What Every Small Business Should Know About Graphic Design & Printing

This is a long article, so get comfortable. I want to make this article as informative as possible so you know what to expect and how to work with a designer, and the basics of design and printing. However, as with anything new, there will be a learning curve.
HOT TIP- Start right-- how you choose a freelance graphic designer or a graphic design studio will make all the difference. Look for section below "How do I choose a graphic designer" for details.

Why is graphic design important to my business?
The quick answer… because there is too much competition and your business needs to look professional and fresh. The long answer… your business is like building a house; start with great materials and you will set the bar high.
Developing a solid visual identity for your business will set a solid base for it to grow on. That first impression your business card makes, or the first impression your customer gets when they visit your website is crucial to them taking some kind of action. You want every piece of paper you distribute and every online page to have your branding… showing professionalism, creating trust and recognition. You may not want to be the next Sony or Google, but you can still look just as great and stand out in your target market.

What design components do I need if I am a start-up business?
Depends on what kind of business you are starting. But most definitely you will need a strong logo appropriate to your industry.
You will need an identity kit (business cards, letterhead, envelopes, thank you notes and envelopes), a mouthpiece item (brochure, postcard, catalog or media kit of some sort), product photography (depends on business), and a simple, well functioning
website design.

How do I build my brand (brand awareness and recognition)?
If you are selling a service or products, everything you do or say or distribute should reflect the brand. How you answer your business phone, consistency amongst your marketing materials and website design, your packaging design and label designs, the quality of your printing, your customer service and more. Develop a simple but well functioning website, showcase stunning product photography, blog or hire someone to blog lots of relevant content, have a Facebook page for your business, remind customers about your new products and offers through an email marketing program like monthly newsletters, email offers and more.

I'm thinking about buying Adobe Creative Suite myself and saving the money of hiring a designer. Any thoughts?
This can work if you answer Yes to the following:
a. Do you have LOTS of time to spare to learn this new software (Illustrator, In-Design and Photoshop are all very different).
b. Are you very computer savvy?
c. Do you have the creative skills to think like a right-brainer and create design-oriented solutions?
d. Can you create a simple and effective message while combining creativity and language skills?
HOT TIP- Focus on what you are best at and leave the branding, design and visual communications to an expert.

How do I choose a graphic designer?
Communicate with your prospective freelance graphic designer a few times via email and phone to see how promptly they return emails and calls. If the designer is local, meet them! Look at their portfolio. If you want labels designed for your vitamins line, but don’t see any previous vitamin clients in the portfolio, don’t worry. Look for overall versatility and style. A good designer will be able to adapt to most styles. Look for how they present themselves and general business practices/etiquette-- were you given a business card? What about knowledge? General attitude of the designer? Ask the designer about their current workload and share your timeline for the project.

What can I expect with logo design? I like a few logos like the Nike and Chanel logo, other than that I am clueless.
It's the simple things that take the most thought. Nike and Chanel are fantastic "marks" or logos, but they were not created overnight. There was a team behind the building of those logos. A good logo must be simple and strong. Preferably not redundant in any way (for example, if your company name is Lightning Bolt Movies it would be redundant to have an icon of a lightning bolt and a movie clapper; perhaps a stylized bolt or a combination of those elements, or just a nice font would be better options. A logo must be easy to remember (think in terms of being a "mark" of some sort). Sometimes a logo originates from the essence of the company. For example, a restaurant wouldn't necessary need a "logo" A restaurant could just use a beautiful font for the name and that itself sets them apart from everyone else-- it creates a feeling, an atmosphere and speaks to the essence of the brand.
When working with a designer in developing a logo provide plenty of examples of ones you like AND don't like. Keep in mind the first round of logos may not hit the jackpot. Be patient and provide constructive feedback.
HOT TIP- Sometimes a logo may not be exactly what you want, but it might be the perfect fit for your business. Remember it's about what is right for your business and customer.

