At times, deciding on whether to go the freelancer or agency way when completing a project might be hard. Some people believe that the two are very similar, while others believe that a freelancer is a better option due to the low costs. However, you should consider your situation when hiring one of them. Here are the main differences between the two. By understanding the differences, you should be able to engage the right one.
When to hire freelancers
If you are planning to complete small projects, you should opt for freelancers because of the project’s simplicity. However, when hiring, you have to keep in mind that freelancers specialize in two or one areas. Only a few will have the skills needed to handle all the areas of complex projects like website design or branding of a company. Interactive agencies hire freelancers due to their expertise to help with some areas of a project. By hiring freelancers wisely – not depending on their saving factors or initial cost -, you will definitely get good results.
When to engage an agency
Agencies have teams that work on projects. Each member of the team will handle a different, particularly one that he/she specializes in. A quick example, in a website designing project, one person might deal with the graphics part; another might deal with visual branding while others might work on the user experience of the website. Because a specialist will handle a different part from that of the others, a project will end faster and will require lesser revisions.
Stay on a budget
Freelancers can cost you a larger amount in the long term. In most cases, you will have to a different freelancer for every part of the project. The process might be time-consuming or complicated because you will have to work as the project manager. By hiring several freelancers, you will have to expect more delays and revision costs. If your project is small, there is nothing wrong with going the freelancer way.
Each agency has a project manager to ensure that every part of your project is progressing properly. Moreover, you will only pay for the quote instead of paying several service providers. And because the members of the team will be communicating with each other, your projects will end faster and at a lower cost. That is economical because the revision fees will be lower and the speed to market will be higher.
Some brands and businesses believe that they will always get great results if they partner with larger agencies. That is not the case. Most large agencies outsource the work to small agencies due to the amount of work they receive and because they want to make huge profits. For them, outsourcing is cheaper than hiring a full-time employee, trivial tasks like social media management. Therefore, their teams will handle the most important part and they will engage partner firms or freelancers to handle other parts.
If you ready to manage your projects and you do not care about the number of revisions, freelancers are a good go for. However, if you want to complete a project faster and minimize the costs, engage the small agencies. That way, you will be on a safe side.
