Handling creative work internally can have its benefits. It can be convenient for maintaining control and keeping a close eye on every iteration of a project. An internal team will (or should) also already be well-versed in the company’s brand voice and aesthetic direction. But it also has its downsides.
For many smaller businesses in particular, it’s simply not practical or cost-efficient for an internal team to deal with the vast array of design needs that come up today. And aside from the cost, there’s the fact that by handling everything in-house, you’re potentially missing out on new ideas and approaches that could give you a competitive edge. Below are five telltale signs that it’s time to start looking externally.
01. Your internal team can’t keep up
One of the most urgent signs that you need to consider outsourcing creative work is that you’re struggling to stick to planned timelines. If your design requirements are growing and you find that deadlines are being missed and perhaps even product launches delayed because creative deliverables aren’t being completed on time, a new solution is needed.
The flip side of this is when deadlines are being met but quality is suffering because people are reaching burnout by working late into the night to get things finished. Both of these situations suggest that your design team is being stretched to breaking point. That’s a surefire way to harm morale and risk losing in-house creatives, which will exacerbate the situation. Outsourcing some of the work, such as one-off projects, can allow your in-house team to focus on core initiatives or on new actions. Your marketing director may be able to delegate time-consuming tasks to an external provider, freeing up your own team to concentrate on more important work.
02. You can't find the right skills
We’re all familiar with the current recruitment crisis. It’s become increasingly difficult to fill even relatively unskilled roles. Finding talent in your area with the specialist skills needed for creative work can be all but impossible, especially if you’re located outside of a major capital. Many creatives now prefer the flexibility that comes with freelancing, and it’s a trend that has only grown further since the Covid-19 pandemic and the general move towards more remote or hybrid working.
And specialist skills are becoming increasingly necessary. You might have very capable in-house graphic designers who can handle all your requests for collaterals, but it’s unlikely that they’ll be experts at everything. And without specialists, you might find that new ideas get delayed because your team doesn’t have the skill set needed to implement them.
Outsourcing creative work means you can source expert talent for each job, be it branding, creating icons or illustrations, web design, digital advertising assets or anything else. This can improve your output, and it may also improve the expertise of your own team if they are able to learn from external specialists in the process.
03. Your business’s creative needs are becoming more varied
Your own design team might have been able to handle things when all you needed was physical collaterals, but today companies have myriad creative needs for digital as well as physical pieces, including web design, social media content, video, newsletter layout and UI and UX design for apps. Covering such a variety of needs and doing it well would mean employing a huge internal team.
Even if you are looking to make new permanent hires, you may find that in many cases the frequency with which certain jobs come up doesn’t justify it. Some of these design requirements may be one-off projects that aren’t enough to keep a full-time permanent hire occupied. Outsourcing them can be much more cost and time-efficient.
04. You’re running out of space
Recruiting and onboarding aren’t the only expenses and logistical challenges associated with taking on new staff. There are also the issues of space and inventories. You might not have room to accommodate new staff onto your team. That means having to invest in new furniture or even new office space.
And then there’s equipment. At the very least, new creatives will need a computer. And if they’re going to be working on anything that demands a lot of processing power and good display specs – video editing, for example – they’re going to need costly professional machines. They’re also likely to need specialist software. These are all things that you don’t need to worry about when you’re outsourcing creative work to a freelancer.
05. Your business needs new ideas
Another reason to outsource creative work other than the logistics and cost is the quality of the work itself. Many sectors are now hypercompetitive and it’s becoming more difficult to stand out above the noise of competing brands and messages. Even if you have a solid in-house creative team, sometimes the fresh ideas that you need to stay competitive may come from outside.
While your in-house team will know your business’s brand inside out, they may struggle to find new approaches or to adapt to changing trends. A creative from outside the company who has had experience in solving design problems for multiple clients can bring a fresh pair of eyes and might have a perspective that can turn things around. This is why even big branding agencies and studios often turn to others when it comes to rebranding themselves (if you’re looking at rebranding, you almost certainly need to look outside the company, but that’s a topic for another article).
If your business is facing any of these situations, then it’s probably time to start looking into outsourcing at least some of your creative work. You don’t need to, and possibly shouldn’t look to freelancers for everything. You might find it’s best to outsource large one-off projects that your team doesn’t have the capacity or the skills to handle, or you may find it helps your team more to outsource simple but repetitive tasks that take up time. In either case, you might maintain ownership of the project with your own design team and have them oversee the relationship with the freelance provider.