I sent my printer a logo I grabbed from my website. But they said they need a vector logo. What is that?
Images grabbed from the web have a resolution of 72 dpi, but images necessary for printing must be 300 dpi. Hence, grabbing anything from a website will result in pixelated printing (unless the image you are grabbing is a high resolution image to begin with). A vector logo is created in Illustrator and has an extension of .pdf, .ai or .eps. Vector format allows one to scale the logo to very large size without compromising quality in any way.
HOT TIP- When getting a logo designed, ask you designer for the following formats- .jpg, .png, .pdf, .eps, and .ai.

I've tried to send files for printing before to a printer but did not understand their file requirements. Can you help?
All print files should be in CMYK color, meaning full-color or 4-color. CMYK is a combination of cyan, magenta, yellow and black to create the millions of colors. All files must be 300dpi. Images grabbed from the internet may be low resolution and will print pixelated. If you have color stretching all the way to the edges of the page, it is called bleed. You must add bleed to all your files in that case.

I have a new product line and I need to develop packaging designs for all of it. Where do I start?
Depending on your goals, budget, type of product and market analysis, Schnauz Design can develop and design a dieline for boxes and various packages, do the packaging design or label design, and any illustrations or renderings needed. Moreover, we offer boutique style design for less. We will do a creative consolation with you and walk you through the process.

Where can I print professional labels for my box and jar products?
We have resources for you-- Lightning Labels and SixB Labels are good ones. You can also contact us and we can handle all packaging design and printing for you.

I am attending my first tradeshow to present my product line. What do I need?
Great packaging design and label design to do justice to your product is a must. Additionally, a clean booth with 2-3 pop up banners showcasing some beautiful product photography and your brand! Business cards, plenty of brochures, catalogs and some candy. Also keep a mailing list sheet and offer a drawing of some sort if possible.

My business is eco-friendly. How do you incorporate this into packaging design and printing?
We love doing sustainable design and printing (or eco-friendly design and printing) because there is lots of room for being really creative. When designing for sustainable packaging we take into consideration the dieline of the box/container/bag. Can we revise the dieline to reduce amount of substrate being used? Then, what are the recyclable materials we can use? What eco-friendly papers can we use and what about soy-based inks? These are some of the questions we start answering.

What kind of website should I get?
Depends on your business goals, what kind of service or product you are selling and budget.
Standard 5-page static website- This is best for small businesses wanting a nice informational website without added features like shopping cart and control over back-end. You will still get a good contact form feature and social media links if needed.
E-Commerce website with CMS- This is best if you are selling various products and would like to be able to add/delete products, prices and such yourself. This kind of website will be a little more of an investment initially, but it will save you tons of money down the line because you will have control over many aspects.
E-Commerce site without CMS- Great option if you are selling products but will not need frequent updating.
Wordpress Blog or Website- This is best if you have a business that creates buzz (for example, boutique PR firm, event planning, wedding planner etc). This will allow you to post photos and blog posts, but still have standard website pages like "about"
and "contact."

How do I get good search engine rankings, good search engine optimization (SEO) for my site?
Your designer/developer must use good SEO practices when programming your site, like using good tags, keywords, page titles and more. Additionally, a website with a blog feed or a website (like a wordpress website) where you have back-end access to add articles, photos, titles etc. is an excellent way to keep content fresh. Offer a FAQ page, newsletter sign-up, and useful resources page.
HOT TIP- Search engines love content-rich websites full of relevant information. Make sure you change articles and keep your content fresh. SEO is an on-going effort, not a one-time deal.

Mili Suleman, freelance graphic designer based out of Dallas, Texas, offers small businesses a one stop shop to boutique style branding and design without the agency price tag. Her specialities include print marketing, packaging design, label design, and product photography. She is Owner and Lead Designer at Schnauz Design.
Mili can be reached at mili@schnauzdesign.com or mobile 817.456.6622.

