Four Best Places To Find Fashion Designers For Your Startup!

Founding a great fashion startup is a popular choice when it comes to starting a business in today’s financial market. According to Enterprise League, this is because today’s fashion startups are focused on tailoring a unique experience to each individual, rather than keeping up with the latest trends in fashion. However, founding a startup fashion business does come with its fair share of challenges, like trying to find a fashion designer. So, how would you find a fashion designer for your startup company? Here are four of the best avenues you can use… 

The four best places for you to find fashion designers for your startup include:

  • Upwork 
  • Freelancer 
  • Social Media Forums and Postings
  • Design Schools

Let’s read along as I break down each of these five platforms to see what makes them among the best places to find fashion designers for your startup company. I will take each of these websites and individually assess both the pros and the cons of them to see what makes them so highly rated and widely considered as some of the best websites around for finding freelance talent.

Upwork 

Is there a better place to search for a freelance fashion designer for your startup than Upwork, which is the world’s biggest platform for freelancers? Because Upwork is one of the largest online workplaces in the world, you should have no problem with finding a designer that has the skill set you need for your budget. This platform is beneficial to both freelancers and those who are hiring them because it allows all parties involved to easily keep track of the number of hours worked on a particular project. This way, there are no disputes or disagreements regarding time worked.

4 Best Places To Find Fashion Designers For Your Startup

Another benefit of using Upwork is the number of people you have to choose from when you are ready to hire someone. Once you post a job, people will submit proposals from which you can pick the individual who would be the best fit for you and your company. Upwork allows a simple, streamlined process that is unmatched in online workspaces. Once you have sifted through the proposals you receive for your job, you can set up an online interview. Upwork also has a messaging section where you can communicate directly with your employees.

Here are a few more of the pros that come with using Upwork to hire freelance help for your startup company:

  • You can browse prospective employees’ ratings and view their profiles before making a hiring decision.
  • This is a great platform for making long-term hiring decisions, or for projects that may be slightly more complex than others.
  • Upwork includes an advanced invoicing system and is convenient for reporting hours worked.

Now that we have learned some of the advantages of using Upwork to hire help for your startup, let’s take a look at a few of the disadvantages of using this website:

  • Because of the popularity of this platform, you will probably have a large number of proposals to go through before hiring.
  • You will be subjected to the occasional applicant who has not thoroughly read through the details of your job posting.
  • As with most online platforms, you will have to sift through plenty of applicants who have no rating on the website.

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Freelancer

4 Best Places To Find Fashion Designers For Your Startup

Perhaps the most notable aspect of using Freelancer is that it has been used by large corporations such as Microsoft and Intel. While this site is widely considered to be the best platform for large corporations who are looking to hire freelance help, small startups will also enjoy the many benefits that it has to offer. Much like Upwork, this is a simple, easy-to-use platform that takes much of the guesswork out of posting jobs and hiring freelancers. Another benefit that you will enjoy is Freelancer’s flexible payment terms that will allow you to pay by the job or by the hour.

Of all of the perks there are to using this platform, my personal favorite is the live chat function that you can use on the mobile app. I find this feature to be quite useful, as well as a vastly underrated aspect of using Freelancer. While other platforms like Upwork may have a messaging section in their mobile application, they do not allow you the convenience of chatting in real-time with your employees. This can be especially helpful if you or your freelance designer need to make a last-minute change to the project, or you need to discuss other pertinent details. 

Freelancer is a platform that offers people looking to hire freelance help many choices and functions that most other online work sites simply cannot match. Here are a few other pros you can look forward to when using this website:

  • There are plenty of freelancers with many different skills seeking employment on this platform.
  • There are plenty of people who have a plethora of creative and technical talent on Freelancer.
  • Both the website and the mobile application are intuitive and quite easy to navigate.

Even with all of the advantages of using this website to hire freelancers, there are also some disadvantages associated with this platform. Here are a few of the cons of using Freelancer:

  • It can be fairly difficult to track the status of your job.
  • Although there is no shortage of creative or technical help, it can be hard to find freelancers for simple jobs.
  • The mobile application lacks stability and can be fairly glitchy at times. 

