How All-in-One Design Subscriptions Help Startups Scale Without Hiring Headaches

It might be like a full-time job to manage a group of freelancers. If you're trying to get a product off the ground, meet with investors, and keep your business going, the last thing you want to do is work with a bunch of freelancers to get a new landing page up and running.

That's where services like DashHQ come in. Having design, development, and marketing help in one subscription makes it much easier to run a growing business.

The Struggle with Freelancers

Imagine that your marketing lead gives the go-ahead for a redesign, but the designer unexpectedly vanishes halfway through. At the same time, your developer says the design files aren't ready to be used, and your SEO consultant is still looking for the correct keywords. You spent thousands of dollars over the course of a few weeks and haven't made much progress—just a long trail of emails and Slack messages.

This is not out of the ordinary. A new study found that most businesses spend at least 15 hours a month just managing freelancers. You might use that time to improve your product or chat with customers. If a company works with overseas talent, especially in Europe, firing someone can entail paying extra severance or dealing with tight employment laws. This is something that many small firms aren't ready for.

Why Subscription Design Services Make Sense

One Payment, No Payroll Hassles

DashHQ's subscription approach gives you a single bill for a defined number of hours per month: 40, 80, or 160. You don't have to worry about benefits, payroll taxes, or finding all the payments. This approach makes it considerably easier for agencies who sell design services to bill their clients.

Change Course Without the Headaches

Things that startups require change quickly. You can change or cancel your subscription with just a little notice if you decide to stop working on a project or change your focus. In some countries, it takes months of notice and extra charges to stop an employee's contract.

Access to a Full Team

Finding someone who can do everything, from branding to web development, is hard. DashHQ gives you a team of experts who can do many different things, so you're not stuck with just one person's expertise or schedule.

The Real Cost of Freelancers

Take Faybl, a fintech startup, for example. When they switched to DashHQ's full-time plan, their turnaround for new features dropped from nearly three months to just under three weeks. They also saw a significant drop in branding mistakes.

How to Get the Most Out of Your First Month

Gather Your Assets

Before you start, collect your logos, colour codes, and brand guidelines. This helps the DashHQ team develop a master brand book, so you don't have to deal with design problems later.

Prioritize Your Requests

Not every job needs to be done right away. Put your requests into three groups:

- P0: Problems that need to be fixed right away, such as faulty checkout pages

- P1: Projects that help you reach your key business goals

- P2: Things that are nice to have, like email templates or blog graphics

Putting comparable tasks together will help you make the most of your subscription hours.

When it's still a good idea to have an in-house team

Maintaining those responsibilities in-house is smart if your organisation relies on specialised technology or proprietary systems. However, a subscription service can help you stay flexible and avoid hiring too many people for most design, marketing, and web development tasks. Leah Tran, a growth advisor, says, "Paying $6,000 a month for design on demand is better than a $140,000 annual salary when you need to stay flexible."

The Takeaway

Subscriptions for all-in-one designs aren't just a way to save money. They let you stay flexible, avoid risk, and focus on the most essential thing: developing your business. When you're ready to grow, you can add extra hours without hiring or training new employees.

So, the next time you hear that your designer has quit, think about whether it's worth the trouble of dealing with a changing group of freelancers. Or is it time to let a team of professionals handle the creative work so you can focus on the big picture?

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