Outsourcing often gives you access to highly-skilled professionals with niche expertise that might not be available in-house. Let’s say you’re typically able to handle your project needs and volume in-house, but your client requests a new project type or element of post-production your in-house team doesn’t have experience with — like visual effects for example. Outsourcing that component of the project will allow you to meet your client’s requests without needing to devote time to in-house training or making a new hire.

Flexibility and Scalability

Hitting an unusual or seasonally high volume of projects? Working with an outside editing partner allows you to weather the downpour of work without long-term commitments when things even back out. Having an external solution in place allows you to quickly ramp up or down based on the amount of projects you need to complete, without being beholden to providing continued employment. A post-house or agency will likely have a higher bandwidth for multiple projects than a single freelancer, but having a relationship with any of these options can provide a helping hand when you need it most.

Cost Savings and Efficiency

Outsourced video editing is typically significantly cheaper than hiring an editor in-house. Freelancers are usually the most budget-friendly option when it comes to outsourcing editing. Even though external agencies may be costly on a single project, they'll save you money in the long run since you’ll be avoiding tons of overhead costs associated with full-time employees — like equipment, taxes, and benefits. More of that will be covered later in the section on Cons of In-House Editing.

Freedom to Focus

While some time is definitely needed upfront to align with an outsourced team, once the details have been ironed out, your internal team will be able to focus on other core business activities:

If you’re a solopreneur or content creator, this may mean focusing on planning and recording more content, engaging with your audience, or just stepping away from the grind.
Production companies can leverage this time savings on preparing another project proposal, traveling for an existing project, or sharpening their skills on other aspects of production.
Agency and in-house team members likely wear tons of hats on top of “video editor” so the added freetime could go in tons of direction.

Bonus: Faster Turnaround Times

A hidden bonus with outsourcing video editing may also be a quicker turnaround time. With their dedicated focus, outsourced editors will prioritize a project that your internal team may have been continually pulled away from.

Now What?

If the benefits of outsourcing your video editing sound like they're worth the hurdles, make sure you're making an informed decision about who it is you're going into business with. It's important to carefully vet your outsourced partner before committing to a project.

At the very least, try to schedule a call so you can get a sense of how they work and if they'll be a good fit for your projects' needs. If you're able to send over a low-stakes project, that's the best way for a peek behind the curtain of what you can expect if you choose to move forward.

Here's a guided list of the articles in this series, but feel free to check them out in the order that makes sense to you:

At Archaius, we focus on providing our clients the closest thing to a fractional in-house team. Meaning, we want you to feel like we’re right down the hall, but only when you need us.

Reach out through our contact form if you’d like to get the conversation started.