The gig economy has been on the rise in recent years. An increasing number of professionals are preferring freelancing over full-time employment. One of the main characteristics of freelancing is the chance to work from wherever you want.
It’s projected that by 2027, 86.5 million people will be freelancing in the United States, which makes up more than half of the entire workforce in the country. An estimate by NASDAQ states that 43% of the U.S. workforce will be freelancing before the end of 2020. Professional services are a hot area in the freelancing world, filled with workers of various backgrounds including IT, marketing, design, engineering, and 3D CAD, among others.
Freelancers with a 3D CAD modeling background offer companies an effective way to boost financial growth, but hiring freelancers is not without risk. Here is a rundown of the pros and cons of hiring a freelance 3D modeler.
Pros
Freelancers are a blessing to all industries where CAD is used. CAD is not an option, but a necessity for companies dealing in entertainment, architectural design services, manufacturing, publishing, marketing, advertising, science, and healthcare, to name a few. Some of the advantages of hiring a freelance 3D modeler are as follows.
Cost Efficiency
The vast majority of freelancers work at home. They require no office space and typically use their own equipment. Freelancers are not considered employees yet they can help get the job done without adding to the headcount.
Lower Employer’s Risk
Because freelance 3D design services are not exactly employees, the company that hires them has no obligation to cover or pay for health insurance, annual bonuses, or other benefits. In case the freelancers fail to deliver, they are easier to terminate and replace.
No Training Needed
Freelance 3D rendering services are hired through a simple agreement between the parties involved. There is no need to go through a traditional recruitment process, let alone in-house training.
Freelancers who have been in the business for at least several years and have a good track record are most likely skilled enough to deliver what they offer. This means employers can hire freelancers and get to work immediately. No further training is necessary.
Flexibility
Some companies choose to raise no public funding during the early years of growth to avoid dilution. Full ownership of the company means more flexibility in just about every matter, whether that be product design, marketing approach, pricing, specialization, and so on.
However, the lack of external funding limits the company’s ability to achieve rapid growth. To help maintain flexibility while staying independent, hiring freelancers is an effective workaround. Even with very few full-time employees, the company can stay competitive in the market.
Fresh Perspectives
You probably want to hire freelance CAD drawing professional who has the same approach to design as the company, but sometimes you need independent workers for their fresh perspectives. Freelancers come from many different countries and educational backgrounds; each is affected by a set of distinctive cultures and life experiences.
A diverse team has a better chance at solving a complex problem quicker. Bringing just one freelancer into a collaborative team can help boost creative thinking, brainstorming, and problem-solving skill.
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When a company is at the start-up phase, there are periods filled with so much work that a small number of employees cannot keep up, followed by periods of almost nothing to do at all. Some businesses also work on a project basis, such as a marketing agency or small-scale custom manufacturing company.
At this point, cost efficiency and optimum productivity are of utmost importance. Hiring a full-time employee for every job makes little to no financial sense.
Cons
Behind all those advantages, there are some risks you have to consider. The freelance marketplace is filled with hundreds of consumer product design firms with different levels of expertise. Even if you manage to get in touch with the most experienced and qualified freelancer, it does not necessarily mean everything will run smoothly throughout the project.
Be thoughtful about the person you want to hire and think through whether the freelancer is indeed the right professional for the job to avoid/minimize the possibility of the following mishaps.
Poorly Executed Deliverables
You don’t have total control of how a freelancer handles the job. Some are newbies looking for more experience in the field and charge low prices to attract clients. They offer a seemingly great cost-saving benefit, but the quality of their work is unproven.
Frauds
Only look for a freelance product modeler via a marketplace that offers secure transactions and a money-back guarantee in case the deliverables fail to meet the already-provided requirements.
Inconsistent Style
Unless you’re working with the same freelance 3D modeler over and over again, it can be difficult to maintain a consistent design approach. Every 3D modeler has a personal preference.
Two modelers may use the same exact software for the exact same project, yet the end-result will be entirely different. It may not be a problem if you are looking for a one-time project-based 3D artist, but for projects that require a series of 3D models, hiring various 3D furniture modeling freelancers can be cumbersome.
Quality control is your burden. As an employer, you have to explain what is expected from the freelancer. Remember that repeated mistakes can cause a project to halt as revisions may take just as long to complete as the original work.
Conclusion
Hiring a Freelance 3D Modeler is a Sensible Option When:
- You have a small budget. The cost of having a full-time employee can be very high including expenses for the recruitment process plus all the money that goes into putting a person into the payroll. Working with freelancers can cut spending to a sizeable amount.
- The company needs to work on a project which requires a skill set that the existing team is lacking. For example, a client asks your company to create a video animation for social media marketing. However, there is only a small team working on the project and no one has that skillset. Since the company is still in the start-up phase of development, hiring a freelance architectural 3D modeling service for the job is unlikely to merit the payoff. Hiring a freelancer is the answer.
- The next hire must go through a series of evaluations which mainly involves real-world test. You can consider it a “try before you buy” approach. It is a common situation for a company that is actually ready to hire another full-time employee, but there is no budget for the full-blown recruitment process. If the freelancer you hire delivers excellent work, you can offer them a permanent role in the company. You can even set up a competition on an online 3D CAD freelancer marketplace to compare the results.
Hiring a Full-Time 3D Modeler is a Better Option When:
- You have the budget to bring a new professional into the team as a long-term member. Put in mind that budget is not the only consideration here. Hiring a full-time employee only makes sense if the new hire is indeed qualified to do the jobs for which the company has an overwhelming necessity. For example if your marketing agency takes enough orders to work on numerous video animations for multiple clients, hiring a full-time employee will simplify team collaboration to a large extent.
- Many projects require higher level of dedication. Freelance 3D modelers, no matter how skillful, are not dependent on the success of one particular client. They may want to keep you as regular employers, but many of them will not put your company’s success to their priority list. Full-time employees on the other hand are more motivated to the financial condition of the company because it directly affects their personal income too. A successful company can do a lot more to its employees. This is why full-time employees are likely to develop greater commitment to their employer.
- The position to fill requires constant oversight. Assuming the project is too complex to handle by the existing team, not to mention that your expertise and supervision are necessary throughout every step of the progress, hiring a freelancers can instead complicate the matter even more. It is true that some modern 3D CAD software allow for virtual collaboration via cloud storage and cloud computing, but such collaboration will not be as effective as the more direct face-to-face teamwork environment.
Communication and control remain the key to a successful collaboration, both with full-time employee and a freelance 3D solid modeler. As the former allows for stricter oversight, the latter provides cost-saving benefits. Thoughtful hiring and giving comprehensive project requirements increases your chances of getting the right freelance 3D modeler on board.
Cad Crowd Has a Network of Freelance Product Designers
At Cad Crowd, we have the privilege of working with hundreds of freelance product designers and 3D modeling services. If you’d like to get professional help, contact us today for a free quote.