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Is your contractor still worth the price?

How to spot bloated vendor retainers and replace them with leaner, smarter options.

July 03, 2025

You’ve optimized your internal team. But what about your external team?

This week, we’re tackling a tough and often overdue topic:

Letting go of overpriced vendors, trade partners, and contractors.

Most owners wait far too long to act. Resulting in bleeding cash on outdated retainers, slow subs, and marketing teams charging 2021 rates in a 2025 world.

Let’s fix that.

The Two Categories of Outside Help

We break it down like this:

  • Office-Based Contractors: marketing teams, branding agencies, software tools, admin services

  • Field-Based Trade Partners: subcontractors, suppliers, material vendors

Let’s tackle both.

Office-Based: Most Overhead Bloat Lives Here

This is where most owners get burned.

Why? Because many office-based vendors haven’t updated their pricing or methods even though AI and virtual assistants have changed the game.

You no longer need to pay $3,000/month to get a newsletter written or $90/hour for design work. Most of it is getting pushed through LLMs or overseas talent anyway.

Here’s what to ask yourself:

  • Is this contractor actually driving results or just doing tasks?

  • Would I hire them today at their current price?

  • Can their output be done cheaper with AI or offshore teams?

  • Are they using modern tools or pricing like it’s still 2021?

💡 Want our contractor audit checklist or SOPs for managing overseas teams? Email us here and we’ll send it over.

Watch Out for “Country Club Contractors”

They tend to check a few boxes:

  • High retainers with no clear ROI

  • Poor responsiveness, missed deadlines

  • Overly complex metrics they can’t explain

  • Services easily replaced by AI + VA + SOPs

Some examples we’ve seen:

  • $3,000/month to send newsletters

  • $5,000/month for generic ad campaigns with zero clarity

  • $2,500 for Instagram visuals run through Canva or Midjourney

You don’t need to cut corners but you do need to cut fat.

We’ve seen success with leaner, tech-savvy teams like:

Field-Based Partners: Sub Trades and Suppliers

Don’t assume your subs are priced right just because you’ve used them for years.

Ask:

  • Would I hire them today at this price and pace?

  • Are they still aligned with our quality and urgency standards?

  • Do they price like they have a monopoly?

  • If I got a second quote… would they panic?

We also recommend a Contractor Partnership Agreement, something you can use to realign expectations on pricing, performance, and accountability.

📩 Want our Contractor Partnership Agreement Template? Reply and we’ll send it.

The Bottom Line: Your Org Chart Is Changing

AI and offshore labor aren't "the future." They're now.

It’s time to:

  • Audit every retainer and contract

  • Replace bloat with lean, tech-powered alternatives

  • Free up capital for growth, not inefficiency

Ready to Make the Shift?

We’ll help you:

  • Audit your contractors + vendors for ROI

  • Identify leaner alternatives using AI + VA support

  • Restructure agreements to reflect today’s market

Next week: we’ll look at how to rebuild your org chart for 2025 using AI, SOPs, and VAs.

Forward always,

Paul Atherton

CEO and Co-Founder of Highspire