Start up business essentials
Starting a business isn't an easy thing to do
It takes time, money and a lot of hard work. But it is also exciting and can be successful if well planned from the outset. There are three essential items that every small business needs to get off the ground.
1. Identity design
What do you do? Why do you do it? And who is your target audience?
Naming, logo design, colour palettes, fonts, graphics, style guides and more make up your business identity. Get this done properly and you will get off to a great start.
What is the difference between a logo and an identity I hear you say? A logo identifies a company or product via the use of a graphical icon. The nuts and bolts of a basic identity such as colour palettes, typography, photography, illustrations etc set the tone of visual materials which form part of your overall brand.
Taking it one step further are identity guidelines and sample applications. These demonstrate how an identity is applied throughout a variety of mediums, using approved colour palettes, fonts, layouts, measurements and so forth. These guidelines ensure that the identity of the company is kept coherent, which in turn, allows the brand as a whole, to be recognisable.
2. Communication design
Next comes your communication materials. Many businesses can get up and running without having a whole suite of stationery and marketing items, but the one essential item that everyone needs to start is a business card.
Think carefully about your target audience when designing your business card. Remember this may be the only thing a client will take away from your first meeting! It needs to reflect your business personality. Also think about the paper.
PrintTogether offer two main stocks for business cards: 350gsm EcoStar - this is our premium quality white 100 per cent recycled option. The majority of our cards are done on this as it prints really well and gives a beautiful tactile finish when printed offset with vegetable based inks. For something more rustic, try our raw brown boxboard. This says earthy and recycled right from the get go. We suggest only using simple line art and maybe one or two colours with this stock and let the paper speak for itself.
It is really worth using premium quality 100 per cent recycled materials for business cards. With over two million businesses currently operating around the country, it's these subtle differences that can set you apart.
3. Website
Next comes a website. This is an absolute essential. A website is your 24 hour sales team. It is the starting point for potential clients. Additional items such as brochures, stationery, signage etc then follow.
Even for a small business, a contemporary and responsive website is a crucial tool that will put you in touch with clients and customers and help you get more of each. A well designed website is an effective way for clients to know what you do.
To get you started without costing a fortune, you may think about a modern one page website. One page websites are an online brochure broken into sections with bite size bits of information and graphics. One page websites are becoming more and more popular as they are easy to navigate, easy to maintain, result in high conversion rates and are more affordable to produce.
Conclusion
Getting your business off the ground won't be without its trials and tribulations - the numbers show just this. In June 2009, 2,050,642 business were operating in Australia, and in June 2013, only 62.9 per cent of these were still running. Put the hard yards in now, and you can be one of those success stories!
For more details on how PrintTogether can help you get up and running visit: http://design.printtogether.com/start-ups/
Print Together - online printing service in Melbourne and whole Australia