Knowing When To Pay For Critical Information
I’m starting my first software development project this week. I’ve never managed a project like this or even hired a technical freelancer before. There’s a lot I don’t know, and I know it.
In order to try to make this project a success, I do 3 things before beginning…
First, I do some online research, learning the basics of how a project like this works.
Second, I write up a plan for how I expect the project to go. Detailed requirements, budget, and timeline.
Third, I pay a few full-time developers a little money for ‘mission critical’ feedback on my project.
If the project is important enough to do steps 1 and 2, you’d better do step 3 as well. This review of your finalized mission plan doesn’t need to cost more than $20, or take more than 5-10 minutes of the expert’s time.
Failing to get feedback on my plans from experts is one of the key reasons I’ve wasted hours, days, weeks and months of my life.
Getting confirmation before beginning a project also gives you incredible peace of mind. You feel good about the project when 3 subject experts tell you, “This will work.”
Avoid The “It’s Too Expensive” Trap – I’ll mention this mental ‘trap’ because I feel it before I offer to pay an expert for feedback. It’s not a ‘necessary’ expense, so I don’t want to pay for it. Now I know, this is a mental trap. It is not too expensive. If you’re about to spend $2,000 on a project, $20 to have an expert review it for glaring problems isn’t spending money, it’s saving money. Usually, this feedback will be a negligible 1% of the project cost or less, and it might even be free if the subject matter expert is a friend, or doesn’t mind doing it for free because you respect their time and offered to pay them something.
If you want to ask someone to review your project, here is a template message you can use.
Hi (Their Name),
Can I pay you $20 to look at this document/contract/budget and tell me if you see any big mistakes I need to fix? (Just 5 minutes.)
Do you have PayPal? I can send you the money right away.
Thank you, I know you’re busy,
(Your Name)
Attach the document to this email.
Ask for they’re PayPal and send the document in the same initial outreach email. If they’re willing to help, it will take them just 5-10 minutes to complete the review. It doesn’t require any back-and-forth conversation and it takes them almost as long to help you as it does to say, “No.”
Because you are offering to compensate them (it is clear you value their time and aren’t trying to simply take it) and because it’s clear that the work will take just a few minutes, many people will help you with a review and not even request that you send them a payment.
Final Note: Do not share your project specs with anyone who may be a competitor of yours. They may be an expert, but if they may compete with you then that’s not the expert you want to hand your master plan.