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As a small business owner myself, this resonates. I would love to be in a position to be able to confidently pay money to other professionals to make problems g
by qrohlf 4y ago
As a small business owner myself, this resonates. I would love to be in a position to be able to confidently pay money to other professionals to make problems go away.
Unfortunately, my overall experience has been that hiring any “expert” in a field that I am not also an expert in has a 50% chance of working, and a 50% chance of blowing up in my face and creating more problems.
I recently attempted to get a new accountant to help me handle some business growth. It was a person from a well regarded local firm, initial meetings were good, and then they proceeded to deliver none of the agreed-upon work, take 2-3 weeks to respond to emails (multiple times, I had to call their office and schedule an in-person meeting just to get a response), and then de-prioritize my business relative to other clients so badly that I wasn’t able to submit my taxes until June.
If anyone can successfully build a service that lets me reliably pick professional-services providers with the same level of confidence that I pick an AirBnb (not 100%, but pretty good, with an expectation for reasonable mediation and fallback coverage if the offering is radically different than what’s described), I would happily pay a 20% premium on those services versus the existing “ask friends for referrals and cross your fingers” status quo.
- soco 4y agoUpwork? I have okay experiences with people there - not perfect but in range with your stated confidence levels.
- JamesAdir 4y agoAs someone who have been on both sides of the table I can completely resonate with your statements. But I think that there is an expectation by small business owners that every expert will completely understand their business and will deliver exceptional results from day 1. So I think there should be some learning curve with very clear results expected on each and every step.
- wruza 4y agoIs answering email at least this week exceptional? What learning curve a small business accountant has even? It’s not a factory with amortizing equipment, worker schedules, rolling production and distribution of expenses. I work with accountants all my life, and for small businesses it’s a matter of loading contracts, bank statements, invoices and salaries into an app, sorting expenses by legal category and that’s it. There is nothing to learn in a small business accounting, it is entry-level for this job title.
- massysett 4y agoIf it’s anything like the market for home services, the middleman service will be even worse than dealing with vendors directly: a middleman adding a layer of indirection but little value.
- bitexploder 4y agoDepends on how much work you are having done. On a remodel you need a GC unless you have a lot of time and expertise to hire all the trades and such yourself. They really do provide value.
- golergka 4y agoI've used marketplace apps for home services, and just as airbnb, the results were often stellar and always at least pretty good.
- danjac 4y agoIs this an example of the Market for Lemons? If I hire a developer I have a pretty good idea what to look for (and to a lesser degree, a designer, as I have worked with enough designers to know how the good ones work). But I would have no idea what makes for a good accountant or corporate lawyer or plumber, so would need to depend on referrals and a certain amount of blind trust.
- rsb1 4y agoI am building this for M&A and investor due diligence. DueDilio is an online managed marketplace focused on due diligence. We connect business buyers, sellers, intermediaries, and private investors with pre-vetted due diligence service providers. Our large and growing network of verified independent professionals, boutique, and mid-size firms specialize in finance, legal, technology, commercial, and other key areas of business diligence. We've connected clients with accountants previously with good results. Our website is www.duedilio.com
- gooooer 4y agohttps://www.angi.com/ https://www.angi.com/