Over the last twelve months or so, thousands of people in the UK have been forced to stay at home more than ever before. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced us all to stay at home for weeks on end, only leaving for essential purposes. Those that could work from home have been, but many businesses such as hospitality and beauty, have been forced to close leaving their staff either on a reduced wage or no wage at all. This has prompted thousands of people to start up their own businesses from home – and it’s lovely to see something positive coming out of all of this mess!
I have loved seeing so many new businesses popping up on my social media over lockdown, it’s such a positive way for people to stay focused and bring some money in whilst they’re not able to go out to work. But these new businesses need to be even more savvy with their cash than new start ups usually would be. Many of these new business owners have really limited amounts of cash to use in order to get their businesses going. They need to be careful with their money and make cut backs where possible in order to stand the very best chance of survival.
One of the areas where small businesses can save money is on their printed and digital products. Any business, no matter how small, will need a few graphics. What each business needs will depend on what they sell and where they operate, but here are just a few things a small business might need to create:
- Logo
- Social media graphics
- Invoice headers
- Business cards
- Branded packaging
As a business grows, it’s likely to need more in the way of graphics. Getting these things made for you can be really expensive, but with the help of modern technology, it’s really easy to create these yourself, even if you don’t have much of a creative flair.
Colour Scheme
First of all, it’s a good idea to come up with a colour scheme. This should be around five different colours that you can then use across all of your branding. You might have a good idea of the colours you want to use already – for example, if your products are aimed at children, then you’ll likely want to choose bold, bright colours. You can create colour schemes online completely free of charge using a resource such as Coolors.co. This will allow you to quickly create a colour pallette which you can then go on to use across your branded products.
Creating your logo
Your logo is one of the first things that potential customers will see, so it needs to grab their attention. Getting a logo professionally made by a graphic designer can cost a lot of money, but it’s really easy to create your own without any special skills.
You can use a free product such as Canva to create your logo. Canva have hundreds of different logo designs all ready for you to use. But you might want to add a few, unique touches so that your logo really stands out and doesn’t look like every other logo out there. You could choose to use a unique font such as a graffiti font which will really make your logo pop!
Packaging and paperwork
Once you’ve sorted your colour scheme, and designed your logo, then everything else should fall into place fairly quickly and easily! You can resize your logo ready to use it on your invoicing and business cards. You can also use your logo as your header across all of your social media channels.
If you’re selling products, then you might want to buy branded packaging or even just a sticker with your logo on that you can use on your packaging. Not only does this look professional, but it’s also an extra way to get your name out there too.
If you plan to build an email subscriber list, then you can use your logo and your colour scheme to create a template which you can then reuse every time you send out a newsletter or dispatch notification.
When you’re first setting up your business, it’s natural (and important) that you still look like a professional outfit. But of course, you’ll need to keep a check on your spending. Creating your own branding is a cheap way to create a professional presence, and you don’t need to have any special skills in order to create a really professional brand.
