{"course":{"slug":"independent-creative","title":"Working for Yourself","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/independent-creative","level":"intermediate","track":"create"},"lesson":{"slug":"subcontracting","title":"Working for people who already have the client","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/independent-creative/subcontracting","position":23,"of":84,"minutes":10,"answer":"Agencies pay a third to a half less because they carry the client, the risk and the payment.","keyIdea":"Agencies pay a third to a half less because they carry the client, the risk and the payment, and the email that gets you onto a roster contains four things including an actual rate and a date, but the channel is a strong source of income and a weak source of career, because everything goes out under somebody else's name."},"body":{"format":"markdown","text":"## The fastest channel from a standing start\n\nIf you need paid work in the next six weeks and have no client list, the highest-probability route is not a brand or a business. It is somebody who already sells creative work and has more of it than they can do: an agency, a studio, a production company, a busy freelancer.\n\nThe reason is structural. They already have the client, the brief, the budget and the trust. What they have run out of is hands. Your pitch is therefore answering a problem they already know they have, which is a completely different conversation from persuading a bakery owner that she needs a designer at all.\n\n## What the deal actually is\n\nYou are being paid to reduce someone else's risk, and everything about the terms follows from that.\n\n**The rate is lower than your direct rate**, typically by a third to a half. This is not exploitation in itself. The intermediary found the client, carries the payment risk, manages the relationship, absorbs the client's indecision, and pays you whether or not the client pays them on time. Some of that is worth money.\n\n**You will usually be invisible.** The work goes out under their name, you may not be named, and you may be contractually unable to show it. Establish this before you start, and negotiate what you can: anonymised display, a private PDF, or a named credit after twelve months.\n\n**The brief will be cleaner.** Someone has already translated the client's vagueness into a specification. For many people this is worth the rate difference on its own.\n\n**Payment is generally more reliable** and often on defined terms, but you are exposed to their cash flow. A studio that gets paid at 90 days may pay you at 90 days.\n\n## Getting on a roster\n\nAgencies keep informal lists of freelancers they call. Getting onto one is a specific, learnable process, and it is not the same as applying for a job.\n\n**Write to the right person.** Not the founder and not `info@`. For agencies it is the resource manager, studio manager, or producer; for smaller studios it is whoever is listed as creative director. Their job is to know who is available, so you are not interrupting them, you are doing part of their work.\n\n**Say four things and nothing else.** What you do, precisely. Your availability, as a date. Your day rate, as a number. A link. That is the entire email, and it should be under 100 words. Resource managers scan dozens of these; anything longer is a cost.\n\n> \"I'm a packaging and print designer, six years, mostly food and FMCG. I have two days a week free from October and full availability in November. My day rate is ₹X. Portfolio: [link]. Happy to do a paid test project.\"\n\n**Give a rate.** This is where most people fail. \"Rates negotiable\" or \"depends on the project\" cannot be filed. A producer building a list needs a number to compare, and an email without one gets no entry in the spreadsheet.\n\n**Follow up once, at about three weeks**, and then quarterly with a single line when your availability changes. Rosters are demand-driven: you are not being rejected, you are waiting for a project of your shape to arrive. The freelancers who get called are frequently the ones who happened to email in the week the brief landed, which means the whole game is being in the inbox repeatedly without being irritating.\n\n## Working the relationship so it repeats\n\nThree behaviours make an agency call you again, and they have nothing to do with how good the work is.\n\n1. **Answer quickly.** Production runs on availability confirmations. A freelancer who replies within the hour gets offered things that a better one who replies in two days does not, because the slot was filled.\n2. **Deliver files the way they asked.** Named correctly, packaged, layered as specified. The reason a studio rehires an average designer over a brilliant one is nearly always that the average one's files never generate work for anybody else.\n3. **Flag problems early and in writing.** \"This will not fit the 3mm bleed the printer specified: do you want me to redraw or shall I query it with them?\" A subcontractor who surfaces problems before they become emergencies is worth more than one who is merely talented.\n\n## The dependency trap\n\nThis channel has one serious and common failure. It is comfortable (steady briefs, no client management, predictable invoices) and it is easy to let it become everything.\n\nTwo things go wrong. Your rate is capped by their margin and moves very slowly, while a direct client market you are not in has moved on without you. And the concentration risk is severe: when a studio loses its own big account, or restructures, or has a slow quarter, your entire income goes at once and you have no client list to fall back on, no current portfolio you are permitted to show, and no name in the market because every piece went out under theirs.\n\nThe workable version is to treat it as a floor rather than a business. Some agreed proportion (a third, a half) is subcontract work that keeps the lights on, and the rest is direct clients you find yourself. The proportion is a decision you have to actually make, because left alone it drifts to 100%.\n\n## On rates and undercutting\n\nYou will sometimes be told the budget is fixed and low, framed as an opportunity. It is fine to take it for the first few jobs, deliberately, as the cost of getting into a roster. It is not fine to let it become the number, because agencies file your rate in the same spreadsheet forever and it is much harder to raise than to set.\n\nThe honest formulation when you do raise it: \"I've moved to ₹X from January. I know that may be outside some of your budgets: tell me when it is and I'll say no without any awkwardness.\" Producers respect this, because managing rate bands is literally their job.