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Hi there.
Speaker:It's Sue.
Speaker:And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.
Speaker:These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and
Speaker:things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.
Speaker:If you'd like to submit a topic,
Speaker:DME over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped,
My name is Holly,
Speaker:and I'm doing a lot of serious thinking about turning a
Speaker:hobby into a small business.
Speaker:I know how important branding and presentation can be.
Speaker:I am in process of getting a logo and I have
Speaker:an idea of how I want things to look.
Speaker:My question is,
Speaker:should I try to create things myself,
Speaker:stickers, business cards,
Speaker:tags, or should I pay to have them pre printed?
Speaker:I know that,
Speaker:like I said,
Speaker:presentation is everything,
Speaker:but this could be an expense that I wouldn't necessarily need,
Speaker:but I also don't want to add another to-do to my
Speaker:already huge list.
Speaker:I've recently discovered your podcasts and am trying to catch up
Speaker:on several years worth of listening and a morning a lot,
Speaker:but I haven't seen where a production of branding materials is
Speaker:covered. Please let me know your thoughts on this.
Speaker:Thank you,
Speaker:Holly. Thank you so much for calling in with the question
Speaker:you're brand new business,
Speaker:lots of places where you could be putting your money what's
Speaker:in your best interest in terms of the investment.
Speaker:And clearly branding is one of them because branding is something
Speaker:that gives the first impression.
Speaker:So you want it to be on point,
Speaker:but you want to balance that with all the other things
Speaker:that you need to do as you're starting your business.
Speaker:The first thing I just want to make mention of is
Speaker:that branding is a whole lot more than the visual part,
Speaker:right? So branding is everything that you do with your customer
Speaker:that gives them a feeling and develops a reputation for your
Speaker:business. It's how you interact with customers.
Speaker:It's the journey that they go through from initially being introduced
Speaker:to you,
Speaker:to how you work them through some type of sales process,
Speaker:to when they receive an order.
Speaker:And then clearly also of course,
Speaker:all the visuals and that's really what we're going to narrow
Speaker:in on today is just the visual portion of your branding.
Speaker:The good news is that when you're starting out,
Speaker:you don't need to take a whole lot of time with
Speaker:the visuals.
Speaker:You just want to target in,
Speaker:get a few things in place,
Speaker:and then you can build on those later,
Speaker:the things that you do want to lock into place,
Speaker:right? When you get started your logo,
Speaker:your brand colors,
Speaker:and the font that you're going to use.
Speaker:These three things are something that are going to be symbols,
Speaker:that people,
Speaker:when they see them,
Speaker:they'll think of you and they'll recognize you.
Speaker:It's important that they're consistent so that they go throughout everything
Speaker:that you're doing.
Speaker:And we'll talk about that again in a minute too first
Speaker:off with regard to your colors and your fonts.
Speaker:Holly, I do have a great episode for you on this
Speaker:it's gift biz on wrapped podcast,
Speaker:episode number two 18 with Lindsay,
Speaker:from Verity and co,
Speaker:it was such a fun podcast to do because I had
Speaker:no idea when we started talking that we were going to
Speaker:go so deep into how to develop all of your branding.
Speaker:So go back and listen to that.
Speaker:And what you'll come away with then are your three or
Speaker:four hex colors.
Speaker:These are six digit codes that associate a special hue of
Speaker:any color.
Speaker:So it's not just pink,
Speaker:it's a specific shade of pink.
Speaker:And then you'll also have a predominant font that you use
Speaker:and then possibly a secondary font.
Speaker:And these are more specialty fonts.
Speaker:If you will,
Speaker:versus some of the standard fonts like Helvetica or comic Sans,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:all the different types of fonts that you've seen before.
Speaker:If you're listening to this and you're an established business,
Speaker:and you've never really determined what your two hex colors are.
Speaker:You've always just used Navy blue or Aqua or teal,
Speaker:but never zeroed into a specific color.
Speaker:It's in your best interest to go ahead and do that
Speaker:too. And then what happens is you'll be able to use
Speaker:those forever more until such time you decide that you might
Speaker:want to go through rebranding,
Speaker:but of course,
Speaker:that's then down the road.
Speaker:Now let's move on to your logo.
Speaker:And if you're just starting out,
Speaker:the world is your oyster with what is the visual,
Speaker:what's your logo going to look like to start with?
Speaker:What's the emotion that your company is trying to evoke.
Speaker:Okay? Cause this will then fall into helping direct you in
Speaker:terms of what the illustration should look like,
Speaker:whether you're going to use for color or whether you're going
Speaker:to do a line drawing,
Speaker:whatever it is.
