Hire Freelance Designers
I’ve been running a solo design business for a few years now. I find that it is an even mix of the different types of clients you can expect to find. You get a lot of startups and new businesses, while established businesses come along every now and then. One thing that I noticed is that more established businesses tend to lean on design firms and multi-person outfits. The goal of this post is two-fold. I want to explore the advantages of hiring an independent freelance designer over a big firm. Also, this can also be a reference for independent freelance designers to refer potential clients to
Why Would An Established Business Hire a Freelance Designer?
When I really thought about it, there are a lot of reasons why more businesses should hire Solo Freelance designers. I am a one man show, and I am productive enough to handle 2-4 people’s work on my own. Let’s explore some of the advantages of hiring a freelance designer.
No Overhead
Freelance designers don’t have the overhead that big design firms have. They don’t have to rent a huge office that can accommodate an entire team. They’ll have an entire office to order supplies for or salaries to pay. There’s no office manager, or the need for multiple software licenses. This means that the cost of hiring a solo freelance designer is much less than hiring an entire design firm. Their business doesn’t cost as much to run, which means they can pass the savings on to your business.
More Personal interaction
Freelancers work with you one on one. This means that you will end up speaking to a different person depending on what day it is. You can work closely with the designer, which ensures that everybody is on the same page. Projects are handed off to different team members, or delegated across an entire team.
Freelancers need you
A design firm may have dozens of clients, or even more depending on how large they are. Their employees may see their job as just means to pay the bills and nothing more. They may not have your business’s best interest in mind, meaning that you may not be getting the best service. I’m not saying that every design firm is like this, but to an individual freelance designer, you’re not just another number. A solo designer may live on the income of your project, depending on its size, for a few months. I design firm may have clients constantly knocking at your door.
Their efforts are focused
When you hire a solo freelance designer, all of their efforts are focused on delivering your project on time and within the budget. You don’t have a bunch of different people, with different interpretations, working on your project. That freelance designer will work on your project from start to finish, seeing it through to the end.
The experience is more consistent
When you hire a freelance designer, they are either good at what they do, or they’re not. You can assess as easily because it’s only one person. However, it can be more difficult to assess and predict the outcome of your experience when working with an entire team. If your project is ongoing, you know that your project will be handled properly. When a team handles your project, you may get different designers at different skill levels working on different parts of your project. Some parts of the project may be good, while other areas are mediocre or lacking.
Conclusion
It’s important to weigh out your options before dismissing the idea of hiring a solo freelance designer over a design firm. There are many benefits to hiring just one person instead of an entire team. You have to assess the needs of your business and whether or not one person can fulfill them. If not, then you may have to hire an entire team to handle your project.
