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Freelancer or Design Studio, which is best for your home-based business?
I’ve covered many topics in the previous 124 episodes over the past few years. Things like pricing strategies, attracting new clients, coping with the isolation when working from home and many more. However, I’ve never talked about what options you have in the type of design business you run.
Deciding what type of home-based business you run is important because the direction you take could determine the kind of clients you attract and the growth of your design business. Including how much money you can potentially make.
The options I’m talking about are whether you define yourself as a Freelancer or Design Studio.
There is a third option available, a Design Agency. The reason I’m omitting Design Agency is that by definition, a Design Agency is made up of several people, all with different talents working on all aspects of client projects and usually all working under one roof. Perhaps you fit that category, but as I stated earlier, Resourceful Designer was created to help home-based designers, and I don’t think many home-based designers run agencies.
That leaves two options, Freelancer or Design Studio
Calling yourself a Freelancer
According to dictionary.com, a Freelancer is a person who sells work or services by the hour, day, job, etc., rather than working on a regular salary basis for one employer. Cambridge Dictionary defines Freelancer as someone who works on different projects with different companies instead of being a company employee. And finally, Merriam-Webster says a Freelancer is a person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any one employer
I’ve never called myself a Freelancer. I’ve always found the term derogatory and noncommital. I always viewed the term as a kind of fly-by-night thing where the client will never be sure if the Freelancer will be there for them. Remember the Merriam-Webster definition was someone who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment.
Not to mention my business is registered, so in a roundabout way, I can say that I’m an employee of my own company, therefore, as an employee, I cannot be a Freelancer. But that’s neither here nor there. For this article, a Freelancer is merely a one-man band when it comes to design services.
As a Freelancer, you are everything from an art director, to a designer, to a coder, to handling accounts receivable and payable, etc. You do it all, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
When I first started my own home-based design business, I did precisely that. I handled everything. I was a one-man band. And if I didn't think I could do something in a project, I didn’t take on the job.
Defining yourself as a Freelancer, meaning it’s just you, limits the type of clients you can take on by the skills and services you offer. If you’re not a web designer, you don’t take on web clients and vice versa. Freelancers tend to attract smaller clients such as Start-Ups or the “quick” clients. Those who call you up and need something done this week, or worse yet, they need it tomorrow.
The average freelance designer takes on clients and jobs in the $500-$5000 range.
Calling yourself a Design Studio
Remember above when I said a Design Agency is made up of multiple people working together under one roof? A Design Studio is similar to an agency in that is offers a wide variety of skills and services, but some of those skills and services come from third-party contractors.
As a Design Studio, you still run your home-based design business like a Freelancer does, however, rather than offering a full range of services under one roof like an agency, you subcontract the parts of a project that you can’t or don’t want to handle yourself. Things like photography, coding, copywriting, illustration, etc. Being a Desing Studio allows you to take on larger clients with more significant projects and spread out the work to get jobs done more efficiently.
With a Design Studio, everything is processed through your business and clients deal directly with you instead of dealing with multiple businesses. You take on the role of art director and manage the subcontractors working on the projects with you.
Design Studios tend to attract small to mid-sized companies as clients. Companies that may have a marketing department but don’t have an in-house creative team. The Design Studio acts as their creative team.
Clients seeking Design Studios often have budgets ranging from $5,000-$20,000 or more.
Freelancer or Design Studio, what’s right for you?
Choosing between a Freelancer or Design Studio is a matter of choice. The difference between the two is your willingness to work with subcontractors to complete design projects. Neither Freelancer or Design Studio is a more favourable choice.
I ran my business as a Freelancer (even though I don’t use that term) for several years before switching models and redefining as a Design Studio. I still do most design work myself. But I now have a list of illustrators, copywriters, coders, etc. that I can call upon should I need their skills and talents for a project.
I don't suggest one option as being better for you over the other. It’s entirely up to you how you run your business. If you’re fresh out of school or still new to the industry, maybe you want to work as a Freelancer for a while until you get the hang of things. Perhaps you don’t want the extra responsibilities of overseeing subcontractors. That’s OK. Many designers spend their entire career working as Freelancers.
If you are comfortable handling larger projects and directing various people to complete specific tasks then maybe a Design Studio is right for you.
This article is simply to give you an idea of what’s possible depending on how you define what you do. So are you a Freelancer or a Design Studio?
Do you consider yourself a Freelancer or Design Studio?
Let me know by leaving a comment for this episode.
