[LRUG] No agencies please

[Florian Gilcher]

As someone who runs a "cluster of freelance-like employees", I'm think that's a bit one-sided. There's a couple of upsides to the whole thing, even for smaller companies.

* Companies used to that model usually have no issue with sending you an employee for an extended period of time, as much "joining your tribe" as freelancers do.
* In contrast to freelancers, people at a fixed position at a company are _not businesspersons_, which means that they are not constantly on the lookout or searching for new clients or involved with their paperwork.
* Should there be the need to get more then 1 person, you can get a pair of people used to work with teams _and_ already be used to work together. It avoids freelancer-infighting, which is all too common.
* Good small agencies do train their employees on their bills and cross-train people in their cluster.
* In case of extended sickness or other disasters, the burden of finding replacement is on your supplier.
* Smaller companies have a much closer relationship with you. If you are frustrated by large recruitment agencies just sending you tons of resumes of which none really fit, a smaller, well-connected group might just know more fitting people by name.
* This includes that usually, referrals through such a supplier are cheap or for free if they cannot serve one of your wishes themselves.
* In general, supply risk is shifted to the supplier.

Obviously, all those are quality factors, so any company in question can be good or bad at all those. This means that we also have to charge more then an freelancer, but it's usually in a range much lower than what e.g. Hays charges just for connecting you.

It's just a very different relationship - bringing me even as far that I place my company closer to a collective (which, in some parts is true: all employees get income shares) then a classic agency. I think many misunderstandings stem from that.

Many people are just not aware that this class of companies exist and _have_ experience with the situations you describe. We also coach our employees to be well at the standards you describe, like how to join a team properly, even if you are just a temporary part there.

Best,
Florian

> On 20 Jan 2017, at 11:44, Louis Goff-Beardsley <louis at infinitiumglobal.com> wrote:
> 
> I get approached by agencies all the time asking me to get work for them. I’ve tried numerous times, to find some way of making it work, but the stumbling block I’ve found is that most companies have existing teams and require extra developers to join the their team. What companies want is people who will become part of their tribe (usually onsite), not someone temporarily from someone else’s tribe (often remote).
>  
> Companies want to be able to invest in an employee, rather than commission a piece of work where they do not benefit from the long term professional development gained from the completion of the task.
>  
> Monetarily wise, employees and even contractors are usually cheaper.
>  
> Where I see agencies pick up the most work from start-ups is from getting in with VCs/Investors/Funds and being involved in the early stages with building the first versions of products. If it goes well, they are usually transitioned out and a permanent team is built.
>  
> I would suggest looking into larger corporate entities, identifying who commissions tech projects and pitching yourselves as an alternative to the large consultancies they usually use. Depending on the job  I think many small agencies could do a better job than the usual suspects, the challenge is breaking into the corporate culture and changing their old ways of thinking about commissioning work.
>  
> Best, Louis
>  
> From: Chat [mailto:chat-bounces at lists.lrug.org] On Behalf Of nicolas alpi
> Sent: 20 January 2017 10:27
> To: London Ruby Users Group <chat at lists.lrug.org>
> Subject: [LRUG] No agencies please
>  
> Good morning all,
>  
> I was wondering if some here on the list could help?
>  
> I run CookiesHQ, a Bristol based Ruby/JavaScript small development team. Growing over the years we're still small but have a few developers, pm, q&a and strategy in-house.
>  
> The team is distributed by default.
>  
> When we started, 6 years ago, we were only helping people with ideas creating new saas product, but, over the years, we found that our real strength lies in working on existing codebases, scaling apps, helping teams pushing more feature for short period of time. I know it's strange, but we quite like it.
>  
> Now, I know a few people here have been looking for freelancers in the past, but a strong No Agencies Please as their opening and last sentences.
>  
> I'm trying to reach to those people and just understand why they would not consider a small agency at all (that would effectively act as a freelance + pm).
>  
> I would be happy to continue this discussion on the list if people think it's relevant or take it more personal via email (nicolas at cookieshq.co.uk).
>  
> Thanks for your help.
>  
> Nic
>  
> --
> Nicolas Alpi, cookies eater
> Ruby on Rails, Javascript developer at CookiesHQ
> @spyou :: nicolas.alpi :: http://www.cookieshq.co.uk
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