Published on Sunday November 7th 2010
Web Design Outsourcing? Is it Good for Business?
Posted in Web Design by Danny
It’s a question that gets asked time and time again but very rarely gets answered, “Should I hire someone to design a website for me? I’m busy and won’t be able to complete the design until next week” or perhaps “a client has asked for [specific CMS system] and i can’t do that, should I outsource my work?”. While it may seem like the easiest way to get your site up and running, it’s not always the best solution to outsource the work as a web designer. Many problems can arise – even after the design has been coded and sent over to you and your client.
Advantages to Outsourcing your Design Work
A New Prospective
An outside agency or freelancer brings his new style and a fresh mindset that you might not be able to offer.
A Better Idea of What is Required
Outside design firms have a broader spectrum of the whole industry in relation to that which is required for the project.
Consistently High Work Rates
Established design firms need to be constantly learning and developing and so this ensures that the quality of work is consistently high on each project they complete. Yours included.
Faster Project Completions
An external agency can be bigger than you and your design team. It’s common sense to presume a design with 4 people working on it will be completed much faster than if just you were working on it. This can be great for fast turnarounds for them clients that need the design quick. Overseas design teams or freelancers can even work while you sleep. For example, when it’s 3 at night over here in the UK, it’s half 9 in the morning in India so freelancers over there could be working on your design as you dream away.
Make a Profit and Design Nothing
International freelancers and firms regularly work at a cheaper rate and consequently there’s the opportunity to make easy money by charging the client your rates instead of the international designer’s rate, and you essentially don’t even have to design anything- just be there for communication between the two.
A Greater Amount of Experience
More experience can be offered by other designers – experience or expertise in a particular area too – such as that one feature your client has requested that you have no idea about.
Disadvantages to Outsourcing your Design Work
Reliability
Thea accountability of your intended outsourced designer needs to be considered. Can you feel safe knowing that they won’t miss deadlines for example, or even that they won’t produce low quality designs simply because they didn’t have a lot of time on their hands. You could have designed crap work yourself! What about communication. Will they be available 24/7, as you are, to update them on the requirements of the design? The answer is probably not if they working from a different country with a different timezone.
Timezone Differences
This leads me swiftly onto timezone differences. Timezone differences – while being great sometimes as mentioned above – can also be slightly inconvenient other times. Imagine a designer who never picks up his phone because he is asleep or it takes 2days to reply to emails. Communication efficiency can be greatly reduced due to the timezones between you and your outsourced designer/ firm.
Fraud & Disputes
In all walks of life we have to trust people some times and this is no different in the design world. International outsourcing leaves a gap for fraud should the outsourced designer not be trustworthy. I’ve heard cases where the designer asks for a deposit – the deposit gets paid – and then the company simply disappears. It’s so much harder to chase up the fraudster because of his international status, and he basically 99% of the time will get away freely. It’s not just fraud however that can be a problem, any dispute between the two of you is harder to resolve when you can’t don’t reside in the same country.
Language Barriers
Language Barriers can also be a disadvantage to outsourcing your work. Language translation errors can lead to a poor quality of English on the final design, or even just the communication between the two of you can be impeded upon because you are native of different languages. In order to prevent this type of problem you must choose to outsource your work to an English speaking designer or agency.
The Loss of Project Control
The loss of control is furthermore inevitable when you outsource any work. Different outside design agencies have different morals and styles to their design; meaning, just because you work to your company standards and aims – doesn’t mean they will too.
Not as Good Quality Designs
Quality Issues is perhaps the biggest disadvantage to outsourcing your work. You can never 200% guarantee that the level of quality and commitment another designer makes will be as much as what you do.
Bad Public Image
Also, if the word gets out that you outsource a lot of your design work then you run the risk of losing some of your loyal clients, and more importantly, your brand/ or self image.
So what do you do?
Well, you simply have to weigh up the pros and cons and make the decision for yourself on each individual project; there are good reasons to outsource and good reasons not too. It comes down to two things, the length and size of the project, and do you have the expertise. Sometimes its best to be honest in the first place with the client and say you don’t have enough experience in the [specific area] of web design they’re requesting. I would also like to add that if the client looks like he is going to be giving a constant on-going supply of work then I’d recommend not outsourcing any work to start off with. The client may grow to the like the style of the outsource and you may end up not being able to compete in the future with his specific style. Fast forward a job on-ward and you will be calling upon the outsource designer again to help you out, losing some sense of pride and a cut of your profits. However, outsourcing a small design project can turn out to be one of the best decisions you can make – a profit can be made for no work, and it can even just relieve pressure of your own shoulders. It’s up to you now, should you outsource web design work?
Let us know what you think about outsourcing in the comments. Do you agree? Do you have anything to add to this article? This blog is relevant to DJGraphic’s launch of their outsourcing business division. DJGraphics now outsources local oldam web design projects, national projects, and also international web design or logo design projects. If you decide you do wish to outsource any web or logo design work then get in touch with us here at DJGraphics today. Prices and more information can be found on our Outsource Us page.
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