How to grow from freelancer to a company?

[chow choppe]

Hi everyone

 

I am a freelancer from india and i am facing a serious problem with my visualization profession these days which has put me in a lot of thinking process.

When i started i was the only one working for myself and the projects were not very big and managebale. slowly slowly as happens with everyone the work scale and quantity kept on increasing . Now when i want to expand there are a few questions coming to my mind which scare me a lot

 

1.) I hired a full time employee to asist me with my 3d modelling. but still i have to do the renderings myself because i have to maintain the same quality as i used to deliver when i was working alone. Now the new employee doesn't have that quality and cannot render images like i do but then what help is he to me if he can't handle a project if i am not in office for a day . its true that he is helping me with my 3d models but then still the rendering pressure is on me. that means i teach him what i have learnt over the years But then i am also preparing someone to compete with me in the market. Because once he feels that he is getting a better pay package somewhere else he might want to shift but then i am again at the same stage looking for a new guy and again train him. So how to go about it

 

2.) I have a collection of libraries that i have built over the years and its like a treasure for any CG artist. but they need to be used in the scenes and most of the times in post productions. How can i make sure that those don't go out of the office. How can i make my office more secure so that any new person that comes should not be able to take it home in a cd , DVD or pen drive or external HDD. i am totally lost with this. The same is true in case of project files also. They should be able to use it inside the office only. This specific problem can be there in any field not just visualization. So how to deal with this?

 

3.) Even i don't want to work alone all my life and i believe working as a team is the only option to convert a freelancing job into a company. But how to make that possible. I don't have answer to this.

 

So i would really appreciate if people running these kind of companies small or big can ive their suggestions

 

Thanks in advance

[jucaro]

for your file management problem, you might want to implement file encryption, so that files copied outside of your network will become unusable. But setup for rights and access management will be a bit tricky.

 

For personnel training, thats the risk you have to take. Should you work on your own and make the growth slow? Or hire a more able and trustworthy assistant to make your life a bit easier?

 

If your guy will want to spread his wings and fly after he gains some experience and knowledge, then you should be proud of yourself that you were his mentor.

 

We've all had this dilema one way or another in this trade of ours. And IMO, the bottom line is how we treated our employees or coleagues. They either become our competitors and or partners.

 

Cheers.

[claudio velarde]

for your file management problem, you might want to implement file encryption, so that files copied outside of your network will become unusable. But setup for rights and access management will be a bit tricky.

 

how can do that?

[thinice]

Actually, I have tried that before and decided that it was not worth the hassle in my situation. I am now back to freelancing.

 

What I learn in order to work as a company:

 

1. You must be able to break down the workflow into individual sets, so that each member of the team can specialise on what they do best. Mainly, it is very difficult to find somebody who can do everything who would want to work for you. Once you have trained somebody well, if they still need other team members to finish up a job, it is less likely they will want to go out on their own.

 

2. You must find bigger jobs. I used to take 3 to 4 jobs a month on my own. Imagine when I have 3 staffs, i need to find 15-20 jobs a month to maintain the team. Even with the team backup, it was a terrible headache.

 

3. You must find jobs that can be handled by the team without your detailed intervention. Otherwise, it makes no sense to have the team but you still have to run all over the place.

 

So, my advise is to work backwards. If you can secure jobs that can fill the above criterias, you should proceed to form a team. Otherwise, you are better off freelancing.

 

Just my 2 cents (from someone who did not make it...)

[3dSol]

great thread, it would be nice to have some opinions from the established firm members that post often

 

good luck to the ones looking to grow, & may 2008 be the year!!

[Nils Norgren]

I can give my experience growing our company, although we never were exactly in the same position as a sucessfull freelancer. We started as 3 partners, each doing our part when starting our company.

 

To grow we had to take many risks, make some mistakes, bring in others with more business experience. Growing a company is something that is not easy or has an simple formula. One thing that was true for us in our situation is, that to grow there will be less and less of doing the work and more lawyers, bankers, selling, accountants, managing, administration, and client management. One inherent fact is that to grow you need to live beyond your comfort zone, if you only have the work for one person, then there is no reason to involve more.

 

Employees can be very complicated and you have already pointed out some of the pitfalls. One of the things that has served us well is we try to hire people better than we were. Finding people has always been a barrier for us.

 

One thing that has been tough is that US law makes hiring people from outside the company is expensive and difficult. If this is not a problem then you are in a good situation, there are many talented people around the world, who are looking for work.

 

I think that being a business owner, is an entrepreneurial situation, being a freelancer is not. To have a successful company is rewarding but it can be scary, "what do we do if we can't make payroll?" "We need to spend $XXX,XXX on software and hardware to get things rolling?"

