What to look for when hiring a freelance graphic designer or small design company
More and more businesses are turning to freelancers and small local design agencies as a resource for ad-hoc work or even more on-going long term projects as a way to cut costs. Freelancers and small agencies offer a great mix of highly skilled services, flexibility and cost saving for companies and they are in ever more demand.
Why use a freelancer or small local agency?
As well as having a designer or small agency talent pool at your disposal far larger than you would ever hire as a permanent team, freelancers also offer a great cost saving to clients. By hiring resource just for the time you need them you can have access to an employee who would otherwise cost a handsome amount per year for just a few days a week or a few weeks a year. The control is firmly with the company to pick and choose who they need for which project and how long they want to hire them for. Just paying for the days they use makes freelancers and small agencies a cost effective way of bring in skilled senior staff at the drop of a hat for just the time they are needed.
Why a freelance designer or small agency rather than a fulltime employee?
Your full time employee would need to have all the expertise of every design skill on the market to a very high level, also the employer would also need to be sure they needed such a designer for the next few years on a full time basis. Paying holiday pay, sick leave, NI, benefits and possibly training up their new member of staff will take time and money where a series of short term contract freelancers or small design agency, each specialising in the area needed at the time, could be more cost effective and have a lot less financial commitment from the company – leaving their budget free for other pursuits.
How to choose a freelance designer or small design agency:
Recommendations- One way to find a designer or agency is to get recommendations from friends and colleagues – see who they have worked with before and why they employed the company. Be wary of comments such as ‘My brother needs work, he did a logo for me once…’ and ensure you stick to references which hold water, ask to see samples of their work, ask their rates and see if they were hired more than once.
Look online – A good freelance designer or small design company will have a professional, well designed site. If their website looks as if it were free or you could have done better in MS Word – be wary. However, if they have a professional impressive site and resume as well as a list of skills matching your requirements, you may be onto a winner.
Check Twitter- A lot of designers and design companies are on Twitter – see if you can find the company you are considering online and see what they are saying. Are they positive? Enthusiastic and seem to have a lot of work? Or are they unprofessional, complain about clients publicly and spend their time online asking for jobs from their contacts? See if they are someone you would be happy to hire and if their site matches their online commentary.
Give them a call and bring them in for an meeting- You should always talk to your potential freelance designers or small agencies before hiring them. Give them a call and talk about your project and their experience. If they sound like they are appropriate for the job, bring them in for an informal coffee to go through the details of their career and your requirements. Any freelancer or small design agency worth their salt will be happy to do this and understand you need to be sure they are the right fit before hiring.
Get a free quote- quotes should always be free, and always be detailed. Be wary of generic quotes and ask for one tailored to your specific project and needs. Ensure the quote is accurate and you understand exactly what is included in the offer. If asking for a day rate – ensure you know how many hours are included, the cost of overtime and if there is a discount for block booking out a certain number of days. Often there will be a price break for buying a large number of days in advance which can save you money overall as well as ensure you have enough time held aside for your project as you need.
Are their prices too high or low? – The more senior the designer or niche the skill the more you would expect to pay the company. Be wary of providers offering ridiculously low rates and promising professional results. Either they plan to spend very little time on the work, are very junior, are desperate for work or perhaps are using cheap outsourced offshore companies to produce their work rather than completing it themselves. Equally, be wary of designers who claim to be senior and experts without any proof of their skills. Always check their portfolio and ask them about their working methods and past projects to check they are indeed responsible for the work they say they have completed.
So you found a design provider – how do you protect yourself throughout the project?
Are you hiring the company for a long set amount of time? – Consider putting together a contract if the work is long term with a notice period and requirements the freelance designer or design agency has to meet to continue the engagement.
Are you hiring your design provider for a large project? – Consider asking for the quote per milestone. This has the benefit of your being able to see what each aspect of the project costs, but also for you to pay up at any stage and move the rest of the work to another provider if necessary for either side.
Always ensure both sides understand what is required- Discuss all requirements and milestones especially key dates and deliverables with your designer. Ensure each party knows who is responsible for what aspects throughout. Ask your design company for a project plan you can both agree to and review it after each milestone.
After the project is complete – how to keep your favourite freelancers and design agencies coming back
Ask for the invoice when you sign off the project- Showing willing to pay invoices and being clear and prompt with sign off can really help strengthen the relationship between you and your design providers.
Pay on time – Always check the terms of the invoice and pay on time to show your design providers that you are professional and trustworthy. If for any reason you need to delay payment, get in touch with your provider as soon as possible. Many will offer extended terms, installment plans or forgo interest payments for an extended period if you get in touch early enough. Open communication and transparency will also mean your designers will come back for future work and help maintain your reputation in the industry.
Praise your designers and their companies - Have they done a great job? Would you hire them again? Let them know you are happy with the work and maybe add a recommendation for them on sites such as Linkedin to help strengthen your relationship. If you are really happy, offer to be part of a case-study for the designer’s company. As well as making the designer very happy – it means you now have someone else selling how great your company is online and spreading the word about your business. Your appreciation will rocket the designers opinion of you onto their favourite client list and ensure that they put you before anyone else asking for their services in future. Praise also works both ways, if you are a small business looking to build a good reputation online praising your employees will usually lead to praise in return.
These are just a few starting points – if you have any advice or experiences please feel free to comment below and join the discussion.
Related posts:
How to ensure projects go smoothly as a freelance designer
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[...] wrote a post a little while back which detailed some of the basics of how to choose a graphic design provider to work with as well as a post on how designers can run projects smoothly to give the [...]