\n\n## The limitation\n\nSubcontracting will not build a reputation. You can spend three years doing excellent work at good rates and emerge with no public portfolio, no named clients and no market presence, because all of it belongs to somebody else. It is a strong source of income and a weak source of career. Knowing which of those you are short of tells you how much of your week it deserves."},"check":{"question":"A designer has spent three years almost entirely on agency subcontract work at a good day rate. The agency loses its largest account and stops calling. Why is her position worse than three years of equivalent direct-client income would have left her?","options":[{"text":"Her day rate has been anchored at the agency's margin, so she will have to accept lower rates when she starts approaching direct clients.","correct":false,"tempting":"Rate anchoring is a genuine cost of the channel, but it is the least of her problems: direct rates are typically higher, not lower."},{"text":"Subcontract work is usually narrower in scope, so she has lost general capability and can no longer run a project end to end.","correct":false,"tempting":"Often true of the skills, and a real risk. But scope narrowing is recoverable in months; the structural problem here is that she has no way to reach anyone."},{"text":"Agency contracts typically include non-compete clauses that would prevent her approaching the agency's clients directly for a period after the work ends.","correct":false,"tempting":"Such clauses exist and matter, but they restrict one small set of contacts, not her ability to build a pipeline from anywhere else."},{"text":"She has no client list, no public portfolio she is permitted to show, and no name in the market, because all three belonged to the agency.","correct":true}]},"prev":{"slug":"the-referral-ask","title":"Asking in a form somebody can answer","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/independent-creative/the-referral-ask"},"next":{"slug":"marketplaces-honestly","title":"What a marketplace is actually selling","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/independent-creative/marketplaces-honestly"},"authorship":"Founder and series editor: Dr Mustafa Mun. Written by AI models to a written standard. Exam keys checked blind by a second model: 3,665 of 3,666 agreed. Academic review invited.","review":{"status":"Draft, open for academic review"},"cite":"Addaly (2026) 'Working for people who already have the client', in Working for Yourself. Edited by M. Mun. Addaly. Available at: https://addaly.com/learn/independent-creative/subcontracting (Accessed: 13 October 2026).","licence":{"name":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"},"reader":{"schema":1,"title":"Working for people who already have the client","courseTitle":"Working for Yourself","module":{"index":3,"slug":"finding-work","title":"Where the work comes from"},"answer":null,"keyIdea":"Agencies pay a third to a half less because they carry the client, the risk and the payment, and the email that gets you onto a roster contains four things including an actual rate and a date, but the channel is a strong source of income and a weak source of career, because everything goes out under somebody else’s name.","hero":{"kind":"plate","image":null,"alt":null,"caption":null},"blocks":[{"t":"h2","id":"the-fastest-channel-from-a-standing-start","runs":[{"text":"The fastest channel from a standing start"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"If you need paid work in the next six weeks and have no client list, the highest-probability route is not a brand or a business. It is somebody who already sells creative work and has more of it than they can do: an agency, a studio, a production company, a busy freelancer."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The reason is structural. They already have the client, the brief, the budget and the trust. What they have run out of is hands. Your pitch is therefore answering a problem they already know they have, which is a completely different conversation from persuading a bakery owner that she needs a designer at all."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"what-the-deal-actually-is","runs":[{"text":"What the deal actually is"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"You are being paid to reduce someone else’s risk, and everything about the terms follows from that."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The rate is lower than your direct rate","b":true},{"text":", typically by a third to a half. This is not exploitation in itself. The intermediary found the client, carries the payment risk, manages the relationship, absorbs the client’s indecision, and pays you whether or not the client pays them on time. Some of that is worth money."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"You will usually be invisible.","b":true},{"text":" The work goes out under their name, you may not be named, and you may be contractually unable to show it. Establish this before you start, and negotiate what you can: anonymised display, a private PDF, or a named credit after twelve months."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The brief will be cleaner.","b":true},{"text":" Someone has already translated the client’s vagueness into a specification. For many people this is worth the rate difference on its own."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Payment is generally more reliable","b":true},{"text":" and often on defined terms, but you are exposed to their cash flow. A studio that gets paid at 90 days may pay you at 90 days."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"getting-on-a-roster","runs":[{"text":"Getting on a roster"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Agencies keep informal lists of freelancers they call. Getting onto one is a specific, learnable process, and it is not the same as applying for a job."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Write to the right person.","b":true},{"text":" Not the founder and not "},{"text":"info@","code":true},{"text":". For agencies it is the resource manager, studio manager, or producer; for smaller studios it is whoever is listed as creative director. Their job is to know who is available, so you are not interrupting them, you are doing part of their work."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Say four things and nothing else.","b":true},{"text":" What you do, precisely. Your availability, as a date. Your day rate, as a number. A link. That is the entire email, and it should be under 100 words. Resource managers scan dozens of these; anything longer is a cost."