We are an indie game production, but we have alot of great artists with great portfolios. I was thinking to outsource our artists to other companies who need 3d assets done for example.
Some of our artists are recently graduated and looking for work, i figured if we provide outsourcing services under the name of our company that would be great for them if we provide them with paid work, they wont have to worry about looking for freelance assignments themselves or even fulltime work. Saves them time, and also means they can put more time into our hobbyist project (which is coming along great btw! :) )
Its just hard to reach out to companies and letting them know about our services.
Besides making a post on obvious forums like polycount and cg society, what other methods could there be to create visibility for our outsourcing services?
1. Its just hard to reach out to companies and letting them know about our services.
2. Besides making a post on obvious forums like polycount and cg society, what other methods could there be to create visibility for our outsourcing services?
1. Okay, so it's hard. What about business is easy?
2. Networking. Go to conferences and trade shows. And look into paid advertisements, opportunities to sponsor conferences and events.
When selecting who to contract with, people choose those with experience and a proven track record, usually pulling from lists of contractors used in the past.
In order to get experience and a track record and placement on those lists, you need to get chosen for contracts.
Welcome to business!
The usual solution is networking and starting small. Finding the first few contracts is very hard. It can be easier having staff with industry experience as they have contacts and can cite experience and track record. Take whatever contracts you can complete. Wash, rinse, repeat. Over time the lack of experience and contacts solves itself.
When selecting who to contract with, people choose those with experience and a proven track record, usually pulling from lists of contractors used in the past.
In order to get experience and a track record and placement on those lists, you need to get chosen for contracts.
Welcome to business!
The usual solution is networking and starting small. Finding the first few contracts is very hard. It can be easier having staff with industry experience as they have contacts and can cite experience and track record. Take whatever contracts you can complete. Wash, rinse, repeat. Over time the lack of experience and contacts solves itself.
Yea thanks, just going to keep trying then.
I also notice that many game companies offering outsourcing services are aimed towards high tier clients, do you think there is a market for the lower tiers like mobile gaming? And why would these people, who often dont value quality that much (atleast that is the impression my own freelance experiences gave)....chose for an outsourcing service like ours instead of just contacting individual freelancers? I can imagine that high tier clients would rather give away their money to a outsourcing service with a decade in experience and only the very best artists instead of trying their luck with a individual freelancer....but because we dont have this huge amount of experience, and well known artists working for us, even though they are very good, what other arguments could there be? Or am i trying to enter a business where your only sales argument is experience?
I dont think outsourcing our artists to other companies is a bad idea, somewhere i just have the feeling that while we probably can deliver the goods, we just dont fit the profile for this business.
Companies hire people (including contractors) to fill a role that they cannot do themselves or do not want to do themselves.
One of the more common reasons to outsource is that a task is not part of your core business. For example, I worked with a company whose primary goal was to develop roadside traffic sensors. They wanted to create a promotional game. Does it make sense for them to hire a few game developers as part of their company, learn the business of game development, create the promotional game, and then fire the workers? Or does it make more sense to simply hire an existing group of people who make promotional games and get the one-off project complete? Other examples are hiring payroll service firms, hiring construction contractors when remodeling, using a law firm rather than full-time lawyers, or using temp agencies and contract-to-hire employment terms rather than dedicated HR staff.
Sometimes cost is a bigger factor than risk. A small business may prefer to contract with a group of (very inexpensive) college students to do a job rather that contracting with group of skilled and experienced professionals. There is greater risk, but the cost is much less. This may also be analogous to hiring the guys sitting in front of Home Depot on Saturday mornings to do some tasks vs hiring a professional to do the tasks. Depending on the nature of the task the cheaper solution may be adequate.
The quality depends on the group. Many freelance groups are incredibly talented, they are brought in as experts that cannot generally be afforded by smaller (and sometimes even by larger) organizations. While some are just a group of people interested in the field, others have certifications and professional licences, are regulated by government, and have bonds and insurance. In the software world sometimes the contract groups are the very same people who contributed to the software or even the original authors, and they understand the system better than just about anyone.
Experience is not the only factor. It is one of the important factors in big jobs done by big organizations, but not by all job and not by all organizations. Everyone will have their own factors.
You need to figure out what work you can do, why companies have a need for that kind of work but might not want to do it themselves, and then find those groups and meet that need. That is why the first few jobs are hardest.
