This should also be titled, when DIY (Do-it-yourself) comes in handy.
When it comes to creating the intial collateral package are seven things a typical business needs:
- Branding
- Color scheme for collateral
- Logo
- Presentation template (for PowerPoint, reports, and proposals)
- Web site (everyone needs one today)
- Business cards (everyone needs one today)
- Bio photo
From the investor point of view, if you look professional and very, very simple then you are probably spending your money wisely. There is one caveat: this only works if you are in the initial stages. If you say you have been around for a while, selling a lot of product, but your marketing looks like it was done on a low budget, the investor will still wonder about the credibility.
There is nothing wrong with telling the investor that part of the budget will go to improving the brand image.
In the meantime, how does one approach this?
Web site: look for a prepackaged site that you can fill in elements. These are called templates, and you can get one for under $100.00. You may be able to hire a small firm that can use one of these sites and fill in the elements for you. The prepackaged site should even suggest the typography. The colors used on this package will lead to…
Color scheme for collateral: Use the web site colors.
Business cards: You can use the web site colors, but the problem is to lay it out on a small piece of paper. Instead, use simple black and white and put it together on decent card stock. Definitely use a company like overnightprints.com or Vistaprint.com. They will also have templates for the business cards. Word of advice: two fonts. Use one for text and one fancy font for the company name or logo. Once again, if you are not a professional designer, keep it simple to keep it good.
Presentation template: use the website colors, and a very simple layout. For presentations you can use the templates in PowerPoint. They look good and get the point across without become the point.
Branding: One of the first elements of branding is to be consistent. By using the same color schemes, fonts, themes through the collateral you will develop a brand for your business. It is very basic but consistency works.
Bio photo: In the beginning, unless you are entertainment, this is not that important. You could go to one of those photo places and see if they can take a portrait photo and then provide you a color corrected web and print version. If all they do is provide a portrait photo then do that. A good portrait photo goes a long way. Avoid being too sexy like in a Glamour Shots photograph. You want to look professional.
Logo: Entrepreneurs love to play with this all the time and it can often really hurt them. The simplest logo is either a graphic of the letters of your business name, an image of the name of your business (if it is a noun), or an image that represents the activity that your business performs. Start with the letters as that is the simplest.
Cash considerations are important. When you cannot afford to hire a professional, do not try to be that professional. Instead, use common sense and keep things simple. Find simple solutions and they will work. These can be used to sell your products and services. Investors want to see that money and time is spent wisely and produces results. When you do this, you are much more credible to investors (and potential customers).
