🎨 Industry
Marketing & Advertising
🖥️ Position Hired
Web Designer
📆 Hiring Timeline
5 days
💰 Savings
~$250,000 over 3 years
I had to submit ads into a coaching program and they told me — “Wesley, these are some of the best looking ads we’ve seen.” — That’s a testament to Karina’s work.
Wesley Woods runs Visibly Marketing, a marketing agency. Visibly focuses on local Service Ads, handling local SEO, and running Facebook ads for service-based businesses. He’s now focused primarily on marketing for family law firms.
Before working with HireUA, Visibly was outsourcing to a patchwork of vendors and contractors. Some were fine. Most weren’t.
The communication was inconsistent. The fulfillment was hit or miss. And nobody felt like part of the team.
He needed to hire a web designer. Not a freelancer he’d chase around for deliverables. A real team member who could own the design work — websites, graphics, ad creatives, blog content — all of it.
That was in 2022.
She’s still there.
The Problem With Hiring a Web Designer the “Normal” Way
If you’re a creative business…you already know the drill.
You need design work done. So you go to Upwork, or Fiverr, or you tap your “network” of freelancers. Maybe you find someone decent. Maybe they ghost you after two projects. Maybe the quality is great on Tuesday and garbage on Friday.
Here’s the thing:
Freelancers and vendors don’t care about your business the way a team member does. They don’t learn your SOPs. They don’t internalize your brand. They don’t get better over time because they’re invested in YOUR growth.
Visibly had been doing this dance for years. Multiple external vendors. Inconsistent output. No accountability. No one who felt like they were truly on his team.
And here’s what makes it worse — if you try to hire a web designer locally in the US, you’re looking at $55,000 to $85,000 per year for someone competent. For a senior UI/UX designer in a major market? North of $100,000.
For a small agency doing 20-30 websites a year? That math doesn’t work.
How HireUA Placed the Right Web Designer in 5 Days
Wesley reached out.
We had a conversation about what he actually needed — not just “a designer” but someone who could handle website design, graphic design, ad creatives, and eventually blog content. Someone who could work inside his existing systems and take real ownership.
We went to work. Submitted candidates within 5 days of him starting the engagement.
And here’s the kicker:
Wesley knew from the first interview.
He said it himself — “Right away, we thought, ‘She’s the one.'”
Karina’s English was excellent (which had been a problem with past contractors), she answered every team-oriented question well, and she came across as what Wesley described as “humble, hungry, and smart.”
They did a few more interviews. Came back to Karina anyway. Sometimes you just know.
The Results: 50% Faster Website Delivery
Before Karina joined, Visibly Marketing’s average website design project took about 2 months from start to finish. They were designing 20-30 websites per year, and the timeline was a bottleneck.
Karina cut that in half.
From 2 months to 1 month per site. Same quality — actually, better quality. She took over the full front-end design workflow: website layouts, graphic assets, Facebook ad creatives, and eventually blog posting and content creation.
But here’s what really turned heads:
Wesley submitted some of the ads to a coaching program he was a part of.
Their feedback?
“Wesley, these are some of the best-looking ads we’ve seen in the program.”
That’s a room full of business owners who look at ads all day telling him his designer’s work stands out above the rest.
And check this out:
Karina didn’t just do what was asked. Over time, she took on blog posting, content creation, and other tasks that Wesley hadn’t originally scoped. She saw what needed to be done and did it. That’s the difference between a freelancer and a team member.
Wesley put it simply, “She’s been a blessing. Her work allows us to scale more efficiently.”
The Cost: What This Web Designer Hire Actually Looked Like
Let’s talk numbers. Because this is where it gets interesting.
Now, let’s run the math:
A comparable US-based web designer?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median salary for web developers and digital designers at around $98,000 per year. And that’s the median — in a major metro, for someone with Karina’s experience level and portfolio, you’re easily looking at $120,000+.
This means that Visibly was saving about 81% versus hiring locally.
