---> Criterion: The OSP Should Be Web-Savvy Check if OSP has a website. If they do not, in all probability dealing with them will yield a bad experience. If they have a website, check whether their postal address and telephone number are displayed on it so that they are physically reachable.

Give OSP credit if website has mostly text with limited graphics, has almost no animation, clearly explains what OSP is doing and is easy to navigate. This implies detailed knowledge on website design, which increases their ‘web-savvy’ rating.

Your CAD outsourcing is most probably going to involve transferring large amounts of data over web. This calls for an OSP who is proficient with email. To evaluate this, send OSP a message asking for more information and see if you get a response within 12 hours. The response should be perfectly focused on your question. You have to be careful an autoresponder (ie, a web-based answering machine) is not replying to you, so formulate your question to require a tailor-made reply.

Subsequently send two more questions related to work you are considering giving OSP. Check whether these responses too are timely and relevant. If OSP has a form on their website for sending them email, give them extra points (smart webmasters do not put their email addresses on their websites to discourage spam robots from finding addresses and sending junk mail to them).

---> Criterion: The OSP Should Have a Satisfactory Profile

Maybe they're stuck in past. Maybe they're blind to facts. Or maybe they just don't want to change.

Whatever their reason for failing to deliver practical, real-world tools and systems that support your entrepreneurial growth, I can assure you that it's rooted in fact that these so-called experts don't recognize that there's a new business paradigm that has emerged — one that’s being defined by small-business owners.

(As big and dominant as they were, dinosaurs are no longer with us. I wonder if dinosaurs ever thought they'd become extinct.) For far too long, "big business" has received way too much attention from media, educational institutions, and training companies. According to data compiled by SBA, small businesses employ more than 50% of nation's nearly 111-million employees, and a staggering 99.7% of businesses in US are classified by SBA as "Small."

Yet, vast majority of trainings, workshops, and educational programs meant to help you grow your business still remain focused on traditional big-business "sheep-herding" model — with all its rigid idea-smashing, momentum-crushing baggage.

As a business owner, if you want to win big in this Marketplace of New Millennium, you'll need to attract, retain, and build relationships with your clients in a brand new way.

But to do that, you need a better way to grow and optimize your business than how "old guard" would have you think.

As an entrepreneur, you need an effective, yet flexible, approach to growth using YOUR system as THE system — not big-business "sheep-herding" model.

Here's what I mean …

Traditional education, average consultant, and most business development gurus all tout a highly regimented approach to growing a classical “top down” business. Like a massive ship steaming toward an iceberg, they find it nearly impossible to change course and adapt to fast, flexible structure of today’s small businesses.

And much like Titanic, they have challenge of momentum, ego of "expert" leadership, and tainted judgment about profitability because THEIR model for making money doesn’t match what really works for average small-business owner.