A certain someone named b left a comment with an excellent question in the activeCollab post from a while ago, and I thought it’s most appropriate to address it with a post, since I think it is an important issue a lot of the companies handle wrongly and make a big deal out of.

Here’s the question:

Do you guys outsource any work? If so, how do you handle the clients seeing other companies associated with the project? Do you just associate any contractors with your company (so as not to promote other companies)? Link to the comment

First of all, yes, we do outsource work. We state very openly that we are a Web design company, that we don’t employ programmers, and that we have partners and associates. However, from time to time, clients want us to handle the entire deal and sometimes we’re happy to accept that kind of responsibility.

We think it is very important that a service provider such as ourselves doesn’t hold out anything from the client. We certainly wouldn’t want clients holding out relevant information on the project from us. It’s a “do onto others” kind of thing, right.

The important thing is that you and your clients have an open relationship (they are not your girlfriends), and that you try to get the message across that you want what’s best for them and the project. If you are a design firm, or a freelance designer, make sure they know you don’t have programmers or SEO experts on staff, and if they still want you to take care of that side of the deal, make sure they know and are OK with it being handled by a third party.

Another important thing are the finances. Don’t cut into the contractor’s rate, it’s a bad practice, people need to make a living, and just because they are brought in as subcontractors or freelancers, or whatever, doesn’t mean you are free to lower their rates. The way to go is to present the client with their quote included (if applicable) and add a project management fee on top, to compensate for the extra time you’ll be putting in having to keep things together, keep track of who’s doing what, and do what PMs usually do.

So, bottom line is — don’t bullshit people, it will look bad if it comes out, and hiding things from your clients and partners is sleazy. It is not a bad thing you or your small company is not doing full service, on the contrary. So next time, our suggestion is to man up, tell the client someone else, with more experience and expertise will handle the certain part of the job, so you can focus on doing your part right — the part that they hired you in the first place for.