Contractors are tough stocks. But sometimes resistance can get you
in trouble.
Especially when you’re overly committed and could use a little help.
Too often, new business owners decide they don’t need to hire any
external services. You know how it goes… “I can do this myself.
hard can it be? It’s just a simple direct mail campaign.”
Big mistake! Try to do everything yourself…unless that’s your area of expertise.
experience…it usually costs you more in the long run. And most of the time,
the work looks quite unprofessional.
Here’s the stage…
You are starting a consulting business. You decide you need business
cards, a logo, a brochure of some sort, and a website. Pretty basic. You
imagine that you can hire the right people and manage these projects yourself.
You too. You brainstorm some names for the company, run them through a
some friends and select one for your business. Then you find a designer
whose work you like and meet with her. You describe the services you will receive
offer and what colors you like and dislike. Maybe you’ll even have
some sketches of how you think your logo should look like.
Then the designer (working with minimal direction) gets to work. Unless
you have given detailed information about your target market, your niche,
how you see the development of your identity, this designer has no idea.
But she comes with some designs. Once again, you go somewhere
friends and family for their comments. Based on the generals
consensus, select a design (hopefully it will fit your business
name and what you do). Now you can leave it up to the designer
to get printing quotes for your business cards and stationery. or you can
do it yourself and get some price comparisons. you will have to know
what type of paper you want, paper weight, quantities, etc.
Next, you want to start with some type of brochure or flyer. you stick
with your logo designer? If so, you better make sure you’ve seen some
samples of brochures you have made. Designers often specialize in one
product or other. I’ve worked with great logo designers who can’t do
another guarantee.
And your website? Can your logo designer also do
Web-page design? What about development? Not all designers are
developers. In fact, most are not. The best developers I have found started
like web people, while my best designers stick to what they do
best – graphic design.
You also need to decide how many pages your site will have, what
are (the menu), how you want the site to be laid out (site map), whether
you do not need a dynamic or static site, what elements should be
included etc
Are you still happy with your decision? Better make sure you nail the
costs in all this so you won’t be surprised at the end.
Lastly, don’t forget about the copy. You need something for your brochure.
You need a different copy for your website. are different types of
marketing tools and the copy should be written in a different style to
each. But everything must work together (be integrated) so that you can
don’t look like a broken company. Your brochure and website should
they look the same… but the approach is different.
If you’re still handling this yourself, congratulations. especially if you have time
to do any selling or networking or research. because you have assumed
I work full time as a marketing person/project manager.
To think… you could have saved yourself a lot of hassle and time.
if only he had called a marketer in the beginning. After
you would have one person who could manage all the above projects for you:
o work with the designer(s) and developers to make
sure everyone involved understood what you do and who does it
o review, reject and/or approve designs before viewing
to them
or appropriate written copy for each product
proofreading
o Monitor all vendors to ensure workflow is on track.
the schedule and the work is correct
…and only calling you for selection, fact-checking, or final decisions.
On the other hand, maybe you like challenges. Or maybe you just need
micromanage everything. ‘Cause by the time you’re done, you’re
likely to end up with a disjointed marketing “program” (for lack of a better
word). And when and if you finally call a marketing person to
review your marketing material, you will probably find that changing
all in the hands of a specialist, who does this all the time,
it actually cost you less than doing it yourself.
At least you’ll know better next time.