You can direct the work your graphic designers produce; only if you have established communication first and foremost. Have a look at some guiding principles in the relationship between you and your graphic designer.

Communication is king when it comes to building your website with your graphic designer. At any point along the course of working on the nightclub web design you should be prepared that miscommunication is bound to occur; however if you follow some of these simple rules you can easily avoid disaster.

When you have an idea for a webpage, skin, banner or any other graphic content you need to be able to explain the details thoroughly to your graphic designer. You are the director of the graphics that appear on your website, so be sure to explain all variables to your designer. Graphic designers are usually responsible for a development team; this team is dedicated to performing for you. Therefore, it should be understood that most designers will fail or succeed based on the expectation and direction of their employer.

A five step timeline that you as the employer should always abide by:

1.            Sample – Provide a sample for your designer

2.            Mock – Ask your designer for a mock-up

3.            Confirm – Confirm what you like and what you do not like

4.            Beta – Put the plan into action

5.            Launch – Critique the beta and launch the live site.

Try not to get caught in the minutia. Your graphic designer has your best interests; giving him/her your total trust is what ties all communication together. Creative Complex takes pride in listening and fulfilling your needs. We have the experience that is required to accomplish what is needed. We know first-hand that communication is king and have years of experience to draw upon. Without clear communication both the clients and vendor will be left in the dark. After we understand your goals we provide a concise game plan for our team to follow. Our deliverables are then measured against your expectations.

Running a nightclub, either as the owner or the marketing director, is a big challenge.  Being efficient is essential, especially because you probably wear many hats.  And in the case of the business owner, this is probably not your only business.  One way business owners deal with “efficiency” is by contemplating outsourcing their work to others.  You can outsource a TON of your work (accounting, business plan development, staffing, etc.), but we want to focus specifically on outsourcing your digital work.  It could be anything from design work, front-end development, back-end development, search engine marketing marketing, to anything else that needs to be done digitally.

There are some very strong reasons for outsourcing, and likewise the are some equally strong reasons against outsourcing. In the blog post below, I’ll take you through the pros and cons, which will hopefully prove to be helpful to those businesses who are trying to decide on whether or not to outsource.

Pros of Outsourcing

1. Stop Doing Designs Yourself!

Sometimes marketing directors or business owners think that they are graphic designers.  This might get you by for a short period of time, but you can’t be messing around with this stuff when the pedal hits the metal and your business is picking up steam.  One of the principles that is key to growing your business is that you need to be able to leverage your time and efforts.  You need to outsource your design work so you can focus on working ON the business, not IN the business.

2. Potential for Higher Income

While outsourcing work to others may increase your expenses, it also frees up more time for you to do other things, which should allow you to increase your income. Maybe the time that you save can be used to work on marketing your services, other client projects or developing new products and services.  Personally, my time is worth $300/hr.  So I look at every task in terms of “is this worth my time or is it worth paying someone else to do it.”

3. Increased Efficiency

Like any business owner, you will never have the time to do everything that you want or need for your business. However, outsourcing some work can help to free up time that will allow you to focus on the things that you determine are most important. The increase in efficiency comes when you are able to spend a little bit of money (comparatively) that will free you up to do work that will help you to make a lot of money (comparatively).

4. Allows You to Focus on Your Strengths

I’m going to use a typical nightclub as an example since the nightlife is what my company focuses on.  One of the downsides to being a business owner or marketing director of a nightclub is that that you have to do everything for your business, whether it is an area of personal strength or weakness.  Ultimately, your strength as a nightclub needs to create events and operate the nightclub to provide the best experience possible for your patrons.  By outsourcing some work that is not in your strongest areas (graphic design) you can free up more time to work on what your company is strong at.  Even if outsourcing doesn’t increase your income, if it helps to make your work more enjoyable by eliminating or reducing some of the things you dislike, it may be worth doing.

5. Transition from Outsourcing to In-House

If you are currently outsourcing and you would like to run a full-time graphic & web department with employees at some point in the future, outsourcing to an agency for now could be a good transition. Very few businesses have the financial capability to take on an employee with a set salary and benefits without funding, but outsourcing work is much more feasible. While outsourcing you can get a feel for who you might like to hire as an employee when the time comes, and you can work to increase revenues and build the business to a point where you could hire an employee.

Cons of Outsourcing

1. Your Reputation Depends on the Quality of Others’ Work

When you are outsourcing, you’re trusting someone outside of your office with your brand. Your reputation is at stake. One of the most significant reasons businesses choose not to outsource is because of concerns over the quality.  Finding the right agency with is not always easy

If you outsource to a freelance designer and he’s gone on vacation or late on the project, your reputation can take a hit.  This is a main reason why you should outsource to a design shop, and not a freelance designer.

