Vendors Make the Dream Work
According to Indeed, creating an established relationship with a vendor to help provide your products or services will allow you to reduce overall expenses and increase profitability in your business.
1099 contractors are everywhere these days because everyone wants to be a business owner with a flexible schedule. Stated in an article from Forbes, Florida, Georgia and Vermont have the highest rates of self-employment of any states, and 44 million workers—or 28.2%—were self-employed at some point during any given week in 2019.
A question we get a lot is, “Do you use independent contractors?”
Our clients want to know exactly who will be working on their project.
They sit across from the business development rep, and they build their trust in who they choose to have on their project, but clients raise a brow with too many 1099 contractors at play. So, what’s the issue?
We have W2 employees as well as 1099 contractors on our team. The hands-on, customer-facing, detail-oriented, round-the-clock, all-hands-on-deck for all projects team members are our W2 employees. But many times, we need an expert. Someone with experience who brings a specialized skill set to the table. This is generally videography, website development, content writing, or high-level strategy/stakeholder interviews. These 1099 contractors are elite level, with 20+ years of experience and would cost well over six figures as a W2 employee. We harness their skills for our clients when we need them, not when we don’t.
Our 1099 contractors are selected through an extensive vetting process and undergo a 90-day trial before they are integrated fully with the team receiving their own email address under The Edge Agency. That’s right. You would never know our vendors are 1099 contractors from the outside looking in. And that’s how we want it. Unlike a lot of agencies, we are very picky about our vendor partners and want to ensure that they care about your clients the same way we do. If one of us fails, we all fail, and that is how our vendor partners approach this relationship. We lock arms together so we do not let the client down. We present our team as a united front to our client because we ARE a united front. Our vendors attend our vendor calls/weekly meetings, undergo our schedule and deadline, and use our project management system. Our 1099 contractors are business owners who treat their business like a business, and because of this, they bring an exceptional level of professionalism to the table.
At the end of the day, we couldn’t do what we do without them.
We want the best.
We vet well.
We integrate as a team.
We can serve our clients better because of these strategically placed team members.
Honestly, you wouldn’t want to do what you do without them either. Together, we are stronger, which means your results are better.
So, as a client, don’t let 1099 contractors deter you. It’s quite common in the agency world to act as a consultant and manage a smorgasbord of vendors to bring all the creative pieces together. One person just can’t do it all. It takes a village.
At The Edge Agency, we take pride in finding the right people and putting them in the right roles/places/projects/accounts so they shine and make us look better, and in turn, make you look better.
Our reputation is everything, and we wouldn’t risk it for anything. So, if we choose to use a 1099 contractor, trust us — it’s adding value. It’s making us better and serving our clients better, and we know that if we want to go far, we go together and we’re hiring great people and getting out of their way.
