Renting design staff
There are so many online market places for renting things. AirBnB is an online market place for renting apartments and houses, and if you think about it, the likes of Grab and Uber are online market places for renting a car and driver. But how about renting design staff?
Well, there’s actually one for that called Rtist (www.rtist.com.my) which was cofounded by industrial designer Tony Chua. From its humble beginnings with just a handful of designers, it now has several hundred designers registered under its portal. Its services are used by many advertising and design agencies.
The entrepreneurial Chua speaks to
about how this idea came about, how he grew his portal and his plans for the future. design. I had learnt how to sell during my insurance years and I put that skill to good use in the new business.
We’re a mid-range design company with many SME clients. One day, one of our clients asked for us to place a designer at their office because at the time they needed a lot of design work done and wanted someone on hand all the time. This was something we were not equipped for and we couldn’t fulfil his needs in that regard. But it made us realise there could be a demand for graphic designers for rent. As a design agency, we’re always looking for new talent. This wasn’t easy to do as there was no online market place for us to source for them. So, it had to be done the old fashioned way, through referrals and word of mouth.
One designer who applied to join us was not suitable for our needs but we felt he could be suitable for one of our clients, who happened to be looking for a graphic designer for a limited engagement. So, we arranged to rent him out to that client on a daily basis for up to one month. It was a success so we decided to continue offering this service. Our clients were happy with this arrangement as we removed a lot of the hassle they’d otherwise have had to go through such as vetting the designer for quality, etc. We do all that for them so they don’t even need to conduct an interview. We have confidence we can supply the right candidate for the job. In the event that we’re wrong, it’s no big deal as these designers are being rented out on a daily basis and you can determine within the span of one day if that person isn’t the right fit. They usually are though. At first we had to recruit them one by one and we managed to recruit about 10 designers that way. We started to rent them out to companies and word of mouth spread among clients as well as designers. From there it grew. Today, we have about 300 designers, so there’s a critical mass now. far. Some rent our designers for just a day; some for a week; some for a month. Design agencies have got their peak seasons and when there’s a huge amount of work, they come to us because we have a good ready supply of suitable designers. We have all sorts, from big agencies to niche or boutique agencies. Many of them need designers urgently when some project comes in and they don’t have enough people.
Or sometimes one of their designers is sick or away for some reason. If someone is missing at 9am, I can get them a replacement designer by 11am. No one else can offer them this on a consistent and reliable basis. We do have some SMEs that need designers for short stints. For example, TeaLive hired a designer from us for three weeks while they were preparing to launch. I want to include a broader range of artistic people. Not just designers but copywriters, photographers, videographers, social media managers, etc. all under one roof. And I want to go beyond the rental concept to also offer full-time and part-time opportunities as well. That’s the dream!