I am not a vending machine.

Talking to a colleague of mine today, I found that portions of her regular work were being taken from her and given instead to a lower priced, less skilled independent contractor.

Of course when this less skilled independent contractor needed help, she called my colleague at 9:15pm to ask “just a quick question” – which only takes ten minutes to answer – but does she bill for it?

Ok, that’s totally a trick question, because it doesn’t matter if she bills for it…here’s why….

Even if she does bill for the ten minutes, what’s that answer worth to the client? Sure it only takes 10 minutes to answer for someone with the years of experience to have that answer quickly, but an unskilled contractor would have taken…how long…to answer the same question?

So the client, it seems, is attempting to utilize the best of both worlds. The experience of one VA at the price of another.

This is a “Vending Machine” philosophy. Find the service at the best price and buy it. If you need a higher skillset you give that to a higher-priced worker and then give out everything else to the cheaper one with a lifeline (phone number & email) to the more experienced contractor for questions.

While this seems like a great, low cost plan, it’s really disrespectful to everyone involved. Including the client in question.

When you treat your contractor like a vending machine, seeing them as only something to give money to in order to produce a product for your business, you’re risking being left for a more loyal client…left only with a low-skilled contractor that has no one to ask questions of – which means they have to find the answers alone – and charge you for that time.

If someone costs half as much, but takes twice as long to do the job AND you have to take more of your time to look it over because you know it’s being done by someone that is unsure…what’s that worth to you?