Social Media Forums and Postings

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok, and Snapchat were once exclusively used to help people communicate with other people on a social level. However, things have changed recently. People are now using social media as a way to secure employment or to hire people. There are Facebook groups where people discuss just any topic you can imagine. Some of those groups are a way for people to hire other people. If you need to hire a freelance designer, I would suggest starting a Facebook group aimed specifically at fashion design.

4 Best Places To Find Fashion Designers For Your Startup

Although Facebook and Instagram are used primarily for social purposes, some applications and websites are devoted specifically to people seeking employment or for those who need to hire help. LinkedIn is an example of a social media site that is strictly for business. Indeed.com is also another example of a website that is devoted solely to work. If your goal is to hire help for your startup company, this may be a better option than going through a site that has been designed to help people communicate outside of work. Once you are ready to hire a freelance fashion designer, either of these two would be a great place to start.

If I were to pick the largest disadvantage to use a social media site for hiring a freelance designer for a startup company, I would say that it would be that you may not get the professional help you desire from one of these websites. I have always found that it is almost impossible to decipher whether or not people are telling the truth on social media. If you are forming a startup company, your reputation will mean everything to your business. Would you trust leaving it in the hands of someone that you met in a Facebook group? 

While you may be able to hire excellent help through social media, that is a big risk that I may not be willing to take. If a little extra work doesn’t scare you, you could always require references and ask for a resume from someone you met on social media, but you may have no way of knowing whether they were being honest or not. Requiring these things before making a hiring decision can be one way of ensuring that you hire the right person for your startup. However, if you stick to sites like LinkedIn or indeed.com, you should not have any problems.

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Design Schools 
4 Best Places To Find Fashion Designers For Your Startup

If you are looking to hire a freelance designer for your startup company, one of the most obvious places you can start is by getting recommendations from instructors at design schools. You should have no trouble finding a great designer that is looking for an opportunity to make a name for themselves, while also being able to stick to a predetermined budget for your project. Most teachers at design schools are more than eager to recommend one or two of their students who stand head-and-shoulders above the crowd when it comes to design talent.

Whether you are looking for a graduate who can work full-time, or if you are looking for a part-time freelancer, there should be no shortage of quality help to be found at design schools. When I was in college, there was no shortage of students who were looking for part-time work to help pay their way through school. I should know. I was one of them. While I am certainly not young anymore, I find it hard to believe that times have changed that much to where it would be hard to find a design student or two looking for a way to help fund their schooling.

Perhaps the biggest perk of turning to design schools to find freelance design help is that students will be eager to add a project to their portfolio. Once they graduate, fashion design students will want to move on to bigger and better things. However, most of them realize that before a major fashion design firm hires them, they will need to obtain experience at smaller jobs. This is a win-win situation because the student can get a glowing recommendation from you while you can get inexpensive help from an eager designer.

The biggest downside to using freelance designers from fashion schools is that you will get what you pay for most of the time. What I mean is that you may get inexpensive help, but you have to realize that you will be getting inexperienced help. Most recent graduates of design school do not have a wealth of experience under their belts. Those who are still studying in design school will have even less experience. As long as you keep that in mind, fashion design schools are a great place to find the freelance help that your startup company will need now and in the future.

Conclusion 

Startup companies do not have the luxury of absorbing mistakes as established companies may have. Online workspaces like Freelancer and Upwork are two highly effective ways to hire qualified people for your company. They offer lots of tools that make the hiring process easy for both the freelancer and the employer. Social media groups can be another good way to hire help for your startup, as long as you stick to sites like indeed.com and LinkedIn. Finally, you can always rely on the recommendations of instructors at design schools when it comes to up-and-coming fashion designers.

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Related Questions

What are the top-rated online workplaces to find freelance talent? 

Several websites are devoted to helping freelancers find work, and also to helping employers find the right freelance talent for them. Some of the most highly rated online workspaces include Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, and Toptal. 

What are the best social media platforms to use for business? 

Social media websites have become a tool that is being used much more often in business. People are now using these platforms to either obtain employment or to hire someone for their company. The best social media platforms to use for business include Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. 

To learn more about how to start your own fashion clothing line check out my startup documents here

Please note: This blog post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult a legal expert to address your specific needs.