Questions of the Week
Submit your question to be featured in a future episode of the podcast by visiting the feedback page.
This week’s question comes from Allison
Hello, I love your podcast and have enjoyed getting some great advice on my freelance business from it. I was wondering if you had any recommendations for font subscriptions. Fonts are so expensive, I don't know how designers can afford to purchase so many unique fonts and was wondering if a font subscription would be the way to go.
To find out what I told Allison you’ll have to listen to the podcast.
Resource of the week Sharpen.design
This week's resource was shared with me by Resourceful Designer listener Naomi. It's the website https://sharpen.design. Sharpen.design produces random design prompts to challenge you to think outside the box. With over a million possibilities you are sure to find an interesting project you can tackle to grow your skills and portfolio. This website is an excellent resource for students or anyone new to the design industry who needs ideas of what they can design. Give it a try.
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Running a graphic design or web design business all by yourself isn't easy. If there are any struggles you face running your design business, please reach out to me. I'll do my best to help you by addressing your issues in a future blog post or podcast episode here at Resourceful Designer. You can reach me at feedback@resourcefuldesigner.com
I'm a designer just like you. Let's see how we can do more designing and less of the other business stuff that takes up our precious time.
I’m a career shifter and about to graduate from a design school, I’m planning to build my own web design studio. I could tap in my designer friends if I can’t do the work alone, but I don’t know if it’s viable or should I beef up my own portfolio first. I know to myself that I can do the management because of my work experiences. But still confused. I don’t know. I already bought a domain, http://designdust.studio.
Flitz, there really is no right or wrong answer here. If you feel confident to do it yourself then, by all means, do it yourself. If you require the help of your designer friends then get their help. Plus, don’t forget that if you are running a “web design studio” there’s nothing that says you have to have created everything in your portfolio yourself. As long as it’s done through your studio, even if it’s by one of your friends, it still counts as something the studio created.
This question has been going on my mind for several months,
i’ve always seen myself as a freelancer, but when taking larger projects with bigger clients it sometimes requires more than one person to finish job.
so over time, i stopped feeling like i’m solo freelancer.. and i felt like if I’m going to hire more designers or writers with me i’d need to ask for a bigger budget… which companies don’t usually offer to freelancers (assuming you work alone)
so reading your article i realized there’s a choice of being part of a “design studio” that you manage on your own.
however, i’m not sure if having a different name for the studio can affect your reach? since you’d be known as a freelancer but suddenly you’re introducing a studio that would require branding and marketing on it’s own.
what is your thoughts on that?
Thank you again on the helpful article!
* excuse my English i’m not a native
Hi Serena, It all comes down to how you define yourself. I’ve been working solo since 2005 and yet I’ve never called myself a freelancer. Since day one I was running a design business or “studio” and I’ve called myself a graphic/web designer. Never a freelance designer.
At times I require other people (writers, photographers, developers, etc.) to help me with projects. I contract them and oversee the work they do. They are my responsibility and the client only deals with me. But other than that, I’m alone.
Your assumption that companies don’t offer bigger budgets to freelancers is only half true. Some companies view “freelancers” as less experienced and less reliable. But if you stop calling yourself a freelancer, they’ll stop seeing you that way. I covered this exact topic here https://resourcefuldesigner.com/episode17. You should listen to the podcast episode since I go into more detail then what I wrote.
As for your name? That’s just preference. There are many very successful designers who operate under their own names and others who operate under a business name. And everybody has to grow. So clients and companies that once knew you as a freelancer will see that you’ve grown and are now running a design studio, even if it’s just you. They’ll respect you for it.
Good luck, and Stay Creative!
So I recently changed my company name from Cyndee Adkins Design to Curio Creative Agency. The reason being is because I work with two other designers, an SEO specialist, photographer and a copyedit specialist. We all own our own businesses but we all work on projects together and very often. I am still self-employed and have no employees BUT we have some many resources together and work together so much I felt it was Okay to add that “agency” part to it. It isn’t a TRUE agency but it makes me look more professional and I’ve actually gotten more calls since setting up that DBA. I am still transparent with my clients who I am, that I am a WAHM and I have many partners, but only if they ASK or they were referred to me by someone else that already knew this. I refer to my company as “Us” or “We” because it has been years since it’s just been me on one job 100% of the time. It’s worked for us.
Now why didn’t I go with “studio” instead? Lazy…I had a logo already that had a C and A in it…and Curio Creative Agency had a C and an A already in it. As most designers know…we hardly have time to work on our OWN stuff. lol.