As you may know, we specialise in graphic solutions for small to medium-sized businesses. We spend a lot of client-based time understanding the businesses we’re representing and adopting their passions as our own, to help us ‘get our mind’ into the job. Now and then however, it amazes me how few business owners see design and marketing as an investment. I’m talking about those who consider minimising their expenditure by signing up their friend’s son or daughter to do it because “they’re creative, and cheap”.
I ask them, would they commission an architect fresh out of college to design their house? No. Because their house is too precious to them. So why ask a newly qualified (assuming they ARE qualified) freelance designer, with such a narrow field of reference of the commercial world to ‘rustle up’ their website, logo or business card? Shouldn’t everything the company produces be treated with absolute seriousness? Shouldn’t every detail effuse company values and target audience, rather than simply being pretty to look at?
If you’re serious about business, you need heavy-weight professionals on the job. Design and marketing will not go away – every company needs them, and they need them done well. One little slip, one slight misrepresentation can drop sales from the black to the red. So remember, any of you who think you’re doing yourselves a favour by cutting costs in this area of your budget: your company is worth as much as you invest in it, and cheap short-term solutions will catch up with you eventually.
Entry: Traci Rochester