 

One thing you will have to do is sell, sell sell, and when you are ready to stop, sell some more. If you grow large, expect to hire salespeople and if they are successful (you want this problem) there is the chance you will pay them large salaries/commission.

 

Good luck and take all the advice you can get, hopefully this 2¢ helps,

 

-Nils

[Horhe]

- Hire vizual artists that are good in what they do. Then you wont have to teach them. No point in hiring someone who doesnt know what to do in their job, and need someone to point at everything step by step. The drawback of this is that the better someone is, the more money they will want.

 

- Distinguish between who you need. Normally this breaks up roughly into two categories: Senior viz artist and Junior viz artist.

 

While the junior wiz artist does all the modelling, the senior artist sets up lighting, shaders, camera etc.. and renders the image complete.

 

Cheers

[3dSol]

NilsN & Horhe, those are some pretty great comments

 

I guess that as a freelancer one would have to grow financially onto a level in which one can afford to hire first help, otherwise create associations like NilsN has, in order to either risk your own resources or share the risk

 

have you found people in the legal and marketing sector willing to be associated, share a vision, resources and the risks, for commissions ?

 

"i'm sleepy":p

[Claudio Branch]

 

One of the things that has served us well is we try to hire people better than we were.

 

-Nils

 

Is this part of the change in mindset from being a freelancer to being an entrepreneur?

 

The process involved in creating a 3D rendering or animation is my passion. It sounds like to become a successful business entity, you must be willing to expand your passion beyond modeling, texturing and lighting.

[EddieLeon]

i believe working as a team is the only option to convert a freelancing job into a company

 

Teamwork is what it is all about. If you can find one or two good friends/business partners then you will have a much greater chance of succeeding in creating a 3d company. It takes a lot of hard work and skill in many different areas (Sales, Marketing, Accounting/Collections, Client Management, HR, etc). One person cannot do it all. It's impossible. You will need to focus on what you are best at (and enjoy the most) and have your team take care of the rest.

 

I was fortunate to have met my business partners while working at an architecture firm. We worked so well together that we new when we started our company that we would be successful. Keep in mind when selecting a partner or hiring an artist, talent is important, but work ethic and good moral character is by far the most important.

 

One more thing, there are a lot of other freelance artists and studios that would like to work with you. So if you get too much work you can source some of the work to them. Sales is the main thing that will guide your business growth. So polish up your demo reel, create a nice brochure, and start pounding the pavement. In other words, start selling your services like a mad man

 

Good Luck!

Eddie

[EddieLeon]

It sounds like to become a successful business entity, you must be willing to expand your passion beyond modeling, texturing and lighting.

 

Yes, but even successful freelancers must have excellent business skills. The difference is really just a choice of either staying 100% involved in the art of creating beautiful renderings or being mostly involved in trying to run a successful business. I like both, but running a business is very time consuming. So I only have time to review and comment on our projects. Fortunately, the business side is a different challenge that can also be very rewarding and satisfying. It's definitely worth a try.

[Claudio Branch]

 

One more thing, there are a lot of other freelance artists and studios that would like to work with you. So if you get too much work you can source some of the work to them.

 

 

What is your advice for finding and cultivating these types of mutually benefitting "business partners?"

 

"Pounding the pavement" somewhat implies "cold-calling", but if it works...

[EddieLeon]

Good business partners are usually people you meet at school or at work. These are people that probably still live in your city. It's critical that you know and trust these people very well. By the way, I don't advise involving family members.

 

If there isn't anyone that you can think of then I recommend you find another freelancer that you can team up with. If you get along great after at least 1 year then you should consider that person.

 

Yes. "Pounding the Pavement" does imply a little bit of cold calling. But, if you have a friend at an architecture firm, agency, or developer it will make the whole process a lot smoother. Also, you must make a presentation in person in order to be taken seriously and to start developing a relationship with the prospective client.

 

Also, target the "low-lying fruit". These are the clients that would be the easiest to get. Usually, you get most of your projects from local companies so don't spend too much time and energy on other markets. If you are in Florida, then you probably don't have a choice JK

[Claudio Branch]

Sounds like I might need to make some friends in Florida!

 

Excellent advice for anyone wading into the deep entrepreneural waters...

[EddieLeon]

Sounds like I might need to make some friends in Florida!

 

Excellent advice for anyone wading into the deep entrepreneural waters...

 

Hmmm....You never know. I do have an eye on the Dallas market

[Claudio Branch]

DFW & North Texas in general are seeing alot of growth. I work for a "Big E-Little A" firm and we have had record bookings in the last two years.

 

I have a unique situation because the majority of my CG projects are for large-scale civil infrastructure. Sometimes I assist our architecture people on sites with really heavy modeling work involved. I would definately like to do more of it.

