Tampa Web Design Blog

Small Time -vs- 9-5 Design! Part 1

// April 5th, 2008 // Web

My first full time freelancing project was for a Realtor during the real estate boom. It seemed as if every Realtor need a website where users could register and search listings. Realtors kept a lot of us busy, but all good things come to an end. From there I landed a sweet gig for a small marketing company ran by a very smart business woman who knew her craft very well. I picked up a lot on how to really market yourself. They had a genius of an IT person who was still earning his degree, he taught me a lot while I was there about a variety of topics mostly unrelated to the web development. After spending about a year there I decided to give up freelancing for a while and work full time at a design firm not located in the Tampa bay area. This included a long commute to work, an uncomfortable and cramped workspace with a sales guy constantly peeking over my shoulder, an old mouse, I had to bring my own cordless optical mouse from home, the expectation to work through lunch if the board had over a certain number of website, old technology, software, and one size fits all e-commerce solutions, an negative attitude toward open source or any non-Microsoft technology. I felt like I constantly had one hand tied behind my back while running on a hamster wheel. I can say that after this experience you are completely better off with a small team of great designers for 3 main reasons. 

1. The quality of work is the same or better. (Compare portfolios)

2. Less overhead means you get a better price. (Shop around)

3. Open and unrestricted communication between the developers and you. (Call or Email after 6pm)

Usually a few bad apples give smaller web firms a bad name, but it’s mostly because they don’t understand business as well as they should. It’s very possible get burned by a larger firm, the design firm I worked for had a difficult time convincing a few clients to sign after they had a raw deal with larger firms. 

This post is share some core differences to consider when choosing between a smaller or larger design firm.

Lets start with degrees and and education. According to FreelanceSwitch.com’s latest survey it is about 50/50 whether or not a freelancer has a degree or they were self taught.

I don’t have any information regarding design firms (still looking) but I would say more of the 9-5′ers have degrees from some type of college, university, art institute, or design academy than the freelance/entrepreneurial population. The fact I have degree seemed to help me in getting hired even though it’s not from a computer related field.

First I recommend taking a look at the portfolio and history of anyone you consider for web design, small or large firms. Do they have the level of design your looking for? Do they have references? How do they communicate with you? Do they have a web design blog or newsletter?

 

This is the first part of a 3 part series.