As a business owner, you are faced with having to decide weather to hire a creative agency or a freelance artist when you have a new project to launch, say, a website or a print ad for your new product launching. Of course, working with freelancers and creative agencies both have their advantages, and the final decision will be yours, depending on your objectives and the kind of services you need to accomplish.
There are many businesses out there who do not consider the advantages of hiring a freelance artist or web designer to plan their new website or print ads, and instead are more comfortable in hiring a professional creative agency. They do not realize the potential of freelancers, and simply dismiss them as “unprofessional” or “amateurs.”
Here are a few reasons why you might consider hiring a freelance artist or web designer:
Save Money
This might be the most obvious reason. Especially for a small or medium-sized companies and start-ups, hiring a freelance artist or web designer can save you money. The average freelancer cost less than established agencies since they have less overheads, like an office space or a huge staff.
We’re (Almost) Always Available
Most freelancers work based on the project goals, rather than the 8-hours-a-day, 5-days-a-week schedule of their agency counterparts. This means, you have a better chance of pushing your project through more quickly, depending on the scale of your project.
Communication is also more direct, since you’re talking directly to the freelancer regarding your project. In agencies, you usually communicate to an account manager, who then passes your project requirements to the team leader, then to the actual artists and designers, and then backwards again.
Your Project is More Important To Freelancers
Agencies tend to operate with more clients, and prioritize work differently, based on the size of the client. Freelancers, on the other hand, tend to work from project to project. This means, yours will, more often than not, be the most important thing they’re working on.
Freelancers Have Networks (Too)
You might assume that one of the advantages of agencies over freelancers is that they have different people for different skills for your project. They have someone who specializes purely in web design, and another person who specializes in copywriting and SEO.
This, of course, is true; by hiring an agency, you’ll get enough resources to complete your project. But the cost of the project often reflects this.
However, freelancers have a counter on this notion – they have networks of contacts too. Freelancers often stick together and work together on projects purely on requirements, rather than keeping a number of staff members who rely on salary. This way, you’ll save a lot of money by paying only for the minimal that your project requires.
Hiring the Right Person with the Right Skill
Of course, your project will have specific requirements. When you hire an agency, they may have the specialization for these specific requirements, and if they don’t, they usually outsource it to freelancers. (Yes. Agencies rely on freelancers too!)
On the contrast, when you search for a freelancer, you have the opportunity to look for the right one with just the right skillset for your project’s specific requirements, to complete your project on time and, more importantly, on budget.