Crowdsourcing has come to stay. There are now a lot more skilled freelancers you can work with on most business requirements. The opportunities are endless for entrepreneurs who need projects done but don’t have huge budgets to hire agencies or contractors to work with.
Most startups don’t have huge offices. A lot of entrepreneurs don’t even have offices. It’s okay. As long as you are getting work done and making progress, there is no reason why you shouldn’t pursue your goals or dreams. If you run a small business (or even a one person business) with little resources to hire a design firm, you will at some point need the services of a designer (unless you think you are better than a professional designer and can do your design work yourself). Your logo, website, brochure or any graphic design requirements can easily be crowdsourced whilst you concentrate on your core business.
Here is why design crowdsourcing makes a lot of sense.
Crowdsourcing is the process of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. Millions of people all over the world are using crowdsourcing services such as 99Designs (their logo services are extremely popular) or DesignCrowd with great success. This trends is growing fast and can only get better.
The services of an independent graphic designer or design firm is way more expensive than hiring a designer from crowdsourced sites. If you are not ready to hire a permanent designer for your business, you should seriously consider crowdsourcing. You will have access to thousands of designers and you get to choose which one to work with based on your specific requirement. When managed well, crowdsourcing can be a significant part of your business process.
How to better understand how crowdsourcing works.
Tips for crowdsourcing your next design project successfully.
Crowdsourcing makes it insanely easy to benefit from the best and most skilled people across the world. Crowdsourcing sites expose expertise and experience of many people at the same time. With reference to design, you will be selecting from hundreds of some of the most skilled designers.
1. Take due diligence seriously. Don’t take the decision to choose a designer lightly. Don’t make a selection from the hundreds who apply to work on your project or submit initial design without looking into their past assignments. What do past customers say about them? How do they communicate with their customers? Do they have a lot more positive reviews or too many negative ones? On selecting a favourite, you should thoroughly review the designs, run a voting poll, give feedback, and interact with the designers until you get the design you truly want and love.
This can clear your doubts about the designer you are about to work with. If you don’t understand anything, most crowdsourced sites have answers to most questions customers may have. If some of your colleagues have crowdsourced design projects in the past, you can ask them about what worked and what not to do. Educate yourself about how the process works. Some people doubt that they may not get a legal right over their designs from a crowdsourced site. Most reputed sites ensure transferring these rights to clients. You don’t have to worry about that.
2. Your should clearly define the outcome you want. The best way to get the most from the most skilled graphic designers is to know exactly what you want. Your requirements should not be ambiguous. Provide detailed description in your project brief. Make it simple to understand. It’s your work or project and you are the best person who understands exactly how the final deliverable should look like.
The more information you provide, the better. Some designers provide multiple options for you to choose from. But in the end the choice is always yours.
3. Communication is key. And when you have successfully selected a designer, communication should be paramount. You don’t want to waste time getting something done which doesn’t meet your requirement in the end. Communicate with the designer constantly to make sure he or she is doing your work exactly as you want it. If initial designs don’t align with your needs, revise and clarify. Provide designers with fast, frequent and better feedback. Most designers understand what you are asking and will quickly send updated designs.
Crowdsourcing works for millions of people. It’s not limited to design alone. Whatever your needs, always look for options where a crowd of talented people can help you whilst you take care of your core business.
Sponsored by DesignCrowd