One of the biggest challenges in starting a small business is developing the “visual identity” of the business.  Sometimes known as “branding” – to say that the visual elements you choose to represent your new business are important would be a gross understatement.

Part of the “brand” development process is to create visual elements – such as a logo – which help to carry your marketing message.  Every detail plays a role in how well the “brand” communicates the “who, what and why” of your business.   Seemingly inconsequential elements such as the choice of colors and the style of font  used play pivotal roles in the overall message your “branding elements” communicate.

Developing a logo is definitely one of those “easier than it looks” part of launching a new business.

Branding for your Small Business

Building a visual identity or “brand” for any size business is a big job.  However, -if the small business you’re starting is a freelance or service based business – branding is especially difficult.  For many service providers – creating an image which conveys who they are and what they do is excruciatingly painful.  Often, the initial branding and logo development  experience is the first time a new business owner has tried to convey what his/her business is about via a 2 dimensional image.

If you’ve never tried to brand your service based business – the only experience which can compare  is the task of choosing an avatar to represent you when you comment on blogs.  If you think choosing an image based avatar is hard – try creating a visual identity for “who” you are in the world of business.

Coming up with a single image the “represents” who you are and what you do is excruciatingly difficult if you don’t have a clear picture of who you are and what exactly it is you do.

That’s one of the reasons I embraced so completely the whole “WordPress as CMS” as a foundation for my web development business.  Often times, clients will arrive without a visual “identity”.  Using WordPress as a CMS allows these clients the opportunity to begin building content for their web site without making a commitment to a visual identity.  Using WordPress as your CMS -it’s possible to “try on” visual identities while maintaining content continuity.

One of my favorite “web site development” strategies with those launching a new business is to use the Thesis theme.  That way, the boot strapping entrepreneur can begin building content while working on developing the “visual identity” elements which are so crucial to brand development.  Once the visual elements are developed – the Thesis theme can be easily modified to display those visual branding elements as part of the design.

“Cheap and Easy” Branding Resources

You’ve got a “stupid” small business idea that you want to make reality.  Of course, you don’t have NEARLY enough cash on hand and as such, you need cheap and easy branding resources.  While true “branding” services are rarely cheap and NEVER easy – the new “social” web now offers the next best thing which is offered via crowd sourcing design sites such as 99designs.com and crowdspring.com.

Crowd Sourcing for Design

On the typical crowd sourcing design sites – designers “compete” for the prize of your business.   In essence, designers are working on “spec” which means you only pay if you choose their design.   This is how it works:  you launch a “contest” with a predetermined prize.  The prize is the amount you’ll pay for the final design. Talented designers then “compete” for the prize you’ve offered. You set the parameters of the contest and during the contest, the new “social” technology allows designers to quickly and easily communicate with you about what you like – and don’t like – about various designs.

This arrangement is VERY attractive to the small business owner and it removes an underlying fear most boot strapping entrepreneurs have which is that they’ll hire a designer who CAN NOT create what they want – which is often undefined.  This arrangement is also attractive to designers who are just starting out and who appreciate the feedback from prospective clients on what they can do to improve.

I’ve had several clients run crowd sourcing design contests to create their visual identity in recent months.  Without exception – each contest has resulted in high quality designs offered at rock bottom pricing.

However, not everyone I know who has used crowd sourcing for their design has been thrilled with the end result.   The clients who have been PLEASED with the process began their contest design after having hammered out a clearly defined marketing strategy.

Creating a “brand” for your business is MUCH easier when you have done a complete and thorough SWOT analysis.

Once these business owners had a clear cut marketing strategy in place – launching a contest for a logo design was a successful and satisfying experience.  After more than a few successful crowd sourcing design outcomes – I began recommending crowd sourcing design sites to clients who had NOT hired me to work with them on their marketing strategy.   After one particularly disturbing customer service story, I began to “hedge” my recommendation of using crowd sourcing design sites to those not well verse in the basics of advertising, marketing and design.

The other day, I discovered the brandstack.com site.   Brandstack bills itself as the world’s largest marketplace to buy and sell branding elements.  The site is filled to the brim with  branding elements such as logos just waiting for an aspiring entrepreneur to grab for a song and develop into a successful business.   You can purchase one of these “pre-packaged” branding elements and either use it “as is” or have it customized for your business.

The difference between brandstack.com and crowd sourcing design sites such as 99designs and crowdspring is that with brandstack.com – you can enter the process without a final “destination” in mind. It’s a great place to go for inspiration.

With that in mind – Brandstack may be a better starting point for those small business owners in search of branding elements who don’t have a well developed marketing strategy in place.  However, keep in mind that creating a well developed marketing strategy is still an essential step of launching a successful small business – for many people creating a marketing strategy seems to “flow” better once the “branding elements” issue is nailed down.

David Airey is having a contest on his Logo Design Love blog. Since so many of my clients are in the health and self help fields I took interest in his nominations for that category.

David is asking his readers to “vote” on the “best” logo… however, because of my Niche Marketing mindset…. I can’t help but add this note to my clients who read my blog…

Remember that your “favorite”  design will be influenced by who you are.

