Unreliable People - How do YOU deal with them?

Hi!

I hate when i pay for services, people, freelancers etc. and they just plain unreliable. I guess its not that big of a deal when you are only running businesses on the side and have a steady income from an offline job. But when you are self employed 100% and you know that when that kind of service doesn't work then your business won't operate well or won't work at all. I mean , we are relying on those people because they offer us a service that will give us a paycheck at the end of the month..

Recently i've been having tons of problems with certain providers, so either they do not respond at all, they just offer a shitty service that gets worse day by day or they are just plain unreliable people.

My question to you is:

1) How do you deal with unreliable people?
2) Do you give second chances? How many chances until you move onto something new?
3) Where the hell are the reliable people that wanna bring value to your life instead of getting your cash and returning any favor?

Curious to hear some answers!

best regards

1. I try to be patient at first, because I've been a freelancer and know how it is to be overwhelmed with work. Set clear rules.
2. I give second chances. Depending on the communication. If they keep being unresponsive, however, I have to cut them loose.
3. My next step towards finding reliable people is to hire in-house. Some VAs are reliable but many times they become unreliable too, or disappear.

In my opinion, it really depends on who the person is or what kind of job the service is performing. For example, if you have an unreliable business partner, that’s not great. However, if the business partner is also a friend, you have to give them some leeway. As for services or employees, if the end result ends up great, I’m pretty much fine with whatever. So I guess I’m second chance central over here. As the first commenter said, you have to be patient sometimes.

Giving second chance also depends on the volume of the order. If the service ordered was expensive, it is hard to digest further chances.

Heiko said:

1) How do you deal with unreliable people?

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I ditch them.

Heiko said:

2) Do you give second chances? How many chances until you move onto something new?

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No second chances, unless they've been unreliable because of legit circumstances (provided that they were reliable before, of course)

Heiko said:

3) Where the hell are the reliable people that wanna bring value to your life instead of getting your cash and returning any favor?

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They're everywhere, but you need to be strict with your vetting process.

You have to be clear with them. Told them that you are not satisfied with that. Actually, all the providers I worked with are good.

On the other side, and as I'm also a service provider, when there is such problem. Let's say we finished the work late (after one day from the right time). I always ask the buyer if he want a bonus or something like that to make sure he is happy.

If the sellers you're buying from are just asking for money without bringing any value, so it's a bad service. Try to test new sources.

You have 2 steps that you can take:
1. Move on to new people, if the old ones are unreliable with schedules then expect them to be unreliable with the output as well, in the long run it is only going to damage your business
2. Time to scale up and hire your own in house staff to do the grunt work. Train them and put them to use, much beneficial than getting freelancers online. Major advantage is you can realign them for some other work when they are free. Disadvantage is you got to pay them even when you don't have work to give

I would have taken a different method as well which is to hire a fulltime VA but paid only on hourly basis, there are few providers here in BHW itself

0 tolerance towards "the weakest link" I have failed repeatedly, lost clients lost business lost a shit ton of money. In these last week a 400K client due to a C level being completely incompetent.

I include myself in this, I have made mistakes but I can learn from them and move on, team members and consultants do not give a shit about your business and why should they, its just a job.

hire 1 brilliant manager under you, pay them more than you should, out-souce everything else, all tasks broken down to idiot level and have your manager churn through freelancers, if you can afford it find a reliable BPO so you can run a scable business without having to deal with people which are, in my experience all shit.

I wasted years before I came to this conclusion.

I never ever rely on just 1 freelancer. It's a sauce for disaster
Usually, before I hire for a project, I create a couple of questions form and asking them some generic questions, I send it to at least 10-20 VAs at Upwork/Freelancer, People who answer with less than 10 words are recognized as lazy asses - 70% out. Now I have 30% that are more trustworthy.

Some great answers here. Thanks all.

GoTRooT said:

I include myself in this, I have made mistakes but I can learn from them and move on, team members and consultants do not give a shit about your business and why should they, its just a job.

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Totally get that, i think the important part is to learn from mistakes and not take them as a failure for the person you are.

Xsesonit said:

I never ever rely on just 1 freelancer. It's a sauce for disaster
Usually, before I hire for a project, I create a couple of questions form and asking them some generic questions, I send it to at least 10-20 VAs at Upwork/Freelancer, People who answer with less than 10 words are recognized as lazy asses - 70% out. Now I have 30% that are more trustworthy.

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Never thought about that, thats awesome! Do you ask general questions or questions that match the field of the project (like SEO Questions for a SEO Project?)

Only pay a % upfront and the rest on milestones. If the work is crap, or I get crap excuses I cut. No second chances, there are plenty of people who need the work and I don't need the agro.

At first, offer a second chance. If they fail you again, cut ruthlessly. Too many people take advantage of leniency.

Don't start doing business with friends. If you do succesfull business with a stranger and you think you can trust them with your friendship then you can try going further.
Don't do anything with unreliable people, avoid them as much as you can.
No second chances, i've done it too much times with regrets later.
Reliable people? Rara avis )