Can outsourcing really solve the pain of startups?

The troubles of searching for a designer

Recently, a friend with whom I have done training has been searching for a NB UED. I have a backlog of UIs on hand, and I am so anxious that I almost gave birth to a baby. A child. His company has just been established and is engaged in e-commerce. It is a typical start-up company. This guy has great vision and unique taste. He always despises the current proliferation of "fast food visuals" and criticizes the "local style" and "mountain flavor" caused by traditional industry advertising being out of touch with Internet tools.

As a friend, and as an HR with many years of experience in the Internet and e-commerce industry, I gave you advice: find a professional and comprehensive UED to solve the problem in a targeted manner. He talked eloquently and gave a lot of similar reasons, believing that outsourcing is the most cost-effective option.

Now, he wanders around Taobao and Zhubajie.com every day, looking for masters who can produce his soulful works. In fact, I know that my friends still consider costs and lack funds.

Virgo returns in anger

I received her WeChat message yesterday, with 60 angry expressions accumulated, plus 6 59-second full voice messages. I know that this perfection-seeking Virgo is full of her disgust, contempt, regret, and anger, and it is long overdue.

The general content is:

“I spent 3,000 yuan to outsource the design of a set of AI. As a result, all I produced in a week was “junk”, which distorted my creativity and disengaged me. The core of my product;

I spent another 1,000 yuan to find a designer and asked her to optimize it. The output was produced in three days, but the result was not as good as the previous one;

In the end I still found My friend helped me redesign it, and I sincerely spent 800 yuan on a feast. Unexpectedly, my friend was temporarily arranged to go on a business trip, and he has not yet left for work. The vector drawing is far away, and the product here is waiting for the graphic design. "

It’s really a sea of ??suffering, because the design thing increases the burden of starting a business, destroys high emotions, and most importantly, puts the entire team’s product launch time on hold.

Have you calculated the cost of outsourcing?

In fact, there are many such examples around us. Entrepreneurs are usually emotionally unstable because the affairs are cumbersome and one person has to work in several positions; because funds are limited, every penny has to be spent again and again; because there is not enough time, it is common to rush to work overtime, panda eyes. , Sadism and mania are all indispensable "diseases".

In real life, it is difficult to balance survival and dreams.

For the buddy who appeared in the previous paragraph, he chose outsourcing to solve some entrepreneurial problems. His investment was actually quite a lot. I helped him list the details:

Time cost-nothing Half a month of production value: 7 days for the first outsourcing design + 3 days for the second optimization + 1 day for dinner + redesign... N days

Expenses and costs - What did you do with 5,000 yuan? ? 3,000 yuan, 1,000 yuan, 800 yuan, there is no hope of redesign, there is no point in continuing to optimize, and the original manuscript is unsightly. Currently, he is in a dilemma of neither advancing nor retreating.

Energy cost - Are you tired? So tired! Design the product in the early stage, find suitable talents in the middle, compare prices and calculate costs in the later stage, and you have to pay for continued optimization.

Communication cost - talking too much will lead to tears. Communicating back and forth, confirming design ideas, revising repeatedly, hoping to achieve results, back and forth, there are piles of chat records, and the core point is actually just one sentence spoken in person.

Expectation costs - rock bottom. It took three days to publish the manuscript. I was originally full of expectations for the perfect visual presentation and the beating soul of the product. In the end, the three days of anticipation were replaced by "shock". Due to geographical and time constraints, the outsourced output seems to be another "her", one who makes you laugh or cry.

It is wise to properly learn to use money to solve problems

The fact is that everyone understands beautiful things differently, and everyone pursues different visual experiences. But my friend spent nearly 5,000 yuan and waited for 15 days in vain. In the end, he did not get a relatively satisfactory result. We have to reflect on the wisdom of learning to use money to solve problems appropriately in the process of starting a business. For example, sometimes, "recruitment" is undoubtedly the fastest and most efficient way to solve problems, and you have to choose.

Based on his company’s business scope and promotion channels, graphic design is in great demand. As a CEO, he should consider setting up a position and recruiting a UED to communicate design requirements face-to-face, convey the core concept of the product, clarify graphic requirements, and modify the first draft vector. Such work efficiency and graphic effects can never be achieved by outsourcing. "Reality" and "speed experience" are key. For this full-time designer, you can assign him a saturated workload and take on the main line of graphic design in the later stages of the company. The cost of this position may only be 5K. 8k or higher is actually the cost of going back and forth to find several different outsourcing teams. But for a CEO, you will have more time and energy to devote to other tasks.