Speaker:So are you going after something that happy,
Speaker:uplifting, light and airy,
Speaker:or you going with something that's more bold and direct?
Speaker:So what are the adjectives that you want people to think
Speaker:about with your business?
Speaker:This also might play off of the colors that you've created.
Speaker:My colors are a yellow,
Speaker:kind of a sagey green,
Speaker:not bright orange,
Speaker:but kind of a subtle orange and a pink,
Speaker:but they're all,
Speaker:not quite citrusy that provokes a whole different feeling than if
Speaker:I had all bright yellow neon,
Speaker:orange, neon pink.
Speaker:You see what I mean by the colors?
Speaker:So what are you trying to provoke and how does it
Speaker:relate to the product that you offer?
Speaker:So the first thing to do then,
Speaker:like I said,
Speaker:is to define the adjectives from there.
Speaker:As you're looking at your logo,
Speaker:then you consider graphically what you want your logo to look
Speaker:like three different things that you can consider.
Speaker:Maybe you have just an image.
Speaker:You think of the Nike swish.
Speaker:Maybe you have an image with the company name,
Speaker:or maybe you just have the company name.
Speaker:If your company name is two different words,
Speaker:maybe you have one word in one font and one word
Speaker:in another font,
Speaker:things to think about as you're going through and thinking about
Speaker:what your logo specifically is going to look like from a
Speaker:graphic standpoint,
Speaker:let's talk about if you're going to use a graphic.
Speaker:So it's not just going to be the font because it's
Speaker:just the font.
Speaker:You don't need anybody to create an image for you,
Speaker:but if there's a graphic associated,
Speaker:how are you going to get that graphic made?
Speaker:The one thing I will stress,
Speaker:oh, it's my pet peeve.
Speaker:I cannot barely handle it.
Speaker:I see this happening,
Speaker:please, please,
Speaker:please do not just use standard clip art for your logo.
Speaker:So don't take an emoji and call that your logo or
Speaker:an image that we know is clip art or a stock
Speaker:image, a four-color stock image and call that your logo.
Speaker:I want you to make something that is graphically and specifically
Speaker:only yours.
Speaker:This is your company after all,
Speaker:going back to the graphics of your clip art and how
Speaker:do you create this?
Speaker:Especially when you're on a limited budget.
Speaker:I want you absolutely to create your own individual unique art
Speaker:that is only yours.
Speaker:Good news is there's a lot of ways that you can
Speaker:do this sometimes even for free.
Speaker:For example,
Speaker:at the local high school,
Speaker:is there a junior or a senior who's looking at going
Speaker:to college is in the graphics art department and would be
Speaker:interested in creating a logo for you that then in exchange,
Speaker:you write a letter that they could attach to their college
Speaker:applications, local community college.
Speaker:Also, there are many students that would love to be the
Speaker:one who's designed their logo so that you could possibly even
Speaker:do for free.
Speaker:If you're out networking or just ask friends,
Speaker:does anybody know anybody who's artistic who would be able to
Speaker:put together a logo for me,
Speaker:you may even see again,
Speaker:young students or maybe even members of the chamber who are
Speaker:graphic artists.
Speaker:And that would be more as a paid type of a
Speaker:project. And then third,
Speaker:you could even go online.
Speaker:There's a company called Fiverr,
Speaker:F I V E R R.
Speaker:Okay. Fiverr,
Speaker:where you can purchase what are called gigs,
Speaker:where you could have a logo created for five,
Speaker:10, maybe $15.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:they give you a couple of examples.
Speaker:You choose which ones you like.
Speaker:Maybe they do one revision and then you have the logo,
Speaker:no matter which way you might do this.
Speaker:With my examples,
Speaker:getting someone from the high school,
Speaker:finding someone in your community to do it for you or
Speaker:doing it on Fiverr.
Speaker:Make sure when you're done,
Speaker:you have some type of an agreement.
Speaker:Even if it's just through an email that this is exclusively
Speaker:yours and you own full rights to the logo,
Speaker:then you have a logo that is yours,
Speaker:that you can combine with the wording,
Speaker:your company name,
Speaker:however you're going to go.
Speaker:And you can move forward with that.
Speaker:Once you have your logo,
Speaker:go into a graphic design app like Canva and play around
Speaker:with your colors.
Speaker:You've now created your hex colors.
Speaker:So you could put like a black and white logo,
Speaker:let's say over a background of one of your hex colors.
Speaker:You can do some fun shading of colors.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:You can have so much fun with that.
Speaker:And you can do all of that right?
Speaker:In Canva.
Speaker:If you'd like to see a link to all the resources
Speaker:that I recommend,
Speaker:especially if you're just starting your business,
Speaker:jump over to gift biz on and go ahead and take
Speaker:a look at all the resources that I have there.
