Working Freelance From Home or Inhouse, Pros and Cons
Written by admin on Tuesday, 17 of April , 2007 at 3:33 pm
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.
Category: Freelance Graphic Design, Careers and Employment
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Comment by Howard Fillingham
Made Friday, 20 of April , 2007 at 1:20 pm
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.
Comment by Howard Fillingham
Made Friday, 20 of April , 2007 at 1:32 pm
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.
Comment by admin
Made Friday, 20 of April , 2007 at 1:37 pm
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
Comment by Steve Wordpressguy
Made Sunday, 22 of April , 2007 at 5:00 pm
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!
Comment by Ahsan R. Shami
Made Tuesday, 24 of April , 2007 at 1:06 pm
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.
Comment by admin
Made Tuesday, 24 of April , 2007 at 7:29 pm
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.
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.
Pingback by Freelance Pros and Cons : The Freelance Pro
Made Sunday, 2 of September , 2007 at 7:01 pm
[…] 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. […]
Comment by Holly Wise
Made Sunday, 28 of September , 2008 at 3:16 am
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!
Comment by Kanti Sharma
Made Saturday, 11 of October , 2008 at 2:15 am
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.