The Pros of Working Freelance from Home
- You can have your computer and system set up exactly as you want it
- You decide your own hours
- Less distractions than working in an office full of people
- You are not literally charging by the hour – if you finish job quickly you can move on to the next and so potential earnings can be higher
- No travelling
- If you have children it is far more flexible
- You can wear your pyjamas to work
- Your own resources, books, mags etc all to hand
The Cons of Working Freelance from Home
- If you are a sociable person you may find it lonely working on your own
- You can never escape from the office
- Cost of setting yourself up with your own equipment
- Keeping up to date with the lastest software and design trends/news
- You are not literally charging by the hour – if adesign job takes you longer than expected you can lose out.
The Pros of Working Inhouse at a Design Agency
- Guaranteed pay for the hours you are there
- The Social aspect
- Keeping in touch with what is happening in the design world
- Making new contacts
The Cons of Working Inhouse at a Design Agency
- If you finish a job quickly the agency gains not you
- Distractions from colleagues
- Working on a computer system with fonts and a set up you are not used to
- That nervous first day of a new job feeling when working for new people – not great for creativity
- Travelling
Can anyone suggest any more? Comments welcome.
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16 Comments
Cons
If you work on your own long enough, I think your creativity and your enthusiasm (eventually) suffers. It’s better to be around other creatives for keeping the mind fresh. IMHO.
Cons
If you don’t aleady do web design as a freelancer, eventually you’re going to have to learn, again IMHO. It’s another string to your bow and as we all know, work can dry up without much warning and it hurts to turn web work away when the design & print work does dry up.
Hi Howard,
Thanks for your comment.
In some ways I agree I think it depends on the individual. For me, I find working inhouse makes me less creative as I feel to pressurised to produce the goods really quickly, but a friend of mine quite enjoys working inhouse.
I have a couple of designer friends on MSN who are a big help when I am stuck or need a critique.
Tara
The biggest downside to working in an agency has to be the distractions, but they are also sometimes the biggest advantage. Taking ideas from someone elses failed pitch can save HOURS!
I just came off a year-long stint at two ad agencies and left feeling quite relieved by my departure.
While it’s always great to learn from working on big-name brands, I often found it very limiting because of the rigidness of brand guidelines.
There’s also too much of “Get it done fast and get it out fast” going on for my liking
When that becomes all you do, it’s easy to lose motivation and stop trying.
Back on my own, I tend to get smaller clients, or smaller jobs from big clients, and there seems to be a lot more freedom to experiment.
The smaller clients generally are the most eager because they have the smallest budgets and need their design work to be a bit of a megaphone for them.
I know what you mean about working for big brands. In the past I have worked for some big clients (through agencies) and like you say, their guidelines are so rigid, there is little scope to be creative.
I think working freelance would really suit me and my style of working (I’m easily distracted).. I’m still a uni student though studying design but I’ve been doing my own freelance work on the side and really enjoying it, however, when I finish up uni this year I think I could learn a lot from working in a studio and hopefully, I’ll venture off and do my own thing once I’ve got that experience.. So, I guess a pro for studio work might be learning about the business from professionals, especially from my perspective..Great post btw!
I have done it all, started my own little freelance business, it grew to become a 30 people setup. Then things started going bad and I had to shut it down.
Then picked up a job at a fairly senior position.
Which one was the best, all in all I believe working in a company is the best – sorry for going against the flow.
It is best when you are working someplace where there are people who you can interact with, and the interaction is with your peers or superiors.
That said it does help if you keep on doing something of your own too, that keeps on bringing new ideas.
Great stuff!
When working at home and doing freelance stuff. It can be more distracting than working in the office if you have younger kids who are always in need of their parent.
Thanks for sharing!
Depending on how many people you live with, you can have more distractions at home than in an office. But It’s worth having a list like this so you can send to your friends who think working from home is a piece of cake.
Hi… I am desperate to set up my own small design business working from home on my own initially but maybe growing the business if things take off. The only draw back is I don’t have the first clue how to go about it! lol. I’ve always worked in agencies so have no experience of going it alone. Any advice for a newbie?
Would also love a job working from home for an agency but these type of jobs just don’t exist!
Hi
Some agencies do let you work from home – I do some work for marketing companies etc at home.
Have you tried doing a bit of freelance work in you spare time? I started freelancing by sendind a load of letters out to local design agencies and design companies I had worked for in the past. Some of them gave me inhouse work. When I first started freelancing the majority of my work was working inhouse for agencies when they were busy or someone was on holiday. Gradually though I have picked up more direct work mainly through my websites. I would say set up a blog and portfolio website start writing and advertising your services. Hopefully others may have some more advice for you.
Good luck
I find it harder to manage clients on my own.. easier when working for a design agency. Maybe because you are freelance, your time is not valued as much and they see you as less professional.. therefore willing to do 1001 changes and then another 1001 changes or more because your time is not as valuable.
Hi Alyssa,
Its always hard to manage changes. I try and build something into my quote for them and also put something like price includes minor changes, extensive changes chargable at £XX per hour
Well not sure what to make of this. I have been at home with my children for the past 3 years, I need to get back to work and I am trying to decide whether to do some freelance work or go back to an in house environment, I am finding the decision quite hard.
Hi Kara, There is no reason you can’t have the best of both worlds. When I started off I did mostly inhouse work when design agencies needed an extra pair of hands, but also did some work from home direct for clients. As long as you plan it all in a diary/planner it should work out ok. I personallt prefer working from home, but the advantage of inhouse is it is much more social if you want to get out and meet people.
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[...] Working Freelance From Home or Inhouse, Pros and Cons is a brief summary of what’s good and bad about both freelancing and working full-time as a designer. Most of the obervations, though, are true for all sorts of freelance or employment situations. [...]