Is 5,000 yuan worth it?

Here, I would also like to give you an example, which is also a case of design outsourcing that I encountered around me. Company A, an enterprise engaged in cross-border e-commerce supply chain management, was trying to design a logo that could represent the company's brand image. Since the team did not have a dedicated graphic designer, after careful consideration, the decision was made to "save trouble". For the need for a logo, we found outsourcing design. The quotes given by the outsourcing company were also professionally sorted according to service content:

They didn’t think much about it, so they chose the basic model. They thought about a logo, whether it was big or small, or small. Still gritting his teeth, Gaodaoshang chose the 5,000 yuan design team package:

On August 1, the two parties communicated for half a day to preliminarily clarify the service content, Company A’s design needs, and the publication time, and first Pay a design fee of RMB 60 and RMB 3,000;

On August 6, three sets of first drafts (jpg) were produced, no accidents occurred, and Company A was not satisfied. I think the designers didn’t understand it well enough, and the distinction between the three plans was not very big;

On August 6, I chose one of them that was closer to the product concept and revised it for the first time;

On August 7, the first revision of the drawing was completed. Company A thought that the font was wrong and the English translation was wrong, so it revised it again;

On August 7, the second revision was made and the drawing was published to provide product design concepts (relative to Pale, not accurately expressed)

On August 7, the manuscript was revised three times and the final payment was 2,000 yuan.

Company A knows that this is the best draft after three revisions, but it always feels that it is uncomfortable and wants several rounds of revisions and improvements, or on this basis, Overturn and start again, but the agreement limited to service content cannot be continued unless payment is accumulated.

Later I learned that the boss found his friends and made several rounds of optimization based on the outsourced AI. The design concept was ultimately output by the team members themselves.

Laibei’s Voice

We cannot deny that on many occasions, the outsourcing team has given full play to its advantages in efficiency and price, and has become more and more professional and standardized to meet market needs. . This is also the rise of an emerging industry in the Internet era. It uses the fragmented time of certain professional talents to create more economic value. At the same time, it also solves a certain type of social employment and the vacancies in the technology market to achieve Timely and effective replenishment. However, on the other hand, not all companies are suitable for outsourcing teams, and not all outsourcing businesses can find suitable manpower to complete. This also allows the entrepreneurial team to assume outsourcing risks, which may cause Waste of funds, waste of time, and ultimately the bearer of these losses is the entrepreneur.

Building a team is an essential part of the entrepreneurial process, and recruiting key positions is also an essential step.

We realize that starting a business may be hard, but it is not understood by others, and we are saddened by the fact that our abilities do not match our dreams. But at the same time, as entrepreneurs, we should deeply reflect on whether the direction of starting a business is correct, whether the method is scientific, and whether the investment is scientific. Whether time and energy are really used wisely, if you think about it carefully, you will find that the problem still lies with you.

Now that I have founded my own human resources studio, I help many Internet e-commerce entrepreneurial teams find talents every day and accurately match positions according to their needs. Most of the entrepreneurs I have contacted are dedicated to the two main lines of product and business, but few focus on team building. I also deal with many job seekers. I believe that they must be looking for a stable force in their hearts, a job that allows them to work with peace of mind all year round and pursue their dreams. The power of "stability" is to encourage employees to move forward and create a positive inner mind. The most effective emotional factor. I don’t feel that I am not qualified to share these and determine their inner path to find a sense of belonging, because I am fighting on the front line and face the most real entrepreneurs every day, and now, I am also an entrepreneur myself.

The company's organizational structure as I understand it must lead to a humanized management model with people as the core. On the one hand, we must give full play to the advantages of talents, specialize in a certain field, and continue to extend in depth; on the other hand, , Products and services output with human carriers must be presented in specific scenarios between communication and application. Only products that are bonded with the values ????of the team and the emotions of the members will eventually be accepted and recognized by the market. A good product must be able to solve certain social problems, and the social significance it reflects is higher than the corporate benefits itself.

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