For example,  one of my favorite logos on the page is the one for Fatfighters.  I scrolled right by some other lovely designs which got more votes in the comments section.  Since it’s no secret that I am currently embroiled in a battle of the bulge, it’s natural that I would zip right by other great logo designs such as  the ones for Dumb Little Man, Emergiblog and Lift magazine.

Now, this is really important:  As you’re working with a logo developer and you begin to “shop” your designer’s preliminary work around to family and friends… ask yourself “Are these people a part of my target audience?”

Your target audience is the only opinion that counts when it comes to your logo design.

If Aunt Sally and Uncle Dave are in their late 60′s and are NOT members of your target audience…. don’t ask their opinion!!!  It doesn’t MATTER which logo they like unless they are part of your target audience!!!

I once had a client who was “shopping” a business idea around to her family and friends.  Because none of these people were part of the target market for the product, their responses to her were very discouraging.  However, when she began shopping that same idea to her anticipated target audience, instead of responding with a yawn…. members of her target audience replied with an enthusiastic, “How much will it cost and when can I sign up?”

With that in mind… I’m sure that if Janet Simpson of Nourish Your Life were to review the logos featured, her attention would immediately be drawn to the Organic Passion logo because of her passion for organic foods.  Meanwhile, Simeon Pollock of the Wholistic Blog would be drawn to the Fingertips logo.

Logos are the toughest decision any business owner will make because it takes a talented graphic artist to create a compact two dimensional element that effectively speaks volumes about the multi-dimensional business  which it represents.  David Airey is doing a wonderful job of showcasing this ability… and I’d be willing to bet he answers his email as well.

The vast majority of my clients are of the "bootstrapping entrepreneurial" variety, which means cost effective is one of their TOP priorities.

For that reason, when I launch a new blog for a client (and blogs are a boot strapping entrepreneur’s best friend) I always offer the option of using a Template Monster Templates for their self hosted Word Press blog.  For less than $60, we can "dress" their blog in an attractive and stylish "theme" which can easily be changed in the future.

I usually don’t recommend they use a "free" template for their blog just because the quality of those free template blogs tend to vary widely.  One client fell in love with just such a "free" template, only to discover that any pages created in Word Press won’t display properly (i.e. AT ALL).  That created a problem.  My client was in LOVE with certain elements in this blog theme which she can’t find duplicated at Template Monster.  For her, we had to move to plan B.

Plan B involves:

1. Hiring a Graphic Artists/Designer

   This client spent three months posting her design requests to various web sites which offer to connect clients with designers.   Her hope was to find a "rising star" who would create a design for her.  Unfortunately, that never happened.  When she told me she was going to raise her listed "budget" for the project to more than I paid for the cover design for my book, I offered to introduce her to the graphic artist who designed the cover of my book, Richard Leach.

   Richard is an incredibly gifted graphic artist and he designed a SUPERB graphical concept for the theme.  Step 1 is completed… and now we’re moving to Step 2.

2. Hiring  someone to code the design.

   Unfortunately, this client was directed to a source that claimed to "code your design" for a low, low cost of $150.   I had been telling her that a custom coding job would run in the $750 range….  so she was THRILLED to find this resource via a business coach with whom she works.  Unfortunately, inquiries to this designer yielded a response along the lines of  "I’m swamped and I can’t take on any more projects" type of a reply.  (His web site is down now which I assume means he”s going to raise his rates.) 

   I’ll admit, I was concerned when she first approached me about this "low cost alternative".  My figure was based upon using a word press theme developer I know personally to code the design.  Other sources range in the $650-$750 range for custom coding of a design as well. One site, recommended by Tech Crunch is  XHTMLized Turns Your Design into Code. When you choose "WP Theme" at XHTMLized the price automatically jumps to $649. 

Just a word of wisdom to any one new to business and/or life:  When you get four quotes for something and three of those quotes are within 20% of each other… and ONE of those quotes is a full 80% LESS than the other three… throw out the rock bottom quote.  (This is why you should get multiple quotes on any project, web or otherwise.) 

In the case of Template Monster Word Press Themes, you’re getting a theme at a 90% discount FOR A REASON (two to be exact): 

• Because they can sell that same theme over and over again! 
• Many of the themes offered there are variations of a select group of theme codes… so while two themes have markedly different graphics, code wise they are almost identical in nature.  In economics class your professor called that "economies of scale".  It costs $750 to code the first design, but it only costs $50 to swap the graphics and change the color values for the second theme offered for sale. 

This works in reverse as well.  If you have four real estate agents and THREE of them tell you they will list your house in the $300L-$350K range and ONE agent assures you he/she will list your house at $650K…. disregard that final figure.  No matter how BADLY you want to believe it, most of the time it’s not the three agents who are "wrong" about the value of your home.  Instead, you have ONE agent who is trying to "buy" your listing.