Speaker:Some of them are free.
Speaker:Some of them are paid,
Speaker:but different things that could be useful for you and your
Speaker:business. Okay?
Speaker:So now you've got your branded colors.
Speaker:You've got one specialty font or two that you're going to
Speaker:be using and associated with your business.
Speaker:And you've got your logo created now,
Speaker:where are you going to place these?
Speaker:A lot of this depends on where you're going initially to
Speaker:attract customers for handmade product businesses.
Speaker:I specifically always am driving into you want that face to
Speaker:face interaction.
Speaker:So you want to be going out to craft shows if
Speaker:that's possible for you.
Speaker:And at those shows,
Speaker:you'll want business cards,
Speaker:some type of signage behind your booth.
Speaker:So however,
Speaker:you're going to do your booth set up.
Speaker:You may or may not need stickers or any type of
Speaker:other packaging where you need to apply your logo right now.
Speaker:But if you're only online selling,
Speaker:then you would need that.
Speaker:So consider where you're going and how you're approaching your community
Speaker:and delivering your product,
Speaker:and then determine what you need now versus what you can
Speaker:add on later.
Speaker:But the fact is you have the logo,
Speaker:you have the colors,
Speaker:so you're ready to go.
Speaker:I would just go ahead and get the things that you
Speaker:need as a necessity right now.
Speaker:The other place you'll put your logo is online.
Speaker:So your websites and your social media platforms you have,
Speaker:and that of course doesn't cost anything.
Speaker:Just to add those on,
Speaker:if you have a website already in place,
Speaker:if you're just now setting up your social media site,
Speaker:that doesn't cost anything to establish account.
Speaker:And then you'll just load your logo in as a graphic
Speaker:onto those platforms.
Speaker:And I was just mentioning that as you're starting out,
Speaker:you don't have to have all the things right away,
Speaker:have the necessities first,
Speaker:and then you can add on later.
Speaker:But the one thing just like I say,
Speaker:don't take stock photos or stock emojis or whatever,
Speaker:and use those as your logos.
Speaker:Also don't print business cards or anything like that off of
Speaker:your home printer,
Speaker:get them professionally printed so that they look nice.
Speaker:You don't have to print a ton of them.
Speaker:My gosh,
Speaker:you can get like 250 business cards at Vista print for
Speaker:under $20,
Speaker:easy, inexpensive,
Speaker:but good quality printing.
Speaker:The most important thing here is you don't need to be
Speaker:spending a ton of money on this type of thing.
Speaker:I would much prefer you spending your money,
Speaker:getting your product out in front of an audience and validating
Speaker:that there are people there who are interested in exchanging money
Speaker:for your product,
Speaker:that when you're starting out is the most important thing to
Speaker:do. I'm going to even say almost before even branding your
Speaker:business, confirming that you have people who are interested in spending
Speaker:money for the product that you make.
Speaker:And I talk about this way more in my program,
Speaker:start with confidence in terms of validating a product before you
Speaker:start moving forward and investing too much time and money,
Speaker:because sometimes you just need to tweak a product a little
Speaker:bit for it to be a game changer and for people
Speaker:to buy.
Speaker:But you're not going to know that until you're out in
Speaker:front of people watching and observing what they're doing,
Speaker:talking with them,
Speaker:getting feedback,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:So that's the most important thing branding comes.
Speaker:Second. There you go.
Speaker:We've talked about how to define your colors,
Speaker:how to pick a font,
Speaker:and then also what you can do very inexpensively to make
Speaker:your own original graphic.
Speaker:And all of this is for the visual part of your
Speaker:branding, understanding that that's a subset of branding overall.
Speaker:So Holly,
Speaker:great question done,
Speaker:right? It's going to build strong recognition for you.
Speaker:And when you come across as being professional,
Speaker:it enhances trust with people,
Speaker:which of course then increases your opportunity to attract more people
Speaker:and make sales.
Speaker:If you'd like to ask me a question,
Speaker:just like Holly did.
Speaker:So it's on audio.
Speaker:Just go over to the website,
Speaker:gift biz on rapt,
Speaker:scroll down and you'll see a pink button that says record
Speaker:a question for Sue.
Speaker:It's a really fun way for me to hear your voice.
Speaker:You can share a little bit more than just a written
Speaker:question for me.
Speaker:And your question might just show up here in the next
Speaker:edition of tips and talk bye for now.
Speaker:That's a wrap.
Speaker:I'm a get to the point kind of girl.
Speaker:And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek
Speaker:sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream
Speaker:of yours.
Speaker:Share your handmade products with us.
