Just the other night I received an email inviting me to join a Provider Company on oDesk.

Regular readers may know that I have already decided that I like being an independent contractor, but I decided to open the email anyway.  It was an automated invitation saying that person ‘x’ had invited me to join company ‘y.’   Maybe it was someone who was overloaded with work who had a little extra to throw my way.

I didn’t recognize the name, so I decided to do a little digging.  Research never hurt anyone, at least not really, unless you count Marie Curie but that was different.

A little research showed me that the person was new to oDesk and despite no feedback and lower test scores than I have was charging significantly more per hour for the same kind of work.  I could see how I could benefit them, but I was still looking to see how this would benefit me.  I did a bit more research (beyond oDesk this time) and was able to find out some more about this person.

What I discovered told me that while they had the entrepreneurial spirit they didn’t have much of a publicly available track record.  I found multiple mentions of the person but never found any mention of clients.

Now one thing that’s important to remember with Provider Companies is that the company manager is responsible for payroll and they do it outside of oDesk.  oDesk pays the company account rather than the contractor.  From my perspective this was a big downside.  I would be losing oDesk’s payment guarantee and payment mechanisms and turning the earnings from any work done through this company over to someone I didn’t know.

I still could not see anything that would benefit me from this arrangement.

Most of my work already comes from long term clients and buyer invitations.  I don’t need someone else to ‘head-hunt’ for me.

I’ve been burned in the past by buyers when I worked on sites that did not have oDesk’s payment guarantee so I tend to be very cautious when dealing with anything except hourly work.  So having to turn my payment guarantee over to the company for any work done through the company doesn’t sit well with me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that provider companies or a bad idea or that no one should ever become an affiliate contractor.  Now that non-exclusivity is here I think it can be an excellent way for a new provider to get themselves into the system before branching off on their own.

My concern was with whether this particular company and invitation was a good idea for me.

It wasn’t.

My biggest problem was and still is that this person who approached me was and is a complete stranger.  I have no idea who they are beyond what I looked up online.  They could be a wonderful person, they could be a terrible person.

I don’t know.

In a world where everything depends on reputation I have no reason at all to tie mine to the whims of a complete stranger.  It’s not good business.

If becoming an affiliate contractor is something you want to do then go ahead and do it.

However, I strongly recommend that you approach it with at least as much care as you would a fixed-price job; because that’s what it is.

Take a look at the company.  See what kind of feedback it has and how many hours its providers have logged.  If it doesn’t have any feedback and no one has logged any hours with the company then it’s unlikely that it will be able to benefit you.

Contract law requires two things:  A “meeting of the minds” and an “exchange of value.”  There’s a lot more to it and I’m not a lawyer, but those will do for the basics.

The first part means that both parties need to understand and agree to the contract.

The second part means that contacts can’t be one sided.  They don’t have to be “fair,” but both sides do need to receive something of value.

This invitation failed on both counts.

Still, who knows, sometime I may find myself doing work with a provider company.  I just know which one it won’t be.

Additional News

Since I originally wrote this post a few more things have come to light that I felt I should share.

First, when I didn’t respond to the invitation I received another from the same source.  I haven’t responded to that one either.

Second, I came across this post on the oDesk Community from someone else who received the same invitation I did.  They accepted the invitation and now they want to know how to get out of it because they cannot see a benefit to them either.

Most of the members have no hours and no feedback; one of the few members who does have work experience on oDesk accepted the invitation in error.   Personally I would advise that people stay clear of this company until it builds up some history on oDesk.

Recommendations

I don’t normally do this but I would like to make some specific recommendations for how oDesk should handle the Provider Company invitation process.

First, I think it would be a good idea to include a decline link as well as an accept link in the invitation.  That way if a provider is not interested in the position they can let the originator know.

Second, I think it would also help to include someting akin to the interview process.  That way if a provider receives an invitation to a provider company they aren’t familiar with they have a way to ask some questions and see if they’re a good fit.

More communication options are always going to help any situation.

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