On Words and Business

With the economy as it is these days, you may be searching for a little outside help with some of your creative needs.

Hiring a writer or designer to work with you on a project can inspire all sorts of emotions.

• Fear: What if she doesn’t “get” us? What if he can’t write his way out of a paper bag?
• Joy: Thank goodness, now I don’t have to design it!
• Or plain old ambivalence: Whatever. As long as it doesn’t interfere with the rest of  my work.

No matter the emotion, if you’re thinking about outsourcing creative services (writing, editorial, design, illustration, photography) there are some questions to ask before you make the decision. The more specific you are about what you want and don’t want, the better chance you’ll actually get what you want. Then, if you do decide to outsource, you’ve improved your chances of finding someone who will deliver what you need.

The first thing to think about is whether or not you really need or want to outsource this project or function. Outsourcing has many benefits, but they may not be the right thing for this project or team.

Ask yourself:

• Will outsourcing this result in cost or time savings?
• What is the benefit to us to have someone out-of-house write or design this?
• Will outsourcing this allow us to focus on our core business and value-added activities?
• Is this an expertise we need to outsource because we don’t have it (or can’t afford to have it) in-house?
• Do we need the flexibility and scalability we can’t achieve with our current staff or organizational structure?
• Can we afford (time, talent, money) to manage an outside contractor/consultant?
• Can we benefit from having someone from outside thinking about this project?
• Can we afford to pay someone what this work is worth?

The only right answers are those that lead you to a workable solution–one that gets your project done professionally, on time, and on budget.

Maybe hiring an outside designer won’t save you time or money, but that isn’t the driving force for this project. Perhaps a new perspective from someone outside your firm is more important for this piece. Or you realize that, although you would like to hire a freelance writer, the budget for this project just doesn’t allow you to pay an outside contractor.

Next Thursday
Look for information on what to think about once you’ve decided to outsource.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 11:37 am and is filed under business, productivity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.