at outsourcing firms like genpact and Accenture. These are the people which form the bulk of talent pool in India and are in highest demand.

And then there are the wannabes. These are the people who have some skills but none of the outsourcing firms want them. But they still dream of working at a fraction of price of their US / UK counterparts and still live like kings here — thanks to the exchange rates!

So what do they do? They start finding work at sites like RentACoder, ODesk, eLance and DigitalPoint. And that is where the things start going downhill.

When people think of outsourcing, they know that they are going to outsource but don’t know who to approach. So, they put their wanted ads on freelancer sites like RentACoder, ODesk and eLance. These are invariably small projects and not worth the time for bigger outsourcing firms, so they don’t see these ads. The kind of people who hangout here are the third variety i.e. the wannabes.

These people overestimate their skills and over-promise — just because they want the order at any cost — and the entrepreneur thinks that they have found the road to El Dorado. After all, they have just been promised the world for pennies.

But when it comes to delivering the results, these people just don’t have the ability to deliver them. So what do they do? They try to do everything to everything to avoid the client, keep their money and everything else that you read in these rants about outsourcing.

However, if I was to say that the above is the only reason for bad experiences then I’d be totally wrong. Another reason is when these people take more orders than they can handle. Sure, they have the skills and they proved it to you. But what they forget is that they only have 24 hours in a day.

So what do they do when they can’t deliver to the client? They just avoid them and that translates into bad experience for the client. And then all of a sudden another rant thread magically appears on one of the forums.

Am I saying that you can only find the worst of people on these sites? Absolutely NOT. There are some really wonderful people looking for work on these sites but they are very few in number. Finding them is like finding a needle in haystack. And most of the times they will not match the price of this ‘get the job at any cost’ crowd.

So how do you save money by outsourcing and still get great results? che1959 gave the best idea which is to have a manager who keeps the offshore staff motivated and focused on the task at hand.

However, managing remote teams is not so easy and to get the best performance you need to have a good understanding of local culture. You also need to get to understand your employees, which is not best done unless you meet them and interact with them face to face.

I am a big fan of the old saying — Where there is a problem, there is an opportunity.

For some time I’ve been promoting Outsourced Link-Building Services (Details - Temp Page). Some people offer these services as prices that it sometimes makes you think if they are using child labour from the slums.

Now I cannot match these people in price but one thing which I totally blast them at is providing quality services and an amazing experience to the client. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

How are we doing? Thankfully, each of my customer had nothing but great things to say about the service we provided to them.

And how can we consistently provide great service to hundreds of customers? Is it because I have brilliant people working for me who can pull such feats? Of course I have amazing people working for me but our secret sauce is our checklists and operations manual.

We ensure that things are done only in certain way to ensure the best quality services - always.

Seeing all these threads that keep popping up at these forums, I think it could be a great opportunity to expand into offering other services while providing great customer experience and amazing results.

Sure I will never be able to match the prices of others because I hire quality people and quality comes at a price. But I am sure that people are looking for the best value for their money rather than the cheapest labour they can find. Don’t you agree?

I’d love to hear what you will want us to do or avoid as an outsourcing solutions company. Feel free to post em in comments.

PS: If you want to try our Link Building Services for your website, email me at lord@lordbrar.com.

There is something really amazing about people around the world. They all look very different, have different colors and speak different languages.

But they have one starking similarity — their basic human nature. More so, they respond to the same psychological triggers, have same basic instincts and even indulge in same kind of politics.

That similarity reminds me of something. At some stage of life, one encounters someone who we label as Difficult. I know I’ve had more than my share of Difficult People to deal with.

The really wonderful thing about all these difficult people is that they suck every bit of productivity out of you and they never let you do things the way you’d want them to be done.

The easiest way to handle such situations is to either walk out of the situation or throw the difficult person out.

But it is always not so easy or just possible at all. So, what should you do in that situation and How to Deal With Difficult People? Read the rest of this entry »

If there is a marketing topic which generates some really hot debates then it is — Does Sex Sell. I wouldn’t get into the actual debate itself but rather give you two cases and let you decide for yourself.

Anne’s Experience: The last person I heard talking about it was Marketing Sherpa’s Anne Holland. According to some research they did on their website, and here is what they found –

In every single instance when a female face was above the fold on a homepage, both the male and female executives in our lab spent time looking at her. Men’s faces didn’t get nearly the same level of attention.

But is that a good thing? According to Anne, no it isn’t. And the reason is that you are getting their attention at wrong place.

In other words, yes, businesspeople, male and female, alike will absolutely look at a beautiful woman. But, that look could be distracting eyes from the copy and hotlinks more important to your business. So, you’re getting attention in the wrong place.

One B-to-B marketer actually tested the “does sex sell?” concept for a lead generation campaign MarketingSherpa gave an award to last year (see link below.) Results: a cheerful male model got 53% more responses than a beautiful female model.

Shoe’s Story: One of the better known Internet Marketers, Jeremy Shoemaker A.K.A ShoeMoney, did an experiment by comparing the results of a different strategy than what another Internet Marketer Andy Beal was doing.

Andy was running a contest offering people a chance to win a Microsoft Zune if they added him on an online community called MyBlogLog. Shoe, on the other hand, did nothing more than use the picture of a hot chick as as online avatar.

Results? On 7 Jan, Andy had 143 Members and ShoeMoney had 233 Members!

The above two examples clearly show that if you are looking for action response, then it may not be such a good strategy. However, as far as generating buzz is concerned, nothing can beat this strategy. =)