Starting up a graphic design company with all work outsourced - advice.

[TMAssets]

Good day all,

I am considering starting up a graphic design company and plan to outsource all design work. My intention was to register a company and work from home rather than lease an office space etc. I would effectively have no office and would prefer to keep all interaction with customers on an electronic basis - i.e. email or phone. Has anyone done anything like this? Does it/would it work? Do clients prefer to meet face-to-face to discuss their ideas? In not having an office and full-time staff I would be able to better deals to customers - i.e. charge less.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[KeithP]

The working from home bit is not a problem as it's rare that you'll need to meet Clients and if you do, you can always go to their premises or if absolutely necessary, hire a meeting room somewhere.

The bit I would say is questionable is that your only USP appears to be that you're going to be cheap. For that to work, you'll need a LOT of customers and the market for low-cost Designers online is already pretty saturated.

I think you'll need to come up with a much stronger USP or establish a niche market to make it work - sorry if that sounds harsh but with your idea, I suspect you'll struggle to make even a modest income.

 

[TMAssets]

Thanks for your reply. I should have mentioned that I am aware that this is a pretty saturated market and that there is a load of competition out there. I own some websites which have been making me some decent profits and I was looking to expand into graphic design as another source of income. I feel that, after having researched local graphic design companies, some of them are charging a fortune for quite simple logo design/web design with a limited number of revisions available - and the number of revisions to any project being dependent on which "package" a client buys. With this information in hand I decided that I could focus on offering a more valuable deal to a client by allowing them to make as many changes as they want at no extra cost.

 

[Keen2clean]

You will have to communicate over the telephone with customers, as working from email is sometime quite hard, when you are discussing ideas and changes to copy.

Would I be correct in thinking you are not a graphic designer and would not be designing yourself? i.e. you will be using your website to bring in the leads and will then subcontract out the design?

 

[TMAssets]

That is correct - I would gather the leads and pass them on to the freelance designers. I do have some knowledge on the subject, enough to be able to discuss with a client but my capabilities as a designer are not great.

 

[Keen2clean]

So your USP is your website?

 

[TMAssets]

This is still just an idea hence why I have posted this thread. My USP was going to be offering unlimited revisions for one price. Client commission's a design and at no extra cost he can make as many changes to a design until he is completely satisfied - which is something that is not offered at the local design companies I have researched. Though I guess due to the size of industry it becomes challenging to offer something truly unique hence why I would like to concentrate on customer satisfaction.

 

[Keen2clean]

Hi, i wasnt putting down your idea just trying to understand it better.

So, I come to you for some design work, you sub-contract this out, you take your cut, rest goes to the subby, 3 months later I want to change design slightly, will take maybe a couple of hours, who pays the sub contractor?

 

[TMAssets]

I have an agreement with a freelancer, a client can come back and request changes to his design and the freelance designer will execute these free of charge.

 

[Ola1]

So, how were you planning on beating elance.com, possibly the most famous meeting point for web property owners and free lance designers?

 

[serendipitybusiness]

I think you are going to have problems with this business if you are using a freelance graphic designer but not telling your client (even if you do tell your client) you will be responsible for the fulfillment of the project and your reputation as a brand.

I fear you may be grossly underestimating the design process and the attention needed. If you are sitting in the middle and not allowing direct discussion between your freelancer and the client, you need to have enough knowledge to handle the project and communicate the needs of both parties too each other. When it is a project you are responsible for, it is a mistake to just hand it over and hope your freelancer will do their job you need to manage the project and if you don't have experience in this you are going to have a steep learning curve here and you will most likely end up loosing money on some projects if you cost too cheap. You will also spend a lot of time firefighting.

Face time is wasted time in this business as a provider, you can handle a project from start to finish virtually in most cases easily and well (if managed correctly) which as you say does save the customer money in the long run. This is how I try to work as onsite face to face client liaisons take a lot of time out of the day, you tend to achieve less and it affects your productivity dramatically. However clients like that face to face time, it is a trust building thing and with visual design in particular they want to show you things physically. You are not a provider you are in essence an agency so you are loosing one of the reasons why people would choose you over a individual graphic designer.

You don't need an office you can go to them, however if you are not willing to meet them face to face then be prepared to loose clients. This is not a problem for me as I can pick and choose who I work with, I don't advertise or poach for business so people I deal with come to me because they know what I can do and therefore already trust that I will deliver and accept and appreciate my methods, it suits my environment and I don't have a studio that I have to manage, schedule and pay for. However if you are new to it, have to chase and prove yourself to get business and lost business will ultimately affect your bottom line then you may want to reconsider the strategy. When you add it all up and get started you may start to realise why these businesses charge what they do as consultation on say a basic logo development can take up 50% of your allocated schedule time easily before and during the design process.

Also having an agreement with your freelancer for future amendments means very little, they can walk away any time and you are ultimately responsible so unless you want to risk paying for this out of your own pocket then you need to either put in a 'what if' fund into your cost or make sure you nail down your terms of the project and are strict with your clients.

There are a lot of things that can catch you out in this industry that you don't think to charge for at the beginning but have unhappy clients if you refuse. I have been in the business for 12 years and would run as fast as I can from this business model without a very strong USP and I have lots of experience in this field so could do all of the above. Trying to conquer this without experience is likely to be painful to both your sanity and your pocket.

I am sorry to sound so negative I like to encourage new business, however I couldn't bypass this thread without warning you what you are letting yourself in for!! Whether you take my advice or not I wish you the best of luck.

 

[serendipitybusiness]

Ps if you are not using tried and tested, experienced designers test your freelancers on a small test project first. I have run plenty of design recruitment runs you cannot always tell the diamonds from their portfolio. Last run I had over 90 applicants I narrowed this down to 30 when I ran it through the mill only one survived. He was good but I still had to direct the projects I ran with him very closely and create visual examples that he then perfected. (oh and by time I had gone through this and got to the first live project 3 weeks later he had also nearly doubled his hourly rate!

There are a lot of freelance designers out there that cannot design on spec for toffee (there are also fantastic freelance designers as well so don't let it put you off) and it will be your responsibility to hire and pay for a replacement if you choose incorrectly and they don't deliver the goods, so you could end up paying twice, loosing face and missing deadlines.