And the kicker? No benefits to fund. No office space to provide. No HR headaches. One monthly bill through HireUA.
Over the full 3+ years of the engagement, the total savings compared to a US web designer probably close to a quarter-million dollars.
That’s the relationship you want with a hire. Not squeezing them for the cheapest rate. Paying them fairly, watching them grow, and watching your business grow alongside them.
Why the Direct Hire Buyout Tells the Full Story
After more than 3 years of working together through HireUA, Wesley decided to execute a Direct Hire buyout. This is when a client transitions their HireUA candidate to a direct relationship — cutting out our monthly UnfairCare management fee so 100% of the pay goes directly to the candidate.
Why did he do it?
“Mainly timing,” Wesley said. “She’s been with us for over 2 years. Even though she was technically with us through HireUA, she always felt like a team member. Doing the buyout made it official — and allowed us to give her 100% of her pay and scale her compensation even further.”
And here’s what matters:
He didn’t leave because he was unhappy. He left because the relationship had graduated. He’d already referred other people to HireUA.
We’ve seen this pattern with dozens of placements. Client starts through HireUA, candidate becomes indispensable, client buys them out to give them a raise and cement the relationship.
Everybody wins.
What Made This Placement Work
If you’ve read our other case studies — like Monarch Wave Marketing, where we placed a WordPress developer from Serbia, saving the client $130,000 — you’ll notice a pattern.
The placements that work aren’t the ones where the client found the cheapest person. They’re the ones where the client found the right person, treated them like a team member, and invested in the relationship.
Wesley did exactly that.
Here’s what specifically made this work:
1. Karina wasn’t just a designer — she was a design system.
She didn’t show up and wait for instructions. She learned the brand, understood the clients, and started producing work that was consistent across every deliverable — websites, ads, blog graphics, all of it. That consistency is what let Wesley scale from doing everything himself to actually working ON the business.
2. The English was excellent.
This is something Wesley specifically called out. With past contractors, communication had been a challenge. Karina’s English was strong from day one — which makes sense given her translation degree from one of Ukraine’s top universities. Communication friction kills remote working relationships faster than anything else.
3. She grew with the business.
She didn’t stay static. She picked up new skills, took on new responsibilities, and expanded her role over time. That’s what happens when you hire someone good and actually invest in them — they don’t just maintain, they compound.
For another story of how we place talent that grows with businesses, check out this story…
4. The fit was right from the start.
Sometimes you do 10 interviews and can’t find the right person.
Sometimes you know on the first call. Wesley knew.
He said, “She came across as humble, hungry, and smart.”
Three words. That’s it. And 4 years later, he was still happy enough to buy her out and keep going.
How to Hire a Web Designer Without Overpaying or Getting Burned
If you’re a business owner or agency founder looking to hire a web designer, here’s the reality:
The US market is expensive. And even at that price, you’re not guaranteed to find someone who’ll treat your business like their own.
Freelancer platforms like Upwork and Fiverr are a gamble. You might find someone great. You might find someone who disappears after the second milestone payment. There’s no accountability, no vetting beyond a profile page, and no ongoing support if things go south.
And here’s what most people don’t realize:
The web designer market is massive. WordPress alone powers over 40% of all websites on the internet. There are millions of people who can install a theme and drag some blocks around. Finding someone who can do real UI/UX work — information architecture, conversion-focused layouts, brand-consistent design systems, and ad creatives that actually perform — that’s a much smaller pool.
Karina checked every one of those boxes. And she did it at a price point that let a small-town Georgia marketing agency compete with firms 10 times their size.
We source, vet, and place web designers who can handle full website builds, UI/UX design, graphic design, ad creatives, and more. From Eastern Europe, Latin America, and beyond. Full-time or part-time, at a fraction of US rates.
One monthly bill. No HR headaches. Candidates submitted in as little as 5 days.
Next Success: How Support Pets Is Saving $150,000/Year by Hiring Offshore Talent with HireUA