The Design Dilemma

Every growing company eventually runs into the same wall: design needs pile up faster than your team can handle. At that point, most founders feel stuck with two bad options:

• Hire a full-time in-house designer
  Salary + benefits can easily top $120k per year. For an early-stage company, that’s a heavy lift for one skill set. Not to mention the time and resources needed to sift through candidates and hold interviews.
  
  

• Try freelancers or Fiverr
  Cheaper at first glance, but quality is inconsistent, timelines move slowly, and you spend more time managing and re-explaining than growing.

  
  

Neither choice scales the way plug-in design support like Designie can.

Why In-House Designers Don’t Make Sense Too Early

An in-house hire can sound like the safer route—but it often brings with it unanticipated hurdles:

• Costly commitment
  A single designer salary = the budget of an entire marketing push.
  
  

• Skill set gaps
  One person can’t do branding, web, motion, and product equally well. You’ll end up outsourcing anyway.
  
  

• Limited bandwidth
  Even the best designer maxes out at 40 hours a week. Your needs will grow faster than their capacity.
  
  
  

Why Freelancers and Fiverr Aren’t the Answer

Freelancers and gig platforms are attractive on paper: no salary, flexible, lots of options. But here’s what usually happens:

• Inconsistent quality
  Work varies wildly, even within the same project.
  
  

• Reliability issues
  Deadlines get missed. Designers ghost mid-stream.
  
  

• Management headache
  You spend hours chasing revisions, juggling different freelancers, and explaining your brand over and over.
  
  
  

Instead of saving time and money, you’re often stuck in an endless loop of revisions and projects that are just “good enough”

The Smarter Third Option: Plug-In Design Support

A design subscription bridges the gap between expensive in-house hires and unreliable freelancers. Think of it as adding a designer directly into your team, without the overhead.

With a subscription model, you get:

• Predictable costs
  Fixed monthly rate, no surprises.
  
  
  

• Reliability
  Requests go in, work comes out, deadlines are met and quality is high.
  
  
  

• Scalable output
  As your business grows, design needs don’t bottleneck your marketing or product.
  
  
  

You’re not hiring a stranger for a one-off logo; you’re building an ongoing relationship with a dedicated designer who knows your brand and is passionate about producing high quality products.

Beyond Execution: Adding Strategy with the Scale Plan

Most designers just push pixels. But at some stage, your business needs more than nice graphics and shiny new logo, you need design that fuels growth. That’s where our Scale Plan comes in.

With our Scale Plan, you don’t just get design support; you also get strategic consulting to:

• Align your brand with your vision.
  
  
  

• Create decks that impress investors and close funding rounds.
  
  
  

• Build marketing funnels that convert.
  
  
  

• Prioritize design initiatives based on business impact, not just aesthetics.
  
  
  

It’s like having a senior design consultant in your corner, without having to pay a C-level salary.

The Bottom Line

In-house designers drain budgets, while freelancers and Fiverr are hit-or-miss. A design subscription gives you the best of both—reliable, professional design that scales as you grow. Whether you’re building the next SaaS success story or running a nationwide sales force, the pressure is the same: investor decks, recruiting flyers, product assets, and training materials all need to be ready yesterday and Designie is here, ready to scale with your growing business.