9 Steps to Creating your Personal Brand

I came across this posting on another blog and wanted to share... the information in in these short points is invaluable. Most business/marketing books these days will take pages and pages to convey the same information. Creating a personal brand is crucial. Everything plays into this- how you dress, how you answer your phone, your website/blog, your business card, the product/service you are selling. Because a lot of personal branding is kinda abstract, it takes a right-brain person to "get it" and turn the abstract into results. Thanks to http://jorgensundberg.net

9 Steps to Creating your Personal Branding Strategy:
1. Who are You? - what are you skills, passions, do you have a niche?
2. How are You perceived? - what do your friends, professional relations and online search results say about you?
3. What do You want to achieve? - create personal products/services in your field, identify the right market, let your communication be clear and consistent
4. Create Your brand - choose a name/slogan that is easy to remember and says something about you, choose colours accordingly, engage/connect with a personal story
5. Create Your ecosystem - make your blog your #1 communication center, use social network and social media to interact and socialize in
6. Create Your network - follow experts in your field, create relationships, participate in groups & forums, visit networking events in your field
7. Create original content - post valuable content on your blog, post valuable posts on your social networking sites
8. Get involved and share - be active in conversations in social media, leave meaningful content, share valuable information online
9. Listen & monitor - keep a watch on your ratings online, accept and learn from criticism, monitor your brand activity (monitor the buzz, sentiment, analytics)

Visit http://jorgensundberg.net/content/way-personal-branding-infographic for a neat infographic on this.

Guerrilla Marketing...Grrrrrr!!!

So, I have become the spokesperson of the month for the Guerrilla Marketing for Startups book i'm reading by Jay C. Levinson. Once I started doing research on the internet for free g-marketing tips, I found tons of great information. So, I had to share. These are taken from the Bootstrapping Blog:
http://http://www.bootstrappingblog.com

