What’s better: An Agency or a Freelancer?
Caught up in a confusion between hiring a freelancer or an agency for your next software project?
It can be quite tricky to decide what fits the bill best.
A single erroneous decision could have far-reaching consequences. Phew! sounds scary isn’t it?
No worries! We’re here to give you some perspective.
First off, let’s get a gist of what these terms mean.
Freelancer: A freelancer is a person who offers specific services and doesn’t work for any employer in the long term.
Agency: An agency offers a multitude of services under one roof by employing various talented people each, specializing in a specific domain of expertise.
Now that we know the key terms, let’s get into the crux of the matter. Which among the two does one choose?
To make things easier, I have elaborated on what each of them brings to the table.
Let’s begin by me asking you a question. Who is your best friend? What makes them your best friend? Umm, let me guess. Is it because you can count on them? Is it because you can rely on them at any point in time?
Reliability is of utmost importance in any relationship, be it personal or professional.
Reliability is one of the very important facets of an agency. If one of their specialists/ employees cease to be available, replacement is prompt without the services getting affected in the slightest manner. This is only possible because they have a plethora of talented employees under their belt.
If the freelancer is unavailable due to some reason, there is no arrangement to backup the services, which means that you’d have to expend additional efforts and go through the tiresome process of finding a new person and begin the entire process all over again.
Okay, another question. Did you have these annoying class monitors in school who’d make sure you were disciplined and did your tasks on time? I know they were a pain but they did make sure that the class remained productive in the absence of the teacher.
An agency also has these annoying monitors called project managers who ensure that the skills and talents of each employee is well leveraged. He/she ensures that they are working to the best of their capability, thereby producing an end product that stands out in quality and performance.
Unlike in an agency, a freelancer doesn’t have a monitor (Oops! I mean a manager) to supervise his work, leaving the task to the customer. Believe me, overlooking and coordinating multiple freelancers can get you pretty bored and weary after a point.
Everyone makes mistakes don’t they? It’s basic human tendency. But true character lies in holding yourself accountable for it and correcting it efficiently.
The project manager holds accountability for any compromise in services and in case a service doesn’t meet the expected standards, it goes through an intense optimization process to make sure the end product is par excellence.
Since a freelancer is his own boss, we need to be really careful to hire somebody with a strong work ethic.
An agency makes the popular saying, ‘’Unity is strength’’ come alive.
In an agency, multiple people, specializing in specific areas of expertise come together under the able guidance of a project manager. This in-depth involvement of people from various domains ensures a stimulating work-space that brings out the best in each one of them.
Since a freelancer is a lone eagle, there is no exchange of ideas or no one to scrutinize and critique their work unlike in an agency. The consumer needs to exhaust a fair amount of energy and brain cells to make sure the service is on point. ( Told you, it’s no fun!)
Have you wondered if certain people have 24+ hours in a day, given the number of activities they accomplish, while you hardly manage to squeeze time out from your work?
They might have hired an agency!
An agency offers economy in terms of time and money. Since all the services are available through a single point of contact, it saves you the time, energy and expense of deploying, communicating with and coordinating multiple freelancers, leaving you with ample amount of time to do many other things.
If you’re looking for a specific service, hiring a freelancer could probably incur lesser costs. However, this isn’t guaranteed as it would also be the freelancer’s call to decide how much he’d want to charge for his service.
Constructive criticism is of great importance to enhance performance. Sometimes you need an alternate perspective to ensure you’re doing the right thing. One of the major benefits of hiring an agency is that, the highly talented employees working under it can critique each other and provide valuable feedback on the other person’s work, so that the end product is more objective.
However, our friend Mr Freelancer doesn’t seem to have that advantage and has to depend on his own discretion.
What is more practical? Communicating with multiple people and continually overlooking each of them or communicating with a single person who acts as a channel of communication between you and the employees? In an agency, you just need to communicate your needs to the project head. The rest of the job is taken care of.
We all love customized stuffs don’t we? Things that are modified to suit our preferences and liking? Cool isn’t it? An agency customizes it’s services for you.
It shows an in-depth involvement in the research and development of the end product and creates an optimal user experience. They gauge the user’s expectations and moulds it using their own creativity and expertise. They show an active engagement right from the conception to the designing, disposition, development and testing process.
They run an acceptance testing to make sure the end product is in tandem with the business requirements and customer expectations.
So now that you exactly know what each of these services entail, i’m sure you’re better equipped with the knowledge to make the right decision for your business. All the best!
