Closing the Deal
So you’ve made your short list, asked your questions, and assessed the feedback received. You’ve made your choice as to who you want to hire and you’re anxious to get going. Now what?
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BEST PRACTICES |
Unless the project is too small, it’s wisest to request milestones from your contractor. This gives both parties a time and payment schedule to work from.
Easy. In the bottom-right corner of the proposal summary box of the contractor you’ve chosen, click the big green Select button, as shown in Figure 12.4, and you’re on your way. You’ll be led through the simple process of completing your hire.
Figure 12.4: Use the Select button on the proposal summary to hire a contractor.
If you want to hire more than one contractor, simply do the same process all over again. Click Select for each contractor you want to hire for the project.
Both you and the contractor will be asked to confirm the terms and milestones. Once you both agree, click Submit (see Figure 12.5) and the project will be live.
Once you’ve both agreed to the conditions of the job, you can begin to work together. The terms and milestones can be changed, but again, both parties must agree. The system makes this all quite fluid and intuitive.
Figure 12.5: To finalize the hiring process, both sides must agree to the terms and milestones.
The Least You Need to Know
• Select your main hiring criteria before you begin reviewing proposals.
• Sort and rank your prospects as you go along.
• Post new public messages to update any information on your job post that will help prospective hires.
• Assessing proposals includes seeing if they listened to you as an individual, if they answered your questions, and if they have a firm grasp on what you want from the project.
• Proactively ask your short list candidates key questions and interview them over the phone or Skype.
• New contractors can be great prospective hires, but you may need to dig a little deeper in the question-and-answer process.