If you want to be successful in building courses, you must have experts by your side. Whether for marketing or product management, you will have to look for some agencies or freelancers that could do the job for you. But it could not be obvious to determine your requirement on the type of support that you need.
The most prioritized and traditional option would be to hire an agency with similar expertise and track record in the same industry sector. But it is entirely dependent on your requirements. A chance is that an individual freelance consultant might suit your business better and fulfills your needs efficiently.
You will have to choose an option depending on your budget, type of business, and the kind of support you are looking for. We will discuss both options' significant advantages and disadvantages so that you can have a comprehensive comparison before making a decision. However, agencies have always been the better and more reliable option since the start and cannot be ignored.
If you are considering choosing a freelancer to help you build courses, you must consider all the pros and cons before making any decision.
Let's start with the pros of hiring a freelancer while building courses:
Affordable Option
You might be aware that freelancers are a more cost-effective option than hiring full-service agencies. As freelancers are self-employed, they have fewer overheads, yet they offer their efficient skills at a more affordable rate. So, if you have a low budget, this might be a more suitable option for you and won’t be too heavy on your pocket.
Specialized Skills
Most freelancers have a great experience because they have worked with different agency workers before offering their skills independently. They have had sufficient time to work on their skills, specialize in their craft, and know their way around their services. So, if you are looking for high expertise like agencies in a cost-effective range, you can get a freelancer with sufficient experience.
Better Communication
Hiring a freelancer means that you will be directly contacting the person who is working on your project. You will not have to tell the director or the account manager all the requirements and details, which is the case in agencies. Therefore, with a freelancer comes better communication overall without any hindrance or misconception.
Flexibility
As you work with an individual, freelancers tend to be more flexible than agencies. With agencies, you have to be more professional and set up a whole plan with a long-term contract, and everything is settled before the actual work begins. In contrast, there is always a space for change when it comes to freelancers. They can mix it up easily and quickly for you and will manage their support according to your requirements.
You know the Person
When you hire a freelancer to do the job for you, you hire an individual you know. By developing a personal relationship with the freelancer, you can quickly create a practical approach and a suitable work style that will fit the freelancer and your company. In the case of agencies, you usually don't know the individual working on your project, so you could not build any personal relationships with them.
Now that we know the multiple advantages of hiring freelancers, it is time to discuss the disadvantages for a better understanding.
Limitations
When working with an individual freelancer, there are always some limitations, both in time and workload. If you have a more significant project that requires more time and attention, you might not be able to get it from a freelancer. So, if you trust a freelancer for a more significant project, you must know that you will be compromising on the quality of the outcome you will get.
Not too Versatile
Freelancers focus on a single skill set or a craft and are not too versatile. Therefore, if you are looking for a wide variety of services, you will have to seek help from a full-service agency or a team of freelancers who offer all the services you are looking for. Therefore, versatility is a significant problem when it comes to freelancers.
Delays are Inconvenient
As freelancers spend a limited time on a project, there can be severe delays if you have a more significant undertaking and a lot of work. These delays can be a big problem, mainly if you have limited resources. You can only afford the loss caused by these delays if you have enough resources at your disposal. Therefore, when it comes to freelancers, you should always be ready for delays and know how to compensate for the losses.
Fewer Reporting and Management Structures
Freelancers do not provide the reporting and management structure that are a specialty of agencies. Moreover, you cannot go up the command level to the complaint. Also, freelancers have no boss to examine and polish their work and are on their own. This is one of the reasons why freelancers are not as professional as agencies.
Most companies' traditional and preferable option is choosing an agency to build the course or any other work. Just like we have discussed the pros and cons of choosing a freelancer, it is time to discuss the pros and cons of agencies.
Here are some reasons that make agencies far better than freelancers and the advantage you and your company build the courses.
More Resources
The diversity of a project, extra workload, and delays are not at all as the agencies have more significant resources. Agencies have enough human resources and a variety of skill sets; that is not the case with freelancers. They can easily add and remove people with specific skills on the project according to the requirements.
The agencies also have a variety of software, licenses, and equipment to deal with all kinds of jobs. Therefore, if you have a diverse or expandable project, you must choose an agency, not a freelancer.
Wider Network
An agency means that there will be more contacts and connections to rely upon, which can benefit your project or the company. You should ensure a more comprehensive network, especially for PR campaigns and marketing purposes. Also, a big agency will be the perfect option if you want to interact with more journalists and influencers.
So, it would help if you chose an agency depending on the goals and objectives of your company. An agency with over forty people would have more connections and contacts than a single freelancer. Thus, you should ensure that you benefit from a more comprehensive network of people with specialized skills and experience in their craft.
More Accountable
In an agency, a manager will be appointed to look over your project. They will provide you with all the information you need about your project, from the progress and reports to the results achieved. If there is anything wrong with the working of the project or there are any delays, it is the manager who looks through everything and sorts it out immediately.
Therefore, accountability is one of the significant benefits you get from hiring an agency. You can hold the agencies accountable for whatever issues or delays in the project and ensure that it is sorted out within no time.
Professional Services
An agency hires a group of highly proficient people with different skill sets depending on their craft. Therefore, you will not have to worry about anything while trusting an agency to help build a course. They ensure that everything is done professionally without reason to complain.
If you have a more prominent company or a more significant project, you must ensure that you are availing of professional services to get the job done. There shouldn’t be any chance of a mistake or a problem if you want to achieve your targeted goals.
No limitations
Unlike freelancers, there are no limitations on time or workload. You can put on as much workload on them as you want and demand time according to your work requirements. In agencies, they are used to dealing with many different jobs at a time and do not care about the workload, which is one of the significant benefits of choosing an agency.
Also, freelancers do not give all their time to a single project. A chance is that they are working on another project and working for you, and you cannot demand them to give all their time to your project. This results in delays and losses. That is why considering trusting an agency is always better.
Let’s discuss some cons of hiring agencies as well.
More Expensive
Agencies have more overheads than freelancers. Unlike freelancers, they have to pay the whole team and maintain their offices. This is why they charge more for their services which is quite understandable and fair.
Less Flexible
Agencies are not as flexible as freelancers. They cannot switch to different teams or reduce their working hours just how they like, which is familiar to freelancers. But this has a more positive effect than a negative one as it ensures you will have more professional services.
From the discussion above, we can conclude that agencies are the preferable option when choosing between freelancers and agencies. Even though they charge more, they ensure exceptional professionalism and reliable services no matter what. So, if you want to build a course, an agency with a team of project managers, instructional designers, eLearning developers, and voice-over artists will be the best option.
By choosing an agency, you will be getting all-in-one services, while if you consider choosing a freelancer, you will have to find people with different skill sets and work with them all. You will not have to do anything with an agency as the project manager will do it all for you. The agencies will update, and you can make the changes in the project however you want. Because of these reasons, agencies have always been the traditional and preferable option.