Freelance vs. Agency: What's the Difference?

The secret to winning bigger projects and earning more money? It may be teaming up.

According to some of our top scope of work templates, team projects typically scope a much higher overall price than those with only one freelancer doing the work. But do teams really earn more when you take into account each individual’s earnings?

Let’s take a look at some of our top scope of work templates — which are peer sourced and reflect real projects — to see the price comparison between individual and team scopes.

Individual Scopes

Email Marketing Management

Our top email marketing management scope of work template is a monthly retainer scope of work for an individual. 

For this retainer project, there are eight deliverables — which includes weekly meetings — that the email marketer does each month. The scope of work template also suggests that this amount of work adds up to around 14-15 hours of email marketing per week. 

When you consider securing a retainer like this for multiple clients on an ongoing basis, it may be a considerable amount of money, but it’s also a lot of work for one individual. Splitting the work by teaming up with another email marketer could be an option if you want to secure more clients without sacrificing your time.

Human Resources Consulting

Another example of an individual scope of work comes from our top human resources consulting scope of work template. 

This scope of work template comprises just six deliverables for a one-time consulting project. Consulting projects are a great way to earn good money on an individual level. While you could expand on the scope of work by tacking on additional services or bringing in another person with specific expertise, these types of projects are also sustainable for those who want to remain solo business owners.

Team Scopes

SEO Content Audit & Implementation
Total Team Members: 2

Let’s take a look at a project that two independents can team up on. Our SEO Content Audit & Implementation scope of work template shows how two freelancers with complementary expertise can effectively team up to earn more. 

The SEO manager for this project is responsible for seven deliverables while the CMS developer handles four, so the pricing breakdown is pretty evenly split when you take those into consideration.

This scope of work is an example of how independents with similar or parallel skillsets can join forces to secure bigger projects.

Mobile App Development 
Total Team Members: 3

Another example of a successful team project comes from our top mobile app development scope of work template. This scope of work demonstrates how teaming up can help individuals scale up and earn more.

There are three team members involved in this project: a UX or UI designer, a full-stack developer, and a product manager. 

It’s safe to say that a product manager wouldn’t likely be able to secure a full mobile app development project alone. But by teaming up with more technical freelancers, they would be able to offer and earn more.

This breakdown may appear as if the project earnings are unevenly split, but the pricing is based on deliverables. When you take a look at the full scope of work, you’ll see that the full-stack developer is responsible for 11 deliverables of the project while the product manager handles four deliverables. This scope of work still uses value-based pricing to determine the overall project price.

Web and Brand Development 
Total Team Members: 3

Do you run a small studio or team? If not, our top web and brand development scope of work template makes the case for why you should. 

This project combines the expertise of three very different roles to create one large offering worth tens of thousands. If your goal is to scale your freelance business into an agency or studio, take note of how this scope of work is priced.

Whether you’re scoping individual projects or want to team up to win bigger clients and projects, if you want to scale your freelance business, it’s always helpful to see what others are charging and consider ways you can increase your earnings.