1. Money Stamping – grab a stamper from your local office supply store and stamp a funny phrase along with your website address on it. Have a make money online blog? Stamp something like “Learn how to make thousands of these online: sitehere”.
2. Sticky Notes – Another way to use your stamper or even your printer. Sticky notes are noticable anywhere because people know what they’re for; notes. Put these on local business doors, offices, cars, or above mail boxes in apartment complexes and people will take notice.
3. So many stamps – Looking for a way to get noticed in the huge pile of advertising mail potential clients get? Send your promo material in a big manilla envelope and put 39 – 1 cent stamps on it. Out of 100 envelopes, who’s do you think will catch the eye first?
4. Do Not Disturb – Heading to a blog expo anytime soon? Get some door hangers printed up with your business information on it and possibly a link to something free on your site. Get the attention of everyone in your market this way, and it’s super cheap as well. Noone else I know has been doing this so you’ll stand out for sure.
5. Pay it forward – when you’re heading into the movie theater, pay the persons way behind you and tell the cashier to give them your business card. You’re not guaranteed that the person will become a client but I bet the word of mouth on that one would be pretty big.
6. Fake publicity stunt – you could have people picket your storefront with signs that read “This business is too nice” or “Company X is too good at their job”. Theres a million fake publicity stunts, use your imagination and I bet it’ll work no matter how weird or out of the box it seems.
7. Guest blogging – This is for the bloggers out there, or even the freelance writers. Guest blog on other blogs largely related, or semi-related to your websites niche. Opening other peoples eyes to your name and your website is always good promotion, especially if you’re an awesome writer. Not to mention networking with other bloggers is great for business as well.
8. Business Cards – STOP! Don’t skip this one. So many people see this and think you’re going to tell them to print cards and hand them out. I’m not! What you do with these cards is head to every library or book store in your city and find the section that relates to your business. Open each and every book and place a business card somewhere in the book. This is great targeted marketing and only costs you a few bucks for the cards and an afternoon of placing the cards. If you need some great business cards, check out UPrinting.com
9. Bumper Stickers – These are great because they can go anywhere, not just on your car. Bathroom stalls, street poles, ect. Get creative with where you place them, they can grab peoples attention when placed in the right spots.
10. Temporary Tattoos – I seen a post on some guerrilla marketing ideas over at Daily Bits and they talked about this as well. These tattoos will last for X amount of days and would be perfect for blog expos or other events where tons of people will be. Placing it in a weird place (forehead, neck, full back, foot, ect) is also a great way to get it noticed. Hey, if people talk about it, thats the whole point right?
11. Help Home Based Businesses – most HBB owners try to keep their records hidden from local housing authorities so they’re hard to reach. head over to your local chamber of commerce and suggest a HBB committee. They might appoint you head of it (you can even ask to be) and you have a bunch of HBB owners who will come to chat and you can promote to with business cards, flyers, booklets, ect.
12. Anything Else? – No, the list isn’t done yet. These are two words to say right before you exchange money with a client/customer. This will make them think and could open doors to a larger pay day.
13. Top 10 reasons to choose YOU – instead of leaving business cards or other promo material at a business or in someones email box, create a list of the top 10 reasons why the prospect should choose your company. Make them 100% true, humerous and memberable.
14. Demonstrations – got a service business? this is perfect for you. Find a local store that pertains to your services and put on a free demo of your services. Your service involve outdoors? Contact news stations and let them know you’ll be offering a BBQ and free service demonstration. The BBQ could get a little costly, but the amount of press and promotion could really pay off.
15. Print Calendars – These could be given to each of your clients or left in a store for people to take for free. Print your website address and a little slogan or client testimonial on each months picture for exposure every day. The people using your calendars will even help you out when they have company over who will see the calendar, especially if the images you use are high end and visually appealing.
16. Window decals – get a custom printed window decal on your car with your logo/website and possibly a slogan. looks professional, and is great for red lights.
17. Fish Bowl Business Cards – You know the fish bowls at stores offering to choose a random card for a free lunch? Well, theres two ways to benefit from this. – 1. put your card in the fish bowl (hey, a free lunch is a free lunch, and who knows, the owner of the store might need your services) – 2. ask the store to let you have the losing cards each week/month which will generate a ton of free leads for you.
18. Sponsor an event – doing this is at most times, very inexpensive and also GREAT for publicity, especially if its a big event. You normally get your logo and business mentioned in all of the events promo material which is tons of publicity you normally wouldn’t get. Be at the event to add extra stickiness to your business name and interact with the guests.
19. Holiday Greetings – send emails or snail-mail to your past clients wishing them happy holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years). This helps them keep your name/business in their head as well as standing out from the other people they’ve done business with before.
20. Charity Donations – Donate some of the profits you generate every month to charity. Great for promotion in the media and clients to feel like they’re helping out the charity by purchasing from you.
21. Hold a Contest – This could have 1-10 winners which helps the word-of-mouth promotion everyone needs and wants. You can gain free press for starting the contest, plus publishing the winners is great for more press coverage.
22. T-Shirts – This is great for turning yourself or others into walking billboard. You can give the t-shirts away as prizes which is also another great way of gaining word of mouth promotion. Your t-shirts for the prizes don’t need your website address on it. Just give away a great, fashionable shirt and that’ll have people eager to tell friends and family where they got it from.
23. Partnerships – Do you run a web design business and want to find more potential leads? Try partnering with a web hosting company. Do you have a lawn-care business? Try partnering with a window washing company. Any partnership which benefits both companies is a great idea and a great way at grabbing the attention of new potential clients. Also a great way of giving your business targeted marketing.
24. Blood Drive – Host a blood drive, contact newspapers, tv news, radio, ect. have 1-2 banners up with your website information and also have business cards at the sign in table. Everyone loves to help their country, city, state, ect. and giving blood is the easiest way for some people to do that. Putting yourself in the forefront of your cities next blood drive would make your business very visible to a whole range of new potential clients and word-of-mouth advertisers.
25. Client Appreciation BBQ – Invite your past clients to a BBQ and let them invite 1-2 friends to come with them. This will help your customers LOVE you even more than they already do, as well as bring some new faces into contact with you as potential clients.