Cleveland Web Design by Designing Interactive
May 8, 2008
Why We Are Not Hiring
By: Josh Walsh in Business
Designing Interactive has grown up a lot over the last 6 years. It has grown from a small freelancing company into a web application development house. We have done a good job of keeping ourselves busy with paid work throughout the years, but this past year was particularly successful.
However, our profitability has started to plateau this year and we need to make some changes to continue growth.
Making money as a consultant is a pretty straight-forward concept. You trade hours for dollars. When you become more in-demand, you raise your prices. However, you do hit a point where you do not have any more time available, and raising your prices any further would turn some of your clients away. The natural response to this is to employ more people, but that is not without its own problems.
There are many designers and developers who are competent as a jack of all trades. For example, a front end person who does design, usability, front-end coding, javascript and basic SQL knowledge. This is very common in design agencies as it’s an economical approach. This produces a good service to the client, although with a painfully average product/service.
The very best designers are not employed. They can make a great living as an independent consultant utilizing the small, but well refined, skill set they have. We have a network of available consultants that we use for these specialized tasks. I work with the same consultants day in and out, so I have a good relationship with them. These independent consultants enjoy the freedom they have, but still have a stable amount of work through their relationships with people like us.
If you are a freelance developer/designers/database-administrator looking to develop a relationship with us, I want to hear from you.
Comments
Bridget Stewart » May 8, 2008
I have a relationship with you and I will gladly announce that working with you was very easy. You are respectful of a freelancer’s availability and you are clear in your communication about projects. I enjoyed the process and would work with you again in a heartbeat.
Beth Dean » May 8, 2008
Count me in after Bridget. She says good things
I am looking to only do freelance through other designers/developers at this point.
Josh Walsh » May 8, 2008
@Bridget
The project you helped us out with the last few weeks was fantastic. Really top notch work. To get that caliber of work while I was out of the country and unavailable is tremendous.
Brad C » May 8, 2008
Smart way to go. I know we talked about it the other week, it’s good to see it on your blog. The larger you get with inhouse staff the harder it is to keep the quality high on a consistent basis.
Brad Dielman » May 9, 2008
Great post, Josh.
As Beth said, Bridget had nothing but great things to say about her experience working with you. Let me know if you need help on a future project.
Joe F. » May 9, 2008
Awesome post.
I too believe that it is very important to consider the implications of hiring decisions…
Enough of that BS, Bridget has had nothing but great things to say, and in my experiences with your firm I have been very impressed with your ability to communicate well with your clients. I look forward to working with your company in the future, as the need arises.
Danny Sedor » May 12, 2008
Great post. A very sound business practice for our industry.
Nate Klaiber » May 16, 2008
I used to work in an environment where I had to wear many different hats. This frustrated me, because I couldn’t focus on one specific area. Then I took my current job with Clear Function. There are 3 of us on staff, and I don’t see it getting larger anytime soon. This is not because of financial reasons - it is because we feel we have a good team assembled.
We share the same philosophy. If there is something out of our scope/specialty - we have no problem contacting a freelancer or other firm. For instance, we don’t do logo design. If someone comes to us wanting a logo, we will point them in the right direction. We like to take on work that we specialize in, and do it to the best of our abilities.
This is all different from the agency approach - where they have a large staff and try and do everything under the sun - but never excel at any of those.
Anyway, I am ranting now.