Squadhelp Review: Is Squadhelp Worth It for Hiring?
Jason Quey
Updated:
November 12, 2020
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If you’re getting started with a new business, you’ll quickly learn that being your own boss is demanding. The average entrepreneur works 52 hours each week, and many work 60 hours or more. All that time spent on the grind doesn’t leave you with much time to spend on naming your brand.
Meanwhile, few things are as important as a first impression, and having the right name for your operation can make or break your business. So, how can you manage the grind of owning a business while still having time to name it? Thankfully, services like Squadhelp make it easy.
Squadhelp is a crowdsourced freelancer marketplace that makes it easy and fun to name your business. Plus, they provide a ton of additional value-added services that your business is sure to appreciate.
Today, we’re going to take a closer look at this popular freelance platform and everything they have to offer.
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Squadhelp’s primary function is to help your business come up with a catchy and cutting-edge name that sets you apart from your competition. The company provides a few different naming services:
With the contests, contestants submit name ideas, and they have the opportunity to win a cash prize if their name is selected. Managed contests combine the crowdsourcing model of naming contests with customized agency experience to help you achieve even better results.
If the idea of a naming contest doesn’t seem like a good fit for your business, you can also browse their database, which features thousands of different name ideas for sale.
Beyond services to help you name your business, Squadhelp also offers a variety of other services that are critical for new companies. Squadhelp can provide you with:
These valuable services make Squadhelp a one-stop-shop for getting your business off the ground. Most importantly, these services are affordable, so it’s easy for business owners to put their best foot forward without breaking the bank.
Many of Squadhelp’s services, such as logo or business card creation, can be bundled together to help save you even more money. Or, if you’re only looking for design services, they can be purchased a la carte. Squadhelp’s design services follow the same crowdsourced contest model as their name creation services do.
Creating a contest with Squadhelp is easy. First, you’ll begin by selecting the services you’re interested in. Clients can choose between name creation, logo design, tagline or slogan creation, and packaging design. If you’re launching a naming contest, you also have the option to bundle it with other services, like graphic design or tagline creation.
From there, you’ll create a content brief so that contestants know precisely what to deliver to make you happy. Next, you’ll select a package to purchase. Squadhelp offers a few different packages, ranging from $249 for their Bronze Package to $999 for their managed agency-level service.
Finally, you’ll pay your bill, and Squadhelp begins soliciting entries for your contest. Once the entries start rolling in, you’ll have the opportunity to offer feedback, which helps refine the entries you’re receiving from the creative team. Once the contest is closed, you’ll pick a winner, and the winning entry wins a cash prize as compensation for their work.
Boasting an impressive 4.9 stars on Shopper Approved, it’s safe to say that Squadhelp is doing something right. Customers across the world have showered Squadhelp with praise, and there are some common points that many customers seem to touch on.
The first point worth noting is that Squadhelp offers a comprehensive range of services. If you’re working on getting a business off the ground, you know that your time comes at a premium. Squadhelp makes it easy for businesses to outsource many different time-consuming tasks so they can focus on what’s most important to their business.
Squadhelp also deserves considerable praise for their Platinum and Managed services, which deliver exceptional value to clients. The managed options they offer can provide the type of high-dollar agency experience you’d receive when working with a top creative firm. But, they’re roughly 80% less than what you’d expect to pay an agency.
Even if you don’t want to spend the money for their top-of-the-line managed service, their Platinum package provides you with the same A-level creative talent that you’d be working with if you selected a managed service. So, this is another excellent way to maximize how well Squadhelp works for you without breaking the bank entirely.
The higher-tier options from Squadhelp offer some value-added services that can save you time and money. These packages include audience testing, trademark research by a lawyer, and free domain registration.
Audience testing, in particular, can be an especially useful tool when it comes to selecting designs. If you’re on the fence about a few different names or designs, the meaningful data you receive from your focus group can help guide your decisions in the best direction for your business.
With Squadhelp’s Gold and Platinum packages, Squadhelp also offers a partial refund if things don’t turn out according to plan. With these packages, Squadhelp will refund you the cash prize portion of your package. Usually, that’s a refund of $100-300, but if you bundle services together, the refund could be as high as $600.
Squadhelp also deserves praise for the additional services they offer outside of their business naming and graphic design services. Their video creation service, in particular, is very affordable. Most importantly, they provide cutting edge content that’s in line with what some of the largest companies in the world are doing for their social posts and advertisements.
Whether you’re looking to shoot an ad, a launch video, or something to keep your following engaged on your social channels, Squadhelp is well worth a closer look for your videography needs.
