Off the Cuff: How Freelancers Can Contribute to Your Bottom Line

There’s more than a few tricks to finding and hiring the right freelancers, and building trust and loyalty so they’ll be available when you need them.
Feb 2, 2009

By Mark L. Venit, MBA, Contributing Writer

Do you recognize any of the following scenarios?
• Your top artist just quit his job at your screen printing shop and you have a custom job that will bog down the rest of your art staff, which is already on overload.
• You're exhibiting your new preprint line at a January trade show and you're far from completing your spring designs.
• You have a talented illustrator on staff, who you want to be creating custom logos and other artwork. You also have too much production-oriented graphics work that doesn't require a lot of skill — such as lettering, downloading clipart, scanning a provided logo and simple design composition.

Chances are that you can recognize some of these situations in your own company's history.  You also have learned it's not simple to find good temporary help when the pressure is on. And you've also asked, "Where can I find freelance artists in my own back yard?" That about sums up the frustration in trying to locate competent artists who can also read a calendar, tell time, has a working telephone number, understands simple directions and who's not a prima dona.

Whether your quest is for artists who can execute custom graphics for local accounts or to design work for preprint lines, where to find artists isn't rocket science, but it does entail a proactive regimen that rewards initiative and follow-up.

The Internet has made things easier as you can now engage an artist just about anywhere on the planet. Source affordable freelancers via any search engine. If you type — "freelance artists" T-shirts — in a search box, you will generate 100,000-plus returns. Scrolling through just the first few pages will yield ample initial resources. The more progressive members of the talent pool provide online portfolios, so you can quickly see their strong suits and general experience level.

But that new asset won't help if you need to hire local help for political reasons, have situations that call for face time with an artist, or your simply prefer to deal locally. And how many times have we gotten excited about finally finding the right freelancer, only to learn the hard way that he or she is undependable?

Except for the most rural outposts in North America (where sourcing freelance art via the Internet is becoming more critical than ever), there are plenty of candidates for freelance work in your neck of the woods.  So, where are they?

The best sources include places where graphic art is done or contracted, where graphics artists go to get assignments (e.g., ad agencies), where they buy art supplies and/or where they take — or teach — art courses. Some would-be freelancers also lurk around the community working in occupations outside the art world just to pay the bills.   

In Part 2 on finding freelance artists, we'll explore how to find the right person or persons at  nearby colleges, universities and art institutes;  advertising agencies and art studios; high school art teachers; art supply stores; art galleries; and soliciting artists from local competitors.   I'll include some little-known sure-fire mechanisms that guarantee you'll find solutions to art dept. overload and peak season crunches.

A HISTORICAL NOTE
Freelance and freelancers.  Strange terms, eh?   How, might you wonder, did the terms come to be?  

I know something about that because the words have medieval roots, and I have had a lifelong fascination with castles and all things medieval, including the Arthurian legend. I've visited hundreds of castles and my rather eclectic home is filled with medieval and Renaissance art, furniture, tapestries, wrought iron furnishings, gargoyles, heraldic ornaments, and fleur-de-lis trimmings and fabrics.   

The term "free lance" developed during extended periods of peace in medieval Europe. The demand and budget for military personnel would diminish and skilled knights and soldiers often joined the ranks of the unemployed. Fortunately for them, though, there was always a war or two in progress elsewhere on the Continent.

Job prospects and pay scales were excellent for those "free men" who could carry a lance and respond quickly to a call to arms from a distant realm. "Free men" was a legal term for males who had no debts or encumbrances, were not indentured or apprenticed to anyone, and who owed no obligations to the crown.  

These men were free to travel at will and to wherever they chose, and, as professional warriors, also were free to be engaged by foreign rulers.

Essentially they were mercenaries-on-call and earned — in their heyday — the equivalent of hefty six-figure salaries. Most of that pay was extracted by the victorious warriors looting and pillaging a vanquished land.

Hence, a "free lance," or later "free lancer," was a sought-after personage, valuable not only for his craft, but also for his prompt availability. I don't know how many of them could draw much of anything, though, other than their swords!

Click here to access "How Freelancers Can Contribute to Your Bottom Line — Part 2."

Mark L. Venit, MBA, is president of Apparel Graphics Institute Ltd., Ocean Pines, Md., which provides management and marketing consulting and proprietary research to apparel graphics companies throughout the Americas and Europe. He also is the chairman of ShopWorks Software LLC, a provider of industry-specific business software. Venit teaches pricing, strategic marketing, salesmanship and other business management topics at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows. You can reach him at markvenit@cs.com.