}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"“I’m a packaging and print designer, six years, mostly food and FMCG. I have two days a week free from October and full availability in November. My day rate is ₹X. Portfolio: [link]. Happy to do a paid test project.”"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Give a rate.","b":true},{"text":" This is where most people fail. “Rates negotiable” or “depends on the project” cannot be filed. A producer building a list needs a number to compare, and an email without one gets no entry in the spreadsheet."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Follow up once, at about three weeks","b":true},{"text":", and then quarterly with a single line when your availability changes. Rosters are demand-driven: you are not being rejected, you are waiting for a project of your shape to arrive. The freelancers who get called are frequently the ones who happened to email in the week the brief landed, which means the whole game is being in the inbox repeatedly without being irritating."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"working-the-relationship-so-it-repeats","runs":[{"text":"Working the relationship so it repeats"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Three behaviours make an agency call you again, and they have nothing to do with how good the work is."}]},{"t":"ol","start":1,"items":[[{"text":"Answer quickly.","b":true},{"text":" Production runs on availability confirmations. A freelancer who replies within the hour gets offered things that a better one who replies in two days does not, because the slot was filled."}],[{"text":"Deliver files the way they asked.","b":true},{"text":" Named correctly, packaged, layered as specified. The reason a studio rehires an average designer over a brilliant one is nearly always that the average one’s files never generate work for anybody else."}],[{"text":"Flag problems early and in writing.","b":true},{"text":" “This will not fit the 3mm bleed the printer specified: do you want me to redraw or shall I query it with them?” A subcontractor who surfaces problems before they become emergencies is worth more than one who is merely talented."}]]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-dependency-trap","runs":[{"text":"The dependency trap"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"This channel has one serious and common failure. It is comfortable (steady briefs, no client management, predictable invoices) and it is easy to let it become everything."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Two things go wrong. Your rate is capped by their margin and moves very slowly, while a direct client market you are not in has moved on without you. And the concentration risk is severe: when a studio loses its own big account, or restructures, or has a slow quarter, your entire income goes at once and you have no client list to fall back on, no current portfolio you are permitted to show, and no name in the market because every piece went out under theirs."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The workable version is to treat it as a floor rather than a business. Some agreed proportion (a third, a half) is subcontract work that keeps the lights on, and the rest is direct clients you find yourself. The proportion is a decision you have to actually make, because left alone it drifts to 100%."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"on-rates-and-undercutting","runs":[{"text":"On rates and undercutting"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"You will sometimes be told the budget is fixed and low, framed as an opportunity. It is fine to take it for the first few jobs, deliberately, as the cost of getting into a roster. It is not fine to let it become the number, because agencies file your rate in the same spreadsheet forever and it is much harder to raise than to set."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The honest formulation when you do raise it: “I’ve moved to ₹X from January. I know that may be outside some of your budgets: tell me when it is and I’ll say no without any awkwardness.” Producers respect this, because managing rate bands is literally their job."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-limitation","runs":[{"text":"The limitation"}],"role":"limit"},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Subcontracting will not build a reputation. You can spend three years doing excellent work at good rates and emerge with no public portfolio, no named clients and no market presence, because all of it belongs to somebody else. It is a strong source of income and a weak source of career. Knowing which of those you are short of tells you how much of your week it deserves."}]}],"check":{"question":[{"text":"A designer has spent three years almost entirely on agency subcontract work at a good day rate. The agency loses its largest account and stops calling. Why is her position worse than three years of equivalent direct-client income would have left her?"}],"options":[{"text":[{"text":"Her day rate has been anchored at the agency’s margin, so she will have to accept lower rates when she starts approaching direct clients."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Rate anchoring is a genuine cost of the channel, but it is the least of her problems: direct rates are typically higher, not lower."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Subcontract work is usually narrower in scope, so she has lost general capability and can no longer run a project end to end."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Often true of the skills, and a real risk. But scope narrowing is recoverable in months; the structural problem here is that she has no way to reach anyone."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Agency contracts typically include non-compete clauses that would prevent her approaching the agency’s clients directly for a period after the work ends."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Such clauses exist and matter, but they restrict one small set of contacts, not her ability to build a pipeline from anywhere else."}]},{"text":[{"text":"She has no client list, no public portfolio she is permitted to show, and no name in the market, because all three belonged to the agency."}],"correct":true,"tempting":null}],"order":[2,0,3,1],"why":null},"prev":{"slug":"the-referral-ask","title":"Asking in a form somebody can answer","minutes":9},"next":{"slug":"marketplaces-honestly","title":"What a marketplace is actually selling","minutes":10}}}