 

Like I said, Texas is growing. I am sure that you could do well here too...

[EddieLeon]

Sounds great. Thanks for the info. I plan on going to Dallas soon. I'll keep you posted...

[Spooner04]

We should all go have some drinks.

[EddieLeon]

Sure. I haven't been to Dallas before so you'll need to show me where the nice bars are at

[Spooner04]

If you want to go to "nice bars" plan on a $20 cover charge and me not being there. I could take you to the good bars, but I've been married for several years, and I'm not sure if they are even there any more.

[alias_marks]

Great thread, and great to hear from some industry experts. I agree with some others on the subject and really try to surround yourself with others that are better than you. In the end this will help to build your results to something greater and better than you could have ever achieved on your own. Find out what it is that you add and are best at, as well as all your team members. Accept it, and then figure out how to capitalize everyone's talents. Use everyone to their fullest potential for whatever it is they're best at.

 

This will also help with the worries about having to do all the finish work yourself. In addition, I would never worry about passing off you training and talents to your employees in fear that they will go somewhere else and become a competitor. You really create your own style in the end and it's your creativity that you are eventually selling. I would argue that this is the most valuable part of the service that we provide, and cannot be trained or taught.

 

I also wouldn't waste time worrying about if the content you've created is going to leave your office/company. It's how you use it that matters. Just because someone else might use your content will never be the deciding factor in whether you get the job or not.

 

Learn from some of the big guys. Spine3d shares tons of their content for next to nothing - http://www.modelup.com

 

Vonyx's download section has tons of free content downloads - http://vyonyx.com/

 

I'm sure there are more, those are just the two I can think up off the top of my head.

 

And most importantly, hire employees that you can trust/have a repor with. Maybe do a couple interviews to get to know them pretty well, epically since they will be some of your first employees. I would never want to work somewhere, where the company owner is constantly worried and skeptical about me taking content and skills acquired somewhere else. I would want to focus on how we are going to create amazing content and beat our competitors by being ahead of the creative curve.

 

Just some of my observations and thoughts about the subject.

 

 

M-

[EddieLeon]

Mike, I agree with your thoughts 100%. Sharing is a critical ingredient for any team. It will also be important for our industry to grow. We will all benefit in the end.

 

By the way, add Neoscape to the list. They are very open and down to earth guys, plus they gave away a few of their Max Scripts at a DMVC conference lecture.

[EddieLeon]

If you want to go to "nice bars" plan on a $20 cover charge and me not being there. I could take you to the good bars, but I've been married for several years, and I'm not sure if they are even there any more.

 

Lol...I'm on the same boat. I've been married almost 14 years and I have 3 kids. The bars I normally go to are the ones attached to a restaurant that serves nice big steaks. I bet there are a few of those in Dallas

[Greg Steckler]

Great thread but I'd like to ask a bit more. Given that each member of your company contributes his/her best talents to the firm, the key point is sales. Without sales nothing else matters. And that is my job description. I would prefer not to have to do face-to-face presentations all the time but maybe that is what it takes. So how do you get more sales? Just keep pitching cold calls to anyone who will stop to listen? Are architects, developers, land owners the ideal client? Who is your "perfect" client?

[EddieLeon]

So how do you get more sales? Just keep pitching cold calls to anyone who will stop to listen? Are architects, developers, land owners the ideal client? Who is your "perfect" client?

 

Hi Greg,

Cold calls don't work very well unless you have an inside connection or are being referred by a mutual friend. The best way to generate more sales is through greater exposure within your local community. You will need to spend more time, energy, and dollars to do this. I suggest you place ads and create a nice brochure to send out to the top local firms. I keep saying "local" because you will have a greater success rate with firms that are in your city or state.

 

Also, you need to make face-to-face presentations when possible. This will give you a great opportunity to show your "product" and build a more personal relationship with your client. Good relationships are critical in our industry.

 

I don't know if there are "perfect" or "ideal" clients. Any good client can easily seem like a bad one if they suddenly demand something from you in order to meet one of their crazy deadlines (and not want to pay for the extra work). This is just something to be expected as part of the "service" industry, so just do the best you can to please all your clients. The referrals and repeat business are important.

 

Our target clients have always been Developers, Architects, and Ad Agencies. They all have their pros and cons. The developers usually have the big budgets, but some of the smaller ones are very shady and can be difficult to collect from. The architects have lower budgets and the Ad Agencies can be very moody and demanding. At the end of the day, they can all be good clients and great sources of revenue.

 

We also have some corporate and manufacturing clients. These are generally very good clients that are easy to work with. However, they don't always have a lot of 3d projects to give you.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Eddie