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Hiring in-house designer vs. hiring a studio

infiltainfilta subscriber Posts: 8
Hello SUN comrades,
I`ve noticed on this message board and in general that a lot of small and medium business owners believe that they should hire a full-time in-house web designer. I`d like to give a few reasons why I think that shouldn`t be on your agenda when you are starting a company. These reasons are based solely on my own experience as a designer and now as a web design studio owner.1) You won`t hire top people. If you`re just starting then you won`t be able to afford really good designers or IT staff. Good ones already have jobs at studios and agencies who pay them top dollars. So you will end up with a below average designer and as a result - below average product.2) One person is not enough. You will not find a person who is good at everything - design, coding, programming, Flash or other technologies. Typically it takes a few people who have their own (usually pretty narrow) area of expertise to complete a project such as building an e-commerce web site. 3) It will take longer time to complete a web project. If you hire just one person then it may take him or her at least 2-3 months or longer to make a decent e-commerce web site.
4) If you hire a designer to build a site and then maintain it then unless you can keep this person busy after web site is developed, you will pretty much pay for him or her browsing internet half of the time.
So to sum it up, unless you can afford a great designer and can keep him or her busy - you will be spending too much money and waste too much time. It`s not cost effective and not reasonable for a new business.
Here`s the math: hiring an in-house designer/developer to make an e-commerce site for your business:
at least 3 months times $4-5k/mo = $15k.
You can spend this much or less to make a better quality and probably better looking web site in 1-1.5 months.
I`d appreciate your thoughts on this topic.

Comments

  • sddreamweaverssddreamweavers subscriber Posts: 5 Member
    Hello SUN comrades,
    I`ve noticed on this message board and in general that a lot of small and medium business owners believe that they should hire a full-time in-house web designer. I`d like to give a few reasons why I think that shouldn`t be on your agenda when you are starting a company. These reasons are based solely on my own experience as a designer and now as a web design studio owner.1) You won`t hire top people. If you`re just starting then you won`t be able to afford really good designers or IT staff. Good ones already have jobs at studios and agencies who pay them top dollars. So you will end up with a below average designer and as a result - below average product.2) One person is not enough. You will not find a person who is good at everything - design, coding, programming, Flash or other technologies. Typically it takes a few people who have their own (usually pretty narrow) area of expertise to complete a project such as building an e-commerce web site. 3) It will take longer time to complete a web project. If you hire just one person then it may take him or her at least 2-3 months or longer to make a decent e-commerce web site.
    4) If you hire a designer to build a site and then maintain it then unless you can keep this person busy after web site is developed, you will pretty much pay for him or her browsing internet half of the time.
    So to sum it up, unless you can afford a great designer and can keep him or her busy - you will be spending too much money and waste too much time. It`s not cost effective and not reasonable for a new business.
    Here`s the math: hiring an in-house designer/developer to make an e-commerce site for your business:
    at least 3 months times $4-5k/mo = $15k.
    You can spend this much or less to make a better quality and probably better looking web site in 1-1.5 months.
    I`d appreciate your thoughts on this topic.

    Totally agree with you on that.  Not only that but its cheaper for companies to leverage freelancers/contractors than hire a fulltime person...especially in California.
  • infiltainfilta subscriber Posts: 8
    Exactly, especially here in CA.     
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