Before we founded our company, my wife and I were amongst the more than 57 million people in the US that made up the “independent workforce,” AKA, freelancers. And we noticed the trend that amongst the basis of several factors, many clients chose to work with us because we were not an agency.
Countless clients shared a myriad of reasoning behind why they were not interested in hiring an agency for their website needs. They felt like they were just a number, that there were too many cooks in the kitchen, that there was too much red tape, that there was more time spent on process than actual work – and of course as no surprise to anyone, that agencies were simply too expensive.
Of course armed with this knowledge in our back pocket, as we continued to grow and add developers, designers and project managers to our team we knew we’d need to make a change to our business model, but were weary about labeling ourselves as an “agency”.
After much debate, we settled on “boutique agency,” because we felt it told a story of a company that’s growing, but still small and personal. And depending on who you are as a client, there can be some real benefits to that. However, at the end of the day, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and that’s where you need to weigh what carries the most value for YOU.
True developer talent is hard to come by, and as with most things, high quality comes with a price tag. It’s an age old tale; clients call and want their website rebuilt after 6 months, because they originally went with the cheaper option… needless to say, things were not done well.
The reality is, especially if you’re a small business just starting out, you may not have a huge budget to build your website, and that’s okay! It’s part of the life cycle of your business and eventually you’ll probably invest more, but you have to start somewhere. If you have a budget of $10,000 or less, chances are you’re going to be best off finding an individual freelancer to work with. They’re not carrying the overhead costs of a team, and there is plenty of great talent out there – you just may deal with limitations in aspects like timeline, because after all, there’s only so many hours a day one person can work – and you’re probably not their only project.
If you already have your web presence established; perhaps you’re ready to rebuild that site that was a starter investment, or you want to build upon your existing site to bring it up to date and add new functionality, you may be in a position where you have more of a web budget. This is where your decision becomes a bit tougher.
Could a fabulous freelancer take on your project and manage it efficiently? Or is it time to look for more of a team – team in most cases of course meaning, an agency. If you have design work, development in multiple languages, eCommerce functionality plus content, tight deadlines, highly customized functionality…chances are you need more than one person to help you.
Big agencies come with a big price tag, but in some cases there’s a lot to be said for a mountain of resources. Yes you may encounter communication hiccups waiting for updates to come down the chain of command for example – but if you have a huge project that you want to get done in a couple of months that requires hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours of development – the big agency is where you’re going to find the ability to put several developers on it at once to divide and conquer, and accelerate your timeline. At big agencies you’ll find you have a team of designers, developers, SEO experts, strategists, sometimes marketers, QA experts, data analysts and so on at your disposal – and generally speaking if you have anywhere from $200 to $400 per billable hour (we’re talking communication, project management, research and strategy – basically any time spent thinking about, talking about or working on your project) to spend for accelerated timelines and all of those experts under one roof, a big agency may indeed be a great fit for you.
What then, you may be thinking, is the benefit of a “small agency”? I can’t speak for all small agencies, but after an in-depth competitive analysis I can use Pineapple Development as an example to say that we come in at about 50% less expensive than our larger agency counterparts with comparable level talent and capabilities. So, there’s that 🙂
A smaller or small-ish agency will in essence provide you with a little bit of both worlds so-to-speak. There’s a team in place, so you will be able to find a comprehensive service offering, and in many cases for tight deadlines or projects with intricate pieces, you’ll have multiple people working on your project at once for speed and quality.
You’ll have coverage on your project even if someone is sick or on vacation, and with a team there are multiple checkpoints for quality assurance. What’s the age old saying? Two heads are better than one? Or 6 or 10…you catch the drift.
Things like SEO or in depth QA probably still need to be outsourced – your small agency can likely handle contracting those services for you, but it’s not something that’s going to come as “part of the package.” There may be cases where additional contracted developers need to be brought on, either to meet specific needs or time constraints. Not the end of the world, but you may have to exercise a little patience. It’s important to keep in mind that at this level you’re not working with a huge corporate company with virtually unlimited resources.
What we have specifically noticed amongst our own clients is that we are able to offer the opportunity of growth in tandem. We’re structured as an agency and we have organized processes and tools, but we’re still small enough to maintain a personal rapport with clients who decide to partner with us, and there’s still a certain level of flexibility that exists simply because we’re a tightly knit, compact team. So long as our clients have the ability to be a little flexible with us sometimes too, we can meet their needs at a fraction of the cost of the sharks of the web development agency world.
When you’re doing your due diligence and scoping out a web partner, remember, it’s not just about interviewing them regarding capabilities, but evaluating their business model to figure out if you’re a good fit for one another.
**This post originally appeared as an article on LinkedIn by our Co-Founder & CEO Donny Minchillo. You can view the original article here: https://linkedin.com/pulse/big-agency-prices-vs-small-limitations-everything-you-minchillo-jr/ **