No Logo? Launching A Business Without a Logo Can Sabotage You

Launching A Business Without a Logo Can Sabotage You

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?

About the Author

Erin Ferree, Founder and Lead Designer of elf design, is a brand identity and graphic design expert. She has been helping small businesses grow with bold, clean and effective logo and marketing material designs for over a decade. Elf design offers the comprehensive graphic and web design services of a large agency, with the one-on-one, personalized attention of an independent design specialist. Erin works closely in partnership with her clients to create designs that are visible, credible and memorable - and that tell their unique business stories in a clear and consistent way. For more information about elf design, please visit: Logo design at http://www.elf-design.com

More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Branding Information:

Related Articles

Id Buy That: Getting A Brand Mindset
Feel that? The crisp tingle in the air? It's fall. Fall ushers in the promise of eating, seeing, and getting.
What is an Artists Statement & How Often Should It Be Updated?
An artist's statement is a statement of ideas and thoughts that describe your philosophy, vision, and passion towards your artistic creations.Ponder over the following questions prior to writing your artist's statement:Is your work whimsical, thought provoking, or edgy?Does it portray a series of stories?Whom or what has influenced you the most?How is your work meaningful to you?How do you begin to write your artists statement? You could begin by writing a quote that has inspired you and your work, or you could create a strong sentence that summarizes your philosophy about your life and how art has changed your views on life in general.
The Big-Pay Off -- Brand Value
Many CEOs and marketing directors find their time wasted evaluating marketing opportunities instead of acting on them. When every possibility is followed, a meandering trail of hit and miss effectiveness is the result.
Brand Image - Brand Identity Guru
Having a brand image is not a "have or have not" proposition. Everyone has one.
Why Should I do Business With You?
It's the question that is on the minds of all our customers regardless of what products or services we are offering. Potential customers want to know what makes you so different and why should they do business with you as opposed to one of your competitor's.
How Brand as an Intellectual Property has Led to Corporate Globalisation?
IntroductionGlobalisation is referred to as a set of profound material changes that have an impact on relations between societies in the past few decades. The identifiable features of these material changes are witnessed in the development and growth of web, satellite transmission, fibre-optic technology, broadband operations, transnational corporations and the emergence of World Trade Organisation.
Brand Equity - Brand Identity Guru
7 Qualities Of A Strong Brand:1. Commands premium pricing while retaining loyalty2.
Optimize Your Mailing List For Better Results
A list of customers who have previously bought from you is your most important asset. These are the customers who will provide you with return business, which is more profitable than the first sale.
Brand Identity Company - Brand Identity Guru
Hiring a brand identity company is very important. In every marketing campaign, your company should have a solid brand identity on which to hang its hat.
Choosing the Right Color Palette
Color is a highly personal experience - everyone has favorite colors, and other colors that they absolutely don't like. So, how do you determine which colors that will work for your business identity, and that will send the right message to?We have developed several methods and approaches for determining successful color palettes.
Is Your Logo Helping or Hurting Your Business?
The quality of your logo can mean the difference between success or failure. It can be that simple!Trademarks and Logos make up the most international language in the world.
Brand Identity - Corporate Identity and Brand Value
Companies work hard building the strength of their brands - it is critical to the ongoing brand management process to have meaningful and actionable data-driven measures of these efforts.Building a brand, cultivating its strengths, pruning its weaknesses, and making it more valuable to its owners is the bottom line job of marketing.
Build Brand Identity - Brand Identity Guru
Successful Guru marketers have a secret weapon that they use every single time they communicate about their businesses. It's one of those intangibles that are easily misunderstood.
Logo Files: Versions Of Your Logo That You Should Own
Your logo is the most important graphic element in which you will invest for your business. You should own the logo in many file formats.
Revealing the Roots: The Process of Building Brand
How is branding different than marketing?Branding is not so much different from marketing as it is an element of marketing. We think of marketing as a tree; the brand is the roots, holding the tree in place and providing constant energy.
The Keys to a Great Logo
Logo, graphic, icon, logotype, typogram, logoform, image?call it what you will, a logo by any other name is the group of letters and/or symbols used in a consistent and unique way to identify a company. It is the most prominent and stable element of marketing, and should be planned carefully to fully reflect your brand.
Living Your Brand on the Web - Part 1
OK, so you took the plunge and purchased your internet domain. Good for you! Now what? According to Google.
Importance of Business Branding
Branding is very important to a business, whether it is an online or offline business. Your brand will be the first impression the public has of your business and could very well be the most important one.
Logo-ize For Instant Identification & Increased Awareness
The task of creating an indelible impact on the memory of your target market is arduous but can be made much easier with a well thought out logo. The word comes from the ancient Greek where it was used in philosophy and theology to mean "the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning.
How to Create Your Own Mail Order Products
Pick up almost any book or report on Mailorder Selling andinvariably you will find the same advice.  When you select amailorder product, select one which: - appeals to a large segment of the population- is not readily available in stores- is easy to ship by mail- is worthwhile- and a product that lends itself to repeat orders Most mail order writers will also tell you to try to acquireexclusive selling rights to your product.