With only twenty-four hours in a day—and yes, let’s face it, some of those hours should be spent sleeping—it can be difficult as an entrepreneur to juggle all the tasks of managing your business. Especially nowadays, with everything going virtual. Sometimes, in order to keep up with the market, it’s best to outsource jobs you don’t have time to do on your own.
Optimizing your business for success in the ecommerce world requires the right combination of business strategy and online expertise. This is why it’s a smart move to hire an ecommerce expert to handle the online side of things for you. But when looking through options of ecommerce gurus to develop your online marketing strategy, it’s critical that you find the right one for the job.
So where do you start looking? How do you know which expert is right for your business? And what on Earth is a wireframe?
These simple guidelines will help you as you begin the process of finding and hiring the right ecommerce expert for your business. By the end of this article, you should feel much more capable launching your business into the world of ecommerce.
Guidelines to Hiring eCommerce Expert
Start by Prepping Your Business
As with any major endeavor, you need to begin by doing a little preparation work. Take stock of your business. Identify all immediate company needs, and determine which part of your team will benefit the most from adding an extra set of hands. Consider everything with scrutiny, down to your weekly routine.
It’s important to be aware of your acute “problem areas” before consulting an ecommerce expert. So brainstorm any and all of your company’s issues, even if solutions to your problems seem unrealistic or unattainable. The right ecommerce expert will be able to find the solutions for you, no matter the size of the problem.
Consider Your Budget
Ecommerce experts don’t work for free. So whether you’re the owner of a small startup business or a well-established company with a reputable brand, you are going to need to make room in the budget if you want to hire someone to run your Shopify store.
In fact, you may want to take time beforehand and develop a solid plan for investing in your business. Make sure you know all the ins and outs of your company’s finances, including how much you pay yourself, how much you pay your employees, and what proportion of your finances you need to prioritize for other commitments. As soon as you have all of that figured out, you will know exactly how much to allocate toward hiring an ecommerce expert, and whether to do it through full-time employment or contract work.
Ask for Referrals
Now that you know an ecommerce expert is what your business needs, and you know you have the budget to hire one, it’s time to begin looking for the right candidate to hire on for your business. A great way to start is by asking around for referrals. Do you have friends, or business colleagues who have had experience hiring an ecommerce expert in the past? Chances are, what worked for them will work for you too.
Indeed, referrals are one of the most common ways entrepreneurs connect with expert teams. But remember, just because someone is highly recommended doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your own investigating into their credentials. Take a look through every candidates’ portfolio, past websites, and overall online presence. After all, whoever you hire will soon be the one managing your company’s online presence as well. Make sure that the quality of their past work aligns with the quality you envision for your own ecommerce store.
Interview for the Right Fit
We really cannot stress enough how important it is to find the right fit before hiring someone for this role. In addition to possessing the right qualities to fulfill your ecommerce expectations, you also need to make sure that the expert you hire is someone who works well with you. So even if you aren’t able to meet face-to-face for an interview, at least call and schedule a phone interview before hiring an agency or freelancer.
Keep in mind: While you’re interviewing them, ecommerce experts are also interviewing you for the right fit too. They don’t want to work with someone they don’t like any more than you do. So make sure to maintain professionalism and honesty throughout all of your interviews. On the other hand, be wary of unrealistic guarantees from experts. You should expect them to promise reasonable deadlines and deliverables, but any grandiose promise for stellar results should be taken as a red flag.
Prioritize Communication
Good communication is the key to keep a project running smoothly, so don’t take it for granted. It’s crucial that both sides are able to demonstrate efficient communication. Right from the start, the ecommerce expert that you hire should be able to give you an idea of what to expect from them throughout the process, from monthly milestones to weekly deadlines.
Meanwhile, be prepared to offer feedback at every stage. Even if you feel that you don’t possess the technical know-how to communicate effectively, try to express feedback through visual examples, like screenshots or websites you want yours to look like. Sometimes, if you don’t know how to communicate a technical function with words, it’s easier to just show an expert what you mean with an example on your phone.
Staying up-to-date in the software industry is a full-time job. And developing a successful marketing strategy for your ecommerce business can be a challenge. That’s why many companies turn to business partners like KitelyTech, INC. for assistance. At KitelyTech, INC., we work with companies to develop and implement new software solutions, marketing strategies, and more. Call us at (800) 274-2908 to discuss your business’s software needs and find out how we can help.
