Starting a business is an all–out war.

No, I’m not referring to the competition or the madness of attracting buyers to your product
or service. It’s actually a war against your own impulses.

There are four things most new businesses want when they start up.

Number one is a logo, followed closely by business cards, a brochure and/or a web site.

I’ve dealt with dozens of start–up businesses and, almost every time, they want the wrong things for the wrong reasons on all of those items.

The lesson here is that people are always doing the opposite thing than what they should be doing.


Get a handle on what’s important
When I work for a client, I’m always trying to educate them as well in order to save them money down the road.

But, when starting a business, the new owner is deep in panic mode and no one ever listens while they are deep in panic mode.

Common sense tells us to spend money wisely, especially when just starting out.

The art representing your business
is an advertising expense, but it’s
an overhead expense to your advertising. It isn’t generating a financial return until you showcase it. Therefore, you need to keep the overhead low.

So let’s address these four items and what you should and should not do.


Business cards
Okay, I discussed business cards before [design4IMPACT Vol.3 No. 4 –
Do Your Business Cards Work?]. Really, these do not need to be a work of art.

All a business card needs to have on it is who you are, the name of your business and how to contact you.
The rest is filler.

Depending on circumstances, a picture of you or a logo may be nice but usually isn’t all that necessary.

Spending a lot of time and money for a unique, work–of–art business card is absolutely ridiculous for your return on investment.

Go to page 2 →