Lesson 3: Name, Logo, Business Cards, Letterhead, Website
Advice on choosing a name and getting a suitable logo together with what is needed and minimum requirements for business cards, letterheads and a website. Inexpensive but adequate solutions.
Introduction
Now you've got the hard stuff out of the way - the rest is important but it's also fun and creative. Your name, logo etc. is what you want your business to look like. It's the face that you want it to show the world. But here is a mistake that many small business owners make at this point. What is important is not what you want to show. What's important is what your potential customers will see and whether what they will see will make them want to buy what you're offering.
As a small business owner you will constantly have to remind yourself to put yourself in your potential customer's place and look at everything from that customer's point of view. You may start by asking, "What do I want to communicate with the name I choose?", but you have to finish by asking, "What will my potential customer understand when he reads my chosen name?"
The same goes for your logo, your business card, your web site etc. What's important is what your potential customer, the member of one of those groups for which you made the list in lesson 1, will see. Not only that, what's important is whether he will see those qualities in your business and products which:
- make you unique;
- make you better value;
- make you worth buying from; and
- make him trust you.
So, before you settle on a name, logo etc., get that list out again and remember who it is you're going to be selling to. They're the ones who have to like your name, logo, business card, letterhead and web site. If they do, you'll be successful. If they don't, you won't sell much even if you think you've got the world's catchiest name.