My client is going to have a LOT of money invested in the development of her new theme.  (Unfortunately, it looks like she’ll be spending $500 more on the coding than she originally estimated.) However, she’s going to end up with a blog like no other, and one which powerfully communicates what she does before you read a single word of copy.   Because she’s a seasoned business professional, she understands better than most of my "boot strapping" clients that you have to spend money to make money.

In the end, it’s rare to find someone who is great at what they do offering their services at a fraction of cost.  What always happens is the provider becomes deluged and as a result, raises his/her rates.  If you find you’re swamped, then it’s time to raise your rates.  Trust me…. the clients you lose aren’t nearly as good as the clients you’ll gain.  

When a blog (Daily Blog Tips) that has an Alexa rating in the 15,000 range tells you that the 800 X 600 screen display setting is dying, I have to take notice.

It’s times like these that I feel like a REAL dinosaur as I reflect back on the days when 800 was "wide screen"…. and now those 800 pixel wide displays have grown into 1024 x 768.  Sniff!!!  Get out the photo album Pa and we’ll remember the old Compaq computer with it’s 1 gig hard drive that we were SURE would last forever! 

OK, nostalgia rantings aside…. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has a poll on his zdnet blog on screen resolutions where he asks what your screen resolution is.  I went to vote and realized… I don’t even KNOW what my current settings are for this computer. 

I’m running Windows XP so I begin by Start > Control Panel> Display >Settings.  Ah, there…. 1440 X 900

Out of 581 votes on his blog, 6% are running 1440X900.  1 out of three visitors is using display settings of 1280×1024.

Ah, but here’s the rub…. Adrian’s blog is targeted towards web savvy users.  Hardware 2.0 readers are probably VERY different than readers for other blogs.

Is 800X600 "dead"…. well, maybe in some circles.  One of my clients just laid to rest three Windows 98 machines in her office.  Until last week, she was DEFINITELY running a business where 800X600 was the rule of thumb. 

Again, it boils down to YOUR audience.  Is your audience the tech savvy kind…. then by all means, assume the 800X600 screen resolution is dead for them.  However,  recognize that 4% of Adrian’s tech savvy audience is still using that screen resolution. 

More than one of my clients are targeting less than tech savvy audiences and while I feel it’s safe to assume the 640×480 users are used to side scrolling, for now I’m just not comfortable assuming the 800X600 is dead and gone.  Besides… what’s the harm in targeting the lowest common denominator?

I have to admit, since I converted my web site to a blog, I’ve been feeling more than a bit sheepish about  the first impression my blog makes.  

See, I’m really, really, really BUSY creating pretty blogs for my clients. 

BUSTED!!!

As I write that line of BS, I see what I must REALLY think of the design issue.  That design is an also ran.  I MUST if I’d allow my blog to appear looking like this. 

I realize that when my clients fuss that they don’t have TIME to blog because they’re really, really busy, it’s usually because they aren’t convinced of the IMPORTANCE of blogging.   I’m quick to point out that they probably find time to exercise, or pay the bills or do anything else that is deemed "important" to them.  If they aren’t blogging, then it’s usually because they either are afraid of the computer or they just don’t recognize the long term benefits.

So I have to ask myself… is it possible that I tossed on the less than attractive Semilogic theme as an act of open rebellion?

While I recognize great design, I have trouble achieving it on my own, which is why I partner with gifted graphic artists when the client budget allows, or use templates when their budget doesn’t allow for such collaboration. 

When I read blog reviews, I’ve seen bloggers give a site with an attractive, well crafted design high marks in a review, even if the content is less than compelling.  When I review a blog, my first focus is upon the content…. with the design as a "nice to have but not essential" element.

The design aspect of web development has ALWAYS been a source of consternation for me.  I’ve watched COUNTLESS clients fuss over font style or a few pixels of white space while virtually IGNORING the content for the site.  I’m a long time believer that the information highway is ALL about content, and honestly believe that really great content wrapped in so-so design will always trump poor content wrapped in brilliant design.  I’ve seen time and time again examples of the clients who are willing to put the effort into creating quality content being rewarded exponentially while those whose focus is exclusively follow the predictable path of allowing their domain name and web hosting to expire because their web site just wasn’t "working" for them.

On the other hand, I’ve seen first hand how important an attractive design is to the success of the site.  Presentation is everything.  If I show up at a client’s office with my hair in disarray, my makeup not done and my clothes tattered and stained, it doesn’t matter how "brilliant" my presentation…. I’ll be working from a disadvantage by not presenting a professional image.  I tell the story frequently of the site upon which I worked where all we did was change the presentation of the site and the client’s affiliate income from the site rose 450% in a single quarter.  The traffic was there, but the results weren’t until we applied a new "wardrobe" for the site.  The effect of the new design was like applying a spark to a gas leak.  It was positively explosive.

These are the design demons with which I’ve been wrestling lately. 

Then, I happened upon the blog A Consuming Experience which is FILLED with great content which is displayed in the humble "default" Word Press Theme.   Hmmm… an example of outstanding content in a humble theme design.

On the other hand, when I read a blog review, the first element in the review is almost always the design elements.

So how important is design to the success of a blog or web site?