Here’s the reality when it comes to 2D and 3D design work for landscape, pool and residential home designers. It’s tough to remain competitive trying to deliver these services in-house. It’s common for design departments of larger firms to break even at best. The costs for boutique and solo operators to complete the work themselves can be even more substantial. Not only in terms of time but stress and money.
This article draws on 29 years’ of landscaping and design industry experience and research to ensure it reflects the latest residential landscape and design sector conditions and pressures. Without further ado, here’s the top 5 benefits to outsourcing 2D and 3D design tasks.
5. Instant access to specialised skills (no need for training)
You can’t do everything yourself, nor should you. Hiring someone with solid experience who can hit the ground running is an expensive proposition. That’s if you’re lucky enough to find them in the first place.
Another more affordable option could be to employ a recent design graduate or junior drafting assistant. The drawback here is, as anyone who has hired a junior knows all too well, training takes time. Recent graduates and the majority of students emerging from design courses are not entering the workforce “job ready”. There’s still a lot to learn and it’s up to you, their employer, to show them the ropes. Small businesses employing a single member of staff to complete design tasks may find themselves encountering an additional drawback. Relying on one person to be reliable, productive and competent across multiple programs. That can be a lot of pressure.
The distinct advantage of outsourcing to a dedicated 2D and 3D service provider is the opportunity to access skills instantly. You’ll have access to a shared pool of talent, collectively trained and managed by experienced professionals. You won’t need to take on new skills or train others to increase your design capacity. Partnering with an experienced team that also works with other companies bring additional collective experience with them. Which is only going to benefit your business in the long run.
The vast majority of designers find their clients are not concerned with where the work was completed or where a meeting was conducted. Instead, we believe your customers will be more concerned with whether they can trust you, and you can:
- communicate your design ideas clearly and beautifully
- ensure your designs clearly show the costs to complete
- present your designs in a way to gain approval from relevant authorities, and
- deliver your designs in a reasonable amount of time.
4. Reduce your business overheads
This benefit isn’t always the first that comes to mind when it comes to outsourcing. However it does increase your potential to make significant savings. By outsourcing 2D and 3D drafting, you can reduce the need to maintain an office or a studio for staff to work from. Therefore reducing fixed and variable overhead expenses like rent, new computers, insurances and ongoing software licences. These savings can help relieve the financial responsibilities you need to deal with every month.
3. Streamline your business processes
A streamlined workflow with efficient and repeatable processes that achieves consistent results is key to a more profitable business with a less stressed owner.
To ensure customers are completely happy with the 2D or 3D product they receive after outsourcing, most providers (including Pitch Box) will use an established “workflow” sequence.
Following a sequence provides structure and certainty for both you as the customer and for the service provider. It helps to produce a high quality end product with consistency. Pitch Box, uses an exclusive, integrated app to simplify and streamline the flow of information when ordering and delivering services. It supports you all the way through, from start to finish.
Learning what information is required up front will save you time and frustration in the future. Once you settle into the rhythm, you’ll find your clients will benefit from the reliability in knowing exactly what they can expect and when to expect it.
Virtually everyone who outsources design tasks experience a moment when they realise just how quickly work can be done. Not to mention the level of quality that can be achieved. This in turn creates new opportunities for your business that simply weren’t possible before.
2. Reduce risk with an on-demand service
We operate in a seasonal industry. Regardless of whether you live in the northern or southern hemisphere, there are times of year where things tend to go quiet, affecting your cash flow.
While slow periods can be great opportunities to attend to other aspects of your business, payroll shows no mercy when it comes to cash flow. The average staff member spends around 10-12 weeks of the year performing non revenue-generating work, yet still needs to be paid. This compounds even more when boredom during slow periods can lead to a decrease in employee engagement. Recent research has shown that lack of employee engagement costs the Australian economy upwards of $2 billion every year. (Source: https://www.beepo.com.au/blog/employee-engagement-2022-statistics-you-should-know)
It doesn’t make business sense to risk encountering these kinds of financial losses and employee issues during quiet periods, year in, year out.
By contrast, outsourcing to an “on-demand” service provider keeps your labour costs in sync with your workflow; you’re only paying for what you need, when you need it. No more having to “find work” to keep employees busy during quiet periods. Plus you’ll avoid additional obligations like superannuation and annual leave entitlements while you’re at it.
But will I actually save any real money?
The answer is a straight forward, Yes. The extra money your business could save by outsourcing 2D and 3D design tasks could be substantial. Recent statistics have revealed an Australian company using an outsourcing scenario can save upwards of 40% on business costs. (Source: https://www.classicinformatics.com/blog/can-outsourcing-save-your-money-a-detailed-analysis) It’s important to keep in mind that this is for work completed by an external business provider of a comparable quality (sometimes even better than would be able to be completed “in-house”). These factors mean it’s worthwhile to seriously consider how outsourcing could benefit your business.
1. Save time!
Every residential landscape, home and pool business owner wishes there were more hours in the day, including, more time to:
- get that design finalised
- get through those quotes
- monitor and coordinate projects
- invest in growing the business, and
- spend with their family and friends.
Feedback has been consistent. Time easily tops the list among our customers for the most frequently reported benefit of outsourcing 2D and 3D.
You may wonder why our customers rank time as the biggest benefit they receive instead of financial savings. It fundamentally comes down to these two reasons:
Firstly, business owners avoid investing time in tasks that are repetitive, mundane, time consuming and technical.
Instead they gain more time to focus on high-value tasks like concept development, project management, client relationship building and business development (all the stuff that makes businesses GROW) by outsourcing those repetitive or specialised fulfilment tasks to an external service provider.
The typical residential landscape concept takes around 30 hours to develop to the point where clients are happy with the solution and the solution can be priced for their approval. Up to 20 hours of that is consumed by drafting, modelling and putting the solution into a presentable format. Once the conceptual ideas are formed, the actual grunt work of building a 3D model and drafting up plans to communicate that solution can easily and affordably be passed on to an external service provider.
Secondly, business owners save substantial time because quality is assured, right from the start.
Outsourced providers (such as Pitch Box) are geared specifically for 2D, SketchUp and 3D drafting work. Which means they can deliver results much faster and potentially to a higher professional standard than you would be able to achieve in-house. So you’re able to get more work completed in the same time period, all for a lower cost.
Summary
Making carefully considered, strategic decisions helps ensure your business remains sought after and profitable in an increasingly competitive market. This article pulled together 29 years’ multi-award winning landscaping and design industry experience, giving us the confidence to assert the following:
Less time spent completing procedural tasks like 2D and 3D drafting, means more time is available to grow your business.
Significant financial and time savings can be made by all business owners. Smaller businesses benefit from an increased ability to “work smarter, not harder”, giving them the capacity to deliver the workload of their larger competitors.
Making a carefully considered, strategic decision to outsource certain 2D and 3D tasks helps ensure your business remains sought after and profitable in an increasingly competitive market.
About Pitch Box
Pitch Box helps you WIN more projects, faster
Pitch Box delivers 3D renders , SketchUp models and a range of 2D CAD plans for landscape designers and home designers and architects in the residential market. The company prides itself on exceptional customer service, with a dedicated customer support team based in Brisbane, Australia. Together with delivering high quality products with a guaranteed project completion turnaround time-frame in only 5 – 10 business days. Unlike many 2D and 3D external service providers, Pitch Box’s pricing is transparent and competitive. Our customers know exactly what they are getting, each and every time they place an order. Discover more about how Pitch Box can support your business and place your order by visiting our website today!
