What guarantee do you have that this building company does all the work in-house ? Any ?

They will sub-contract some parts (99% of time): roofing, electricity, water, whatever…, to some specialist in that field… It's not "pure outsourcing" since it local real life… but same process.

Let's take another example : GM, the car maker… Do you think they build in house all the parts of your car ? Do you even think what's sub-contracted is 100% produced in the US ?

Are you aware of where your car's brakes are made? lights? seats?gear-box ? and by whom ?

No, because you buy a GM made car. And anyway, you don't care, bcs you buy a GM car. And GM is responsible for the quality !

I don't think freelancers should say "btw, I outsource this part" when this does not apply for any other company !

If a client has done basic research he should have a ruff idea of what he is buying and how much it costs. Then to him to ask "Why so cheaper ?" or "How come you are expert everywhere?"

This is kind of silly, if I may !

Why silly ?

- You can outsource some part of a job in order to get higher quality. (for same money)

- You can outsource to have lower cost. (with same quality)

- You can outsource to speed up production in order to meet deadline. (bcs you are late since you are dead busy but don't want to pay penalties)

So? What'd be your call ?

I don't get the idea of been against outsourcing because.. .well… "because I am against !!"

You can build up a team of expert and manage that team, produce high quality work. Who's going to suffer ?

Now indeed, you hit another field of job, more project management than "design" or however you want to call it; but when you got your own business, and hopefully got to get a few clients at the same time, search for the future at the same time etc… well, doesn't it comes to a few hours of PM a day ?

And when you business is so packed with orders for 1 month or so… what are you going to do ? Turn down clients ? sleep 2 hours a night ? hire someone for 1 month ? Or outsource a couple of tasks ?

Many companies do, I agree, outsource with only in mind the idea of profit, pay less charge more, but that's not everything behind outsourcing and this eventually fails as quality is missing.

You can outsource as well, with great outcome, for 1 million good reasons !

Note : I am an outsourcer. The money is ok in the country I live in, would not allow to survive in yours, for sure.

The only pride I have & take is in the quality of the apps I deliver to my clients. I have no credits, not recognition or all that, only the satisfaction of quality work.

It makes me feel really really uncomfortable.

Microsoft, Virgin

http://hicksdesign.co.uk/

Opera, Linotype, Firefox

Honestly, it's a myth and an excuse that big companies won't work with individuals.

And before you say "but I'm not Elliot Jay Stocks" then that doesn't change anything!

Who's fault is that? If the reason you're not getting work is because you're not as good as someone who is then deal with it. Either get better or accept you're gonna deal with smaller clients.

But don't think for a second that not being able to say "we" is the issue.

Big companies don't want 2 sh*t people over 1 talented one!

Just another point .. do you honestly think big companies don't check up on you first?

But to be honest, what’s the difference between you pretending you have staff and you pretending you’re an 33 year old bloke with stubble and a bit of a spare tyre?

Hey, I resemble that remark!

Not quite the age, but it’s close enough to hit hard… ;-)

Nonsense.

They'll use an individual. It's all in your head.

You don't believe they'd want you .. and so you probably never asked.

It's like saying "that stunning girl would never go our with an bloke like me."

Actually, she probably would. I've seen stunning girls with ugly blokes (that aren't rich) .. it's probably at least partly down to the fact the ugly bloke she's with actually asked her out .. and partly down to the confidence he had.

It's the same with a big company. If you don't ask them .. or you don't put across the plus points of being an individual, sure they won't hire you. But that's your fault for not selling yourself well enough.

Plus points of being an individual:

- you're a big client to me. Not like some big ad agency where you're just another number to invoice. I'll pull out all the stops for you.

- I'm cheaper, because I have lower overheads

- You spend less money and get a better developer to boot! An ad agency charges you £100/hr and in return you get a £10/hr developer. The rest goes on overheads and profit. I charge you £35/hr and you get a £35/hr developer. My overheads are lower, and I'm not passing the work on to some junior who's not that good.

- I don't mean to be rude, but I'm better than the agency. They can't afford me – that's why I'm freelance. They have to hire somebody cheaper.

Etc etc etc

As for the "for complex projects" bit. You shouldn't take on projects that are too complex for you anyway, so if that's an issue you're pitching for the wrong work.