Lastly, Squadhelp offers an impressive library of tools and resources that are indispensable for new business owners and entrepreneurs. These days, there’s a practically endless array of different tools and applications to help you simplify the process of running your business.
Squadhelp’s Startup Toolkit is a directory of sorts where you can quickly learn about these tools, what they do, and who they can help.
There’s no shortage of glowing reviews about Squadhelp’s services online. Here’s what a few people have had to say about their experiences with this popular crowdsourcing agency recently.
While Squadhelp has a lot going for them, there are also a few aspects of the platform that could be better.
Since Squadhelp relies on Crowdsourcing, anyone under the sun can submit their name ideas or design concepts for your contest. In a vacuum, this isn’t a bad thing. But, many of the submissions you receive aren’t going to be useful. In other words, the floor for the submissions you receive is pretty low.
With Squadhelp’s Platinum and Managed packages, you have access to their “A” creative team, so this isn’t an issue you’ll deal with if you subscribe to one of those two packages. But, for businesses on a tight budget, you can expect to have to wade through some mediocre submissions.
Squadhelp’s crowdsourced model is essentially the same as spec work. Spec or specular work involves freelancers submitting designs or other creative to potentially be selected by a client. If a client chooses their work, they are compensated for it. Otherwise, they don’t get paid, which is a bummer from the freelancer’s perspective.
Another issue for some businesses is the price of the service. We mentioned that the Platinum and Managed packages offer exceptional value, but neither is cheap. If you’re trying to run as lean as possible, you may not have hundreds or thousands of dollars to invest with Squadhelp.
While the company does offer more affordable packages, those packages don’t provide the same access to top-tier creatives, or any of the other fringe benefits associated with the more expensive options.
If you opt for the Bronze package, you’ll want to keep in mind that all sales are final. With the Gold and Platinum packages, Squadhelp will refund you a portion of your money if you don’t end up moving forward with one of their name suggestions or designs. If you purchase a Bronze level service and choose not to move forward, you’re still on the hook for the full purchase price.
While the vast majority of people have great things to say about Squadhelp, it’s crucial to address both sides of the aisle before making a decision. Here’s what a client who wasn’t happy with Squadhelp had to say.
Check out our list of Squadhelp alternatives.
Squadhelp’s pricing is straightforward and easy to understand. Regardless of the service you select, there are four tiers of pricing. Squadhelp offers Bronze, Gold, and Platinum packages, along with a managed option, which is the most expensive service available. Managed services provide an agency-like experience for significantly cheaper than what you’d pay at a full-fledged agency.
Regardless of the services you choose, the pricing remains consistent. Depending on the page you select, you’ll pay between $299 and $999 for any of the crowdsourced services that Squadhelp offers. The $999 package is always the managed agency-quality option.
You can also bundle services together, saving hundreds in the process. Let’s say you’re in the market for a name, logo, and tagline. You can save between $100-400 depending on the package you choose when you bundle the three services together.
With Squadhelp’s Gold and Platinum packages, they also offer a partial refund if the creative you receive is unacceptable. If, at the end of your project, you’re unsatisfied with the results, Squadhelp will issue you a partial refund of up to $600, depending on the services you’ve chosen. The refund works out to somewhere between 33-50% of the price you paid for your package.
Squadhelp also offers several services that aren’t part of its crowdsourced model. For services like video creation, trademarking services, or audience testing, clients pay a flat rate that starts at $129.
These services, especially their video creation services, can deliver incredible value to your business. Judging by the gallery of videos on their site, the production you’ll receive is well worth the price of admission.
Squadhelp also offers their video creation services on a subscription basis, so you’ll have new content every month to add to your marketing materials and social channels.
Squadhelp offers a great selection of different services that small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs can leverage to huge benefits. It’s difficult enough putting in the work to open a business, and sometimes, there just isn’t enough time left to address the businesses' creative needs.
In that regard, Squadhelp empowers business owners to focus on what’s most important while they handle the creative heavy lifting.
Depending on the services you need, you’ll likely find that Squadhelp is well worth the cost. Their managed program, in particular, delivers an agency-quality experience for significantly less than what you’d spend if you took your project to a hot-shot creative agency instead of Squadhelp.
While Squadhelp’s plans start in the $300 range, the lower-tiered plans don’t deliver the same value as their higher-tiered offerings. If your business is operating on a tight budget, you may be better off taking advantage of some lower-priced freelance marketplaces that can provide similar services.