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Design tips for new business startups

Posted by Pragmatic Design on 20 January 2011 | 3 Comments

We're noticing an increase in the number of new business startups who are asking for advice on their corporate identity, website, stationery design, marketing and promotion. We guess this is due to the current economic climate, and despite these problems, it's great to see so many entrepreneurs taking their first bold steps.

It's likely that the use of design for your business is likely to be way down the priority list, and yet it is very important to get off to the right start- especially given the potential to waste money on unnecessary items.

With these new businessmen and women in mind, here are our top tips for design for startup businesses:

1. Getting the domain name right.

It's customary to register your businesses trading name as your website domain name, but it can also be very beneficial to buy a domain name relating to your business products or services.

For example, if your potential clients are likely to search for, say, a fireplace showroom in Wolverhampton, then registering wolverhamptonfireplace.co.uk would be a great idea. You'd almost certainly go to the top of the search engine results.

When considering a business name, you can check whether the .co.uk domain name is available at nominet.co.uk, and whether the company name is available at Companies House.

Once you've decided, register them quickly! Good names are hard to find, and any that are left quickly get snapped up by others. We can register your domain name for you- call us on Wolverhampton (01902) 58 10 12.

2. Corporate identity and logo design

If you want your business to look professional, you will need a logo and a corporate identity. This is the next step after choosing your business name, as it is likely that your business name will form part of your logo (until your business becomes as globally recognised as Apple, Nike and Shell anyway). Logos should be simple and use 3 colours or less, so that they are easy to reproduce at many different sizes (whether on the side of a promotional pen or the side of truck), and still look good after photocopying and faxing (yes, people do still use fax machines).

3. Business cards

Once your logo design is finalised, it's time to move onto your business cards. The most important rule with business cards is be professional! If your business card looks and feels cheap, then you and your business won't be taken seriously and you will lose custom. Printing business cards on your inkjet printer and cutting them up screams "unprofessional". There are places on the Internet to get cheap (or even free) business cards, but you get what you pay for, and don't give the website an advert on your business card in exchange for subsidised prices- that's prime real-estate for promoting your services.

Take advantage of the back of your business card to list your products and services, it's not that much more to have a double-sided print rather than a single-sided print. Get samples of paper and print and work with your designer to get everything just right.

It's often worth getting your letterheads designed and printed at the same time as your business cards as you can ensure cohesion between the designs and may be able to negotiate on print.

4. Website

Every business needs a website. Fact. Why? Because when somebody wants to find you, they Google you. The days of picking up the phone book or Yellow Pages are diminishing rapidly. If they can't Google you, you won't get their business.

But this doesn't mean that you should waste money on a web presence that's inappropriate.

Many businesses only require a small website, what we would call a "brochure website", consisting of a homepage, a products / services page, and the all-important contact form (Pragmatic Design offer one for just £400, including domain name registration and hosting - click here for more information). If you need more pages, consider a content management system (CMS) which will allow you to add extra pages and edit content yourself at no extra cost. Although more expensive to begin with, by managing it yourself, they can be much more economical than paying a designer every time you want to change your brochure website. If you're selling online, Pragmatic Design offer options for this too - contact us for details).

Be weary of people offering you a very cheap (or even free) website in return for a weekly fee- these can work out much more expensive than buying a website outright to begin with, and worse still- you may be locked into a very long contract, pay expensive fees for changes and may not even own the content on your own website.

5. Marketing

Now you have the four foundations of your designs for business in place, you need to promote your business. How you promote it is dependant upon your particular business and market, but it's very important to remember that your marketing strategy should not consist of "I have a website, I'll wait for customers to find me", and yet that's what a large number of businesses do.

Your website is part of your marketing strategy, your marketing strategy is not your website.

Whether it's promoting your website with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), distributing brochures and flyers, promotional mugs and pens etc, email campaigns or popup banners, Pragmatic Design offer a range of cost-effective options to get your business noticed. Call us on Wolverhampton (01902) 58 10 12 or use our contact us page to find out more.