Last month, I told you that officials in Minnesota had pulled the license of Reaching Arms International, an adoption agency that had been working in Russia and Guatemala, among other countries.

This morning, an online news site for Minneapolis that is part of the same media group as New York City's Village Voice and the Seattle Weekly has an extensive report on what went wrong at Reaching Arms.

The 4,390-word story in City Pages chronicles the experiences of several families who became involved with the agency as it started to unravel. The reporter says that Reaching Arms placed as many as 900 children from Russia between 1995 and 2005, which sounds high for an agency of its size. I wished that she had interviewed some of those early families, because it seems from the story that Reaching Arms' downfall began when it started to expand beyond Russia in early 2005. Were the early families' experiences similar to those of prospective parents in the last two years?

Reaching Arms was the creation of Nila Neumiller Hilton. The reporter characterizes her as a devout woman, on a mission to help Russian children. But I saw a parallel between Hilton's operation and the many start-up companies I have covered in the last two decades: An entrepreneurial sense of mission is simply not enough. Without solid operational skills and a continued attention to the core product, the venture is doomed to failure. And that's especially true when the venture is in a tumultuous market, which Russian adoptions certainly have been in the last five years.

The City Pages piece does contain a few clunkers, like saying that "Eastern European orphans are at high risk for retardation". But reading it can help you develop your own checklist of how to spot--and hopefully avoid--a problem agency of your own:

Is your agency big enough for the job? Reaching Arms wanted to help children in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Poland and Guatemala. It also accepted money for an adoption in Kenya, a country in which it was not authorized to work. It is far better for an agency to do one thing well than many things poorly, especially if it has a small staff.

Is your agency clear about fees? The City Pages story makes it seem as if fees at Reaching Arms shifted like the sands of the Sahara. You should get a complete statement of fees up front, and the bulk of the fees should not be due until the adoption nears its completion.

Is your agency setting requirements over and above what the country you are adopting from requires? Reaching Arms clients were made to attend spiritual and psychological counseling sessions.

Is your agency treating you like a valued client? City Pages relates incidents of Nila Hilton berating prospective parents and then implying that their anger would be noted on their home studies. Your questions should be answered courteously and promptly.

And finally, never, ever feel that you can't pull the plug on an agency. You need a good partner in a successful adoption, and if yours isn't, find one that is.