2. More Administration and Oversight Work

We all hate babysitting.  While outsourcing can help to free up some of your time, it also means that you’ll have more administrative and oversight responsibilities. Ideally you can find a design shop who needs very little supervision whom you can trust to do quality work, but those relationships usually take some time to develop.

3. Dealing with the Middleman

In some cases you’ll hire a freelance designer or agency and they are actually outsourcing work themselves to other freelancers or agencies.  This can clog up communication and things can get sticky.  If you find out you’re dealing with a middle man, just make sure the communication flows so that you don’t even notice.

4. Reduced Control Over Meeting Deadlines

Being able to meet deadlines is a critical to keeping your your business running.  As you outsource parts of your design, or the whole thing, you will have less control over when the work is complete, as you will be relying on the agency that you have hired. This is just one of the reasons why you need to be very careful about hiring the right agency.  Also, it’s a good idea to build in some time for unexpected delays by setting a deadline for the service provider that is at least a few days prior to the real deadline of the client. That gives you time to review the work and to deal with any setbacks.

5. It Takes Time and Effort to Find the Right People

Unfortunately, finding the right person (or people) can be a real challenge, and you may go through some bad experiences along the way. During this time it means that you’ll be dedicating extra time for finding the right people and evaluating their work.

You Must Decide for Yourself

As with just about anything in life, the pros and cons mean that there is no absolute right or wrong decision when it comes to outsourcing. You’ll need to weight the pros and cons and see how they fit with your goals, your process, and your way of doing business. If you have words of wisdom from your own experience, please feel free to share in the comments.

Selecting a graphic design firm can be a difficult process at best. Initially, size and cost may be your top criteria, and they certainly do factor in to some degree, but several other aspects are just as important and worth noting. Understanding exactly who and how design services are offered will help you in making the selection process easier.

First and foremost, we are a small firm of graphic designers.  Admittedly, we’re interested in gaining your business. That being said, we believe we can still be objective in shedding some light on the process of choosing design services. This article is based on six years of observation and experience in the graphic design industry.

Large Firms (Size Matters … Sometimes)

A large design firm will give you a sense of stability just by the sheer size of their portfolio, number of staff, and resources available. They offer a wide variety of services across several media such as radio, TV, print, etc.. If that’s your situation a large firm should be your focus. On the other hand, if your project is within a specific area or two such as web, print, or multimedia, a small firm or independent designer may be an excellent choice.

Another consideration is teamwork. As the saying goes, “two heads are better than one.” Depending on the scope of the project different perspectives during the concept phase can be a distinct advantage. While multi-person firms assign a design team, many independent designers overcome this by having their work critiqued by fellow designers or submitting their work to online design forums for review.

Small Firms

Small firms and independents may not have a sample of your specific need, so it’s important to look at the solutions they’ve provided other clients. They tend to be more motivated in getting your business, so you’ll often get a more personal level of service, and work directly with the person responsible for your project. Furthermore, you’ll generally pay less due to reduced overhead costs. In many cases independent designers will have more design experience than the combined years of a design team at an agency. Many talented designers tend to either move up the ladder or start their own firm due to pay ceilings at a firm.

Variety of talent is another consideration. Large firms may have one or two copywriters or illustrators on staff to choose from. Small firms and independents have the flexibility of offering several established outside vendors to specifically fit your individual tastes, style and preferences.

Also, consider that the designer or designers working at a large firm may not be particularly interested or excited about your project, or even proficient in that area of design; they don’t have control of what’s assigned to them. While this may or may not be the case at a small firm, an independent designer will typically have a high level of interest and motivation, because they want to expand their portfolio and client list…especially if your project type or industry is new to them. If they contacted you it’s likely they’ve already done some background research on your company.

Finally, with advances in computer technology and declining prices, independents and small firms use the same or higher levels of hardware and software as large firms. They also don’t have to go through the approval process and internal IT departments, so their upgrades happen in days rather than months.

Conclusion

When you are looking for design services remember that you don’t have to know exactly what you need; that’s what a design professional is for. They will offer specific solutions according to your needs. If price is a concern, be upfront about it and ask for a range of two or three estimates. Be aware that the lower figures mean that less time will be devoted to research and concept development; it doesn’t mean that the designer is reducing their hourly rate. Less time translates into a less creative and unique piece.

Start by interviewing several design firms before making a decision. Ask them what their hourly rate for creative work is, and view their portfolios. If you’re happy with the solutions they’ve provided other clients, comfortable with the way they present themselves, and think you’d enjoy working with them…hire them. Clients who understand the value of good design realize that a talented designer has the ability to influence their existing and potential market; create a positive perception of their business, and ultimately increase their revenue.