From cornflakes to credit cards, the branding on a product doesn’t necessarily mean that that company made it or administers it.
It makes no sense for supermarkets to build dozens of factories to make their own-brand products when there are accomplished, specialist producers out there who can make, brand and box them up and sell them with the store’s trusted name attached to them.
And that credit card you’ve got from your football club or roadside recovery service? They will invariably be provided by a third-party financial services company, but you’d have to examine the small-print to find out which one.
It’s exactly the same with web development. In such a complex field as ecommerce, it’s unlikely that any medium-sized development agency will have the full range of skills in-house to develop any technology their clients might demand. They might also lack the time and resources to take on large tasks. So if a client approaches you with a large job, or one that requires specialist skills you don’t have in-house, what are the options?
Hire new staff
If you’re growing, it might make sense to hire new specialists to carry out the work. If the work likely to be ongoing, that probably makes sense, but for a short or one-off contract, it’s an expensive way to fill the role.
Use freelancers
Freelancers come with the complete range of digital talents, and there are undoubtedly some fantastic workers out there. A problem can be securing them for the duration of a project, as they usually have other commitments to fulfil. As an agency, you also need to be careful not to fall foul of employment law. If they feel like an employee (in terms of hours worked and integration into the team), you might have to declare them as an employee, with paid leave and sick pay etc.
Reject the work
You could simply accept that you don’t have the in-house talent for the task and let it pass you by. But you’re not just rejecting one job – you could be snubbing a long-term relationship with a client that could be crucial to your growth.
Use a white label developer
This brings us to the option that has none of the disadvantages of the above: hiring a white label developer. It’s essentially hiring a team of specialists to fulfil the needs you have for a task, but with no long-term commitment. It’s a practice that’s completely normal in sectors such as construction, but the agency mentality can sometimes discourage digital SMEs from doing it.
The big advantage is that the client doesn’t need to know that you’ve hired external suppliers. While some agencies are open about their use of white label developers be it for Magento builds to WordPress designs, others like to give the impression that they can tackle any task in-house. Either way is fine with the white label. They slot into the team, attending briefings and meetings where necessary, and the relationship is entirely seamless.
At Gooey, we ensure a watertight NDA is in place, so unless you want your client to know who’s working on your task, it’s unlikely they’ll find out. If there are security considerations (such as where work can be done or which servers are used) we can always find a way around it.
But the biggest advantage is the quality of the work. Our hiring policy is a stringent as any other digital agency’s. We source qualified, experienced, talented individuals so you don’t have to. All the code we write belongs to you, and we go to great lengths to make sure commenting and documentation make it simple for any future developer to fully understand and modify the code.
The only way you’ll be tied to us is in the fact that we’ll produce such excellent work so that you’ll choose to use us again and again! Find out more about our services here.
