graphic designers Archives - Canadian Small Business Women

The new calendar year typically brings with it plans for a new annual business strategy. It may be a detailed written document, or some simple “must do’s” in your head. Either way, they are meant to improve how you run your business, improve your customer relations, be more organised, and overall grow your business.

One challenge most small business owners face is that there never seem to be enough hours in the day or the work week to get everything done! Sound familiar?

Getting yourself better ‘organised’ to free up some valuable hours could mean freeing yourself from mundane tasks or complex and time-consuming work. Or both. All you need is another set of hands and a competent mind: Outsourcing is a good option. Help is available to you in the form of specialists like graphic designers, bookkeepers, virtual assistants, writers and more, depending on your area of need.

These specialists are an invaluable resource to help you free yourself from time-consuming tasks you need to accomplish, and do specific work that just isn’t your forte.

Since many small businesses and start-ups work on a tight budget, the temptation to do everything ourselves looms large. One way to do a self-check on whether or not outsourcing is “worth it” is a simple cost-benefit analysis.

Consider what one hour of your time is worth, i.e. either what you charge your clients for one hour of your standard service packages or the value of one hour’s work you put into your product based business. Then estimate how many hours it might, or in the past already has, taken you to perform a certain job, for example data entry, researching and posting your regular social media content, creating a PowerPoint slideshow for your next presentation, updating your website, or creating and sending a monthly e-newsletter.

The time it takes you to perform these tasks is very likely longer than if the specialist did them, and that is where your savings will lie.

So for 2015, make it a plan to free yourself from some of your business tasks you’d rather not be doing anyway, and instead focus on networking and meeting new prospects, turning them into new clients, and growing your business and profits. Here’s to a successful year!

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups. Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Being an entrepreneur is a dream job for many people, you get to be your own boss, work your own hours and pursue your passion. But those of you who have taken the plunge and started your own business know that with being your own boss comes great responsibility, countless hours of overtime and a lot of worrying and obsessing over every detail. It’s a stressful yet rewarding life but we could all use some guidance and perspective along the way.

Here are a few tips for current or future entrepreneurs

1. Work ON your business not IN your business

As entrepreneurs it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture and get caught up in the little things. Attention to detail is important but many entrepreneurs make the mistake of sweating the small stuff instead of looking at how to grow and increase their business. A great example of this is what I like to call Social Media Madness- so many “branding experts” out there recommend that entrepreneurs use social media to grow their business, but just how much trust can you establish on the internet? Face to face interaction is key in establishing mutual trust and building a successful business relationship. Instead of worrying about how many social media updates to schedule in Hootsuite or BufferApp entrepreneurs should be focusing on how to increase their reach, retain existing and loyal customers and expand their business.

2. Know your brand

Before you can grow your business and attract customers you need to know what you’re selling. Entrepreneurs need to take time to examine and reexamine the product they are trying to sell. What is it? And what is your brand? What are you all about? These are all questions entrepreneurs should ask themselves. You need to know your brand inside out because as an entrepreneur you are a living breathing 24/7 advertisement and endorsement of your brand. If you don’t know what you’re trying to represent you won’t be successful in attracting and retaining customers and clients.

3. Create original material and put your name ON it

Being original is one of the perks of being an entrepreneur. Although it’s tempting to “copy” thoughts, ideas and even pictures, plagiarism is a crime and is punishable by law. It’s always best to have your own ideas. When you create something be it an image, blog post or any type of promotional material put your name on it and own it! Make sure everyone knows you made it and that it is your property. A great way to do this is by inserting your logo in to your self made images and graphics and setting your logo as a watermark for any handouts or material you give out. Your logo will generally deter any would be plagiarizers from using your work and setting your logo as a watermark for any written material makes it difficult to photocopy.

4. Don’t be afraid of DIY

Most entrepreneurs have to grow their business on a budget andthat usually doesn’t leave much in the way of funding for expert advice and outsourcing, But doing things yourself is not necessarily a bad thing, it’s a very rewarding experience to be able to claim full ownership of projects. For example instead of outsourcing your flyer or promotional material design try playing around with PowerPoint, Photoshop or whichever design program you’re comfortable with, you’ll be surprised at what you end up with. No one knows your business better than you do so it’s always better to try doing things yourself before you break the bank on “marketing and branding experts” or “graphic designers”. You know your vision for your brand, logo and promotional material better than anyone so why not take a stab at it before you outsource.

Praveeni Perera is the CEO and co-founder of Professional Edge Consulting a corporate training company based in Ottawa offering training and coaching services to clients around the world. She can be reached via Website, Twitter, Facebook or her Blog.

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