No Logo? Launching a Business Without a Logo Can Sabotage You
by Erin Ferree
Published on this site: April 29th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
Initial lack of customers and cash flow often causes a small business
to put off designing a logo and marketing materials professionally
“until [they] got a few clients” or “until [they]
get started.” Designing their own marketing materials when
they launch their business, instead of having them professionally
created, will make getting those initial clients more difficult,
and may result in a business that will not succeed.
Many entrepreneurs choose to design their own marketing materials
when they launch their business, especially by creating their first
business card. Or, they will have an amateur designer, friend or
relative create the design. There are several reasons why this is
not the best idea. An amateur logo design and business card can
make your business more likely to fail because:
- Your business won't look stable. It will appear to be
more likely to fold or to fail. Clients won’t have
confidence in doing business with you. Would you do business
with someone that seems to be on unstable footing
who might not be in business by the end of your project,
or after you’ve purchased an item?
- You’ll look like a very small business. Large, successful
businesses would never consider doing business without professional,
originally designed marketing materials. Using materials
that are not professionally designed (i.e., Microsoft or
Vistaprint templates) makes your business appear even smaller,
and can possibly indicate that you cannot perform to or
meet the standards required.
- You’ll look unpolished and rough. Not having a professional
look and feel can make it look as though your business does
not matter to you. Customers may get the impression that
you don’t care about the way your business presents
itself, which might indicate that you wouldn’t care
about the quality of your work, or the way that your work
reflects upon their business.
- You’ll look unfocused. Unprofessional, uncoordinated
marketing materials can make your business look “jumbled”
or confused. If you have a business card with one look and
feel and a website with another, this creates a confused
and confusing look and feel for your business.
This can also cause an identity crisis for a small business.
When looking at your differently designed materials, potential
clients may be fooled into thinking that they are looking
at materials that represent different companies.
About half of all businesses fail within their first few years.
One source of failure that’s commonly cited by experts is sloppy
or ineffective marketing if your marketing materials don’t
stand out from your competitors’, your sales will suffer.
When you start a business, you need to create the quickest possible
route to business success. A logo helps to create this by contributing
to your business’s visibility, credibility, and memorability
three factors that will help your business to grow and achieve
success. So, while putting off your logo development may seem like
a prudent idea from a cash-flow point of view, it could result in
your business never getting “off the ground”. It can also
lead to your business folding when it would otherwise succeed
if you don’t invest in your business, who will?
If you think that you can’t afford to design a logo
when starting your business, consider the outcomes how
can you afford not to?
Erin Ferree is a logo, print and web designer who has been
making it easy for small businesses to stand out and to be visible,
credible and memorable for the past nine years. http://www.elf-design.com
|
