When constantly aware of the bottom line, it can be tempting for a small business owner to try and do everything for the company.  Often times the small business owner works hard to cut costs and find efficiencies at every turn, but it is important to note that some tasks simply need to be outsourced to a professional. With all of the design software packages that are available for purchase, it might seem like a good idea to try and do all of the design aspects yourself, but here are five good reasons to hire a graphic designer.

Expertise

You are the expert at your company and a graphic designer is an expert at visual communications.  Plainly put, a graphic designer understands design better than you. Their past experience will tell them what works and what doesn’t and their artistic training can be used to help your company convey the message that you want to put across more effectively. They make sure that corporate colors are being enforced, that your images are at the right DPI (Dots Per Inch) so your images don’t print pixelated or load slowly on your website. Most small businesses attempt to run their company as a DIY project. The end result is more time and money spent on the back end of a project to clean it up. Hire a graphic designer, your business is not a project it’s a legacy, so protect it!

Time Constraints

Small business owners are responsible for everything when it all comes down to it. So, it is good to outsource tasks where possible. This will mean some extra expenditure, but it will free up valuable time to concentrate on running the business. The old adage, time is money is true when outsourcing as well.  What is YOUR time worth?  Spend your time on what you do best and let a graphic designer help you create the visual images you want to display for your company. It’s very important for businesses to recognize their need to scale without spreading too thin. When you’re building your brand, you must focus on making your business flow and work properly. …User experience control is directly affected by time constraints. By using a graphic designer, there is no need to get weighed down by all of the details, let a professional take care of your design needs, while you get on with the all-important task of running your business. You don’t need one more ball to juggle.

Professionalism

Most people have visited a website that clearly wasn’t designed by a professional and this sends the wrong message to the consumer about the company. When a website looks low-quality, it makes the consumer interpret that the quality of the goods or services is of low-quality as well. Even worse, now someone has viewed this company with the thought of “low-quality” permanently stamped in their brain. Some companies use pre-fabricated templates or do-it-yourself websites, which nearly always look re-hashed. When you’re trying to build trust with someone for the first time, do you show them a website template they’ve seen before in a hundred other places? No, because if I’m a customer and I don’t know who you are and it appears as though you could have just built this site to scam my credit card, don’t give me a reason not to shop with you.

A few years ago there wasn’t a strong emphasis on professional design work. People dismissed the value of design completely and focused more on content, which is good (I am definitely a fan of great content), but when everyone did that the need to separate themselves with strong branding became abundantly apparent. If a business owner wants to give the right message to their potential customer, then this starts with a well-designed logo, website, and ultimately a solid brand. Work with a graphic designer to help create the image that you want your customers to see. If you loosen your wallet, your customers will too.

Branding

Every business needs a great brand and a graphic designer can help with this. Once a small business has given a detailed brief to a graphic designer, the designer can then suggest ideas that will help the company to create a brand experience that can then be marketed to potential customers. What does it mean to have strong branding? It means visually communicating your message through every piece of work and advertising that you put out as a company. Branding, strong branding, is controlling the user experience from start to finish of everything produced. And, of those pieces produced create an overwhelming experience of professionalism. Having a brand focused graphic designer will help you to point out where to use visual cues, what images should be used because of your target market and demographics, and even how to tweak your messaging to better convey the pulse of your company. Now in the digital age, the need for this has never been stronger.

Messaging

Whether it is a leaflet design, brochures, flyers, or perhaps even your web presence, graphic designers know how to produce powerful eye-catching, professionally produced marketing materials. This will help a small company get the word out about their business. While anyone with some design software can do this, a graphic designer will give the final product that professional high-quality finish that is difficult to produce on your own. A strong designer also has the ability to visually pull out the “CliffsNotes” version of your messaging so if someone is just glancing at your product they will see what you’re all about, perhaps compelling them to take a deeper look. They can design in a way to make sure the most important part of your messaging is shown, which in turn equates to more conversion and that equates to more dollars.

If more people would realize that their time and money invested in their business – ANY business – are worth a lot now, and potentially later, they would understand that skimping on the way their business is presented/branded/etc, is a big part of the potential failure. Create a birthright for your children, invest in your business as if it were already a success and it will be.

** Make sure you do your homework on your graphic designer. Ask for references and examples of their work so you can gauge for yourself their skill level and quality of production. Great designers have beautiful portfolios and showcase a myriad of different disciplines and mediums for you to look at. Remember, your business is not a project, its a legacy so protect it! Click here to start me on your project