If you have decided to make the brave leap into the world of business it is essential that your company starts off on the right foot with the right Graphic Designer. Whatever it is you are planning to do it’s a sure fire thing that the competition will be high, but don’t worry, as there is a way to pull the odds back in your favour, working with the right Graphic Designer.
This is a powerful weapon in business. It is as vital as dressing to impress at your first meeting, or arriving to that meeting in a top of the range Mercedes. Perception is everything in business. Human beings are naturally judgemental, in fact.. statistics show that it only takes around 0.4 seconds for one person to judge another based on appearance. In that time the person opposite has assessed you, made up their mind about your level of intelligence, success, attractiveness, business sense and will assign a level of respect to you accordingly.
It’s the same for your new company. It starts with the branding through logo identity. Read more here about Logo Branding
The very first thing that you need to build as a new business is the brand. what do you stand for? What are your brand values? What is unique about you and your business proposition? How can that be visually represented in a way that is simple, elegant and powerful.
The next most important thing will be your business card. Why is that so important? You will need to have meetings, you will need to discuss your business with trading partners and potential customers, you might need to get someone with capital to take you seriously, then you seal that interaction by handing over a breath taking business card. It’s printed on high quality thick card, or plastic, the texture of the material is interesting. Perhaps the shape is unique and mirrors the brand or industry in some way. Whatever you do, do not underestimate the power of this piece of your business. The person talking to you will take it away, keep it, show other people, they might think to themselves “oh that’s clever” You want them to go away with a sense that you have a creative edge, you think outside the box and are not afraid to be bold in your decisions. It also shows that you value your craft, you are prepared to invest and you are 100% committed to it. As a creative graphic designer, I invested time and money in my card, and it ALWAYS has impact. Remember what I said above, people are judgmental, but this can work in your favour when you hand over a unique business card at the end of your chat.
After they have your impressive business card, the very next thing they will look at is your website. Do you have the right URL? Can you get hold of a .com or .co.uk domain? Is your email address linked to your domain or are you using a hotmail or gmail account? Each of these factors will also be judged, so it’s important that the website has something on it even just a holding page with contact details. Budgets are often quite low at the first stages of a business and so the bare minimum has to be a single page website containing some photos, contact details and company ethos.
Try to avoid the common mistake of a message saying “Full website coming soon” In my experience, this is a meaningless statement. A much more powerful message would be “Full website launch planned for July 2015” Be specific, as this may draw customers back to check it in July, and also gives your own company a target to get a fully functioning site ready that can attract customers through google searches or adwords.
Marketing Advice and Strategy. When I get involved with new businesses, I not only give my own expert advise on the direction and look for their design, I also offer a valuable fresh insight in to the viability of the business and constructive feedback on strategies for success. During my time as a Graphic Designer, I have helped over 100 businesses start from scratch, I have seen who has been successful and can work out the key factors of success moving forwards. Customer’s perception of you and your business is vitally important. If your business was a product on a supermarket shelf, then your website, business card and logo is the packaging of that product. People buy on first impressions, people like what resonates with them, what they can trust and believe in, do it right and you can make an impact on your industry where customers and competitors will take you seriously.