Hi Kathy, These are terrific questions. I've been there myself as a former copywriter and current small business marketing coach/consultant. Here are a few of the things I do...

1) Make time to meet in person or chat on the phone. Let them know what you do best and the types of clients and projects you prefer, and ask them for the same. You want to find out if you share the same philosophy and ideal client.

2) Ask them to send you samples of their work and/or case studies and testimonials. Look these over (along with their Website), and also take note of how long it takes them to send what they promised.

3) Ask for references, then call those folks and find out how the experience of working with them was, what they feel are that provider's strengths and weaknesses, and what the results were from the work that was done (ideally you want hard numbers like increases in sales or decreases in costs).

4) Hire them to work on a project for your business, or do a trade. That way you can assess their working style firsthand. You'll be amazed at how many people drop the ball, and thankful it didn't happen to a client you referred to them.

Do these four things and you should be in pretty good shape.

Best of luck!

Stacy

Kathy, I agree with all the above advice that Stacy gave you.

And, I also recommend that you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your potential collaborators (as well as your own).

That way, you can better understand if you're a good complement to one another.

I use technology that enables me to actually measure one's "Net Talent," which is the strength of one's strengths, impacted by the strength of one's blockers.

I've used this with many entrepreneurs.

Email me if you would like more info.