How Bend Built An In-House Team and Scaled Operations with Remote Talent

‍Bend is a digital marketing agency that helps brands get in front of their ideal customers. Unlike a typical agency, however, Bend isn’t obsessed with doing everything. Instead, they aim to do things better, putting a premium on kindness and goal alignment.

This unique approach to agency work — coupled with help from Upwork contractors — allowed Bend to create meaningful and effective campaigns for clients. But as their clients' needs grew, so did their need to find dedicated team members who would stick with them for the long haul.

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The Challenge:

Shifting from expensive freelancers to a dedicated in-house team

As the business scaled, Bend founder Duncan Lawrence felt the need to hire someone who could take some tasks off this plate.

"I had been going out to Upwork for some services, but those were generally more expensive and I wanted to have dedicated resources," shares Duncan.

With a growing need for an in-house team that can focus on serving its clients, Bend faced the following challenges:

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Key Challenges:

• Searching for dedicated staff - Instead of wasting time onboarding contract workers, Bend wanted to hire in-house team members who could focus on helping them grow their business full-time. The problem? Local full-time hires were expensive and hard to find.

• Finding the right place to source candidates - Freelance marketplaces like Upwork can work for short-term projects, but aren’t practical for those looking to hire long-term. Platform fees can get expensive over time, and finding new contractors affects overall productivity. Bend needed an alternative place to source reliable and vetted candidates for their in-house team.

• Weeding through applications was time-consuming - Finding the right place to post a job ad is one thing; going through applications is another. Weeding through applications took a lot of time and energy — and offered no guarantees of successful candidates.

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The Solution:

Full-time hires with Shepherd’s headhunting services

When freelance marketplaces failed to meet their needs, Duncan and his team turned to Shepherd for help. As a headhunter agency that specializes in finding full-time, dedicated team members, we were uniquely positioned to help Bend realize its goals.

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Here's how we helped:

• Employing our tried-and-tested recruitment process - Instead of casting a wide net to find applicants, Shepherd uses a team of professional headhunters to seek out individuals who meet our clients’ needs. This process, along with our exclusive pool of pre-screened candidates, helped us find the perfect hires for Bend. “[Shepherd stood out by] taking care of the process, and delivering when I was able to make a decision,” shares Duncan.

• Finding dedicated full-time staff - Shepherd specializes in finding full-time remote staff for our clients — exactly what Bend needed at the time. We found highly skilled individuals who can work exclusively for Bend, helping the agency build its in-house team faster. Without a managed staffing service acting as a middleman between Bend and the employees, Bend was also able to fully integrate the remote talent into the agency.

• Efficient, cost-effective recruitment - By leaving the tedious screening process up to Shepherd, Bend saved significant time and resources. “Weeding through all of the applications is done first by Shepherd,” Duncan says, “It's a huge time saver.”

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And since remote talent costs as much as 80% less than local hires, Bend was able to sustainably scale without taking huge financial risks for their company.

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" [Shepherd] has allowed us to fill out our team in the way we believe it needs to be filled...without being hindered by bureaucracy." - Duncan Lawrence | Founder, Bend

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Dedicated in-house team, improved service delivery

Having its own team allowed Bend to increase its offerings and improve its service delivery to clients.

Instead of spending resources finding and onboarding expensive contractors, Bend can now serve more clients thanks to an in-house team composed of:

• a digital marketing specialist
• a data analyst
• an SEO specialist
• a project manager
• a marketing automation specialist —
• — and a content specialist

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They're also poised to reap the many benefits of having an in-house team: increased productivity, consistent communication, and accumulated team knowledge.

"We have one employee who we have had for almost 2 years," Duncan mentions, "They have been absolutely wonderful."

With an in-house team of highly skilled professionals, Bend can truly live up to its values: to deliver great results for their clients while still being anchored in kindness.

As Bend’s recruitment partner, we’re proud to have helped them build a team of remote talent they can count on and grow with.

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"I think it's great to work with Shepherd — it's truly easy to do."
- Duncan Lawrence | Founder, Bend

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Want to build your in-house team?

Our headhunting team can help you find remote talent that meets your unique business needs. With our extended 6-month guarantee, you can rest assured that you can build your in-house dream team without the hassle.

Get in touch with our team today.

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