MBA1890 Q&A Wednesday: How Much Should I Spend On My Logo?

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Hey yo. Welcome to the Hundred Dollar MBA Show. Because a better business begins with you. That's why we deliver daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started with my co founder back in 2014 and today's episode is Q and A Wednesday. On Q and A Wednesday, I answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you got a question you want to ask, just email me over@omar00mba.net Today's question is from Brandon. Hey Omar, Love the podcast. Just started listening a couple months ago. I just started building my business and my website and now I have to create a logo. How much should I spend on my logo? I hear people saying your logo is incredibly important to and you should spend hundreds or even thousands on it. But I also hear the opposing argument that it's not that big of a deal. Would love your thoughts on this. Appreciate it Brandon. Thanks for the question Brandon, and it's a good one. A lot of us will be faced with this question when starting a business, not only in terms of your logo, but what do you spend on anything when it comes to branding, where do you go to hire for a new logo design and if there are any other alternatives to getting yourself a logo. Yes, your logo is important because it represents your brand. But how important is it at the beginning of your business journey? How much you invest at the start on something when you're just getting started? That's what we get into in today's episode. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business.

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1971, the founder of Nike, Phil Knight, needed a logo for his new shoe company. So he hired a graphic design student at Portland State University, Caroline Davidson. Caroline charged $2 an hour for her work, and 17 and a half hours later, she came up with the Nike Swoosh. Nike's famous check mark like logo. Yep. Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, paid $35 for the famous Nike Swoosh logo. In fact, Phil Knight has said that when he got the final mock up of the logo, he wasn't in love with it. He was like, you know what? It's not something I absolutely love, but it's good enough. Let's use it now. Why did Phil Knight pay only $35 for his logo? Well, it's what he could afford. They were starting from scratch. They had no money. So $35 was sort of like an investment for him. Now, even though this is 1971, $35 would be equivalent to something like $235 in today's money. Talk about inflation. But the point here is that he didn't spend thousands of dollars on a logo, on a logo he actually didn't love. But it was a simple, clean logo that he thought was good enough for him to move forward with his business. The thing is that when you're first getting started and you have no customers, you have no revenue, you don't know what this company is going to be like. You don't know what your business is going to be, even has the potential to survive. So. So this is not the time to be spending lots and lots of money on something you don't know will exist yet. Your logo is important, but it's not gonna make or break your business. If it's not totally offensive, then you should be alright. What really counts is does the product meet the needs of the market? Does it do enough to get people to pay so you have a profitable business? So that's why my advice is don't spend money you don't have when it comes to your logo, especially if you're bootstrapping your business. If you have a low startup capital like you don't have that much money to work with in the beginning, use that money for something that actually can affect the success of your business, like the product or service itself or how you communicate your product or service through your website or through your sales process. So what do I suggest when it comes to logos? Well, I do think you should set a budget for yourself that's comfortable. If you're bootstrapping your business, there's no real reason to spend a whole lot of money on your logo. In fact, I would even recommend if you're bootstrapping, to spend less than $100. And even though that's less than what Phil Knight paid, we're living in a global economy now, so you can use the power of globalization where you can really get some great talent from across the world for low prices. And many people will go to sites like Upwork or Fiverr for great graphic design work. And it's a star. It's a way for you to get started with your logo. Of course you can iterate and change. When it came to our business's logo, the Hun RMBA or our software webinar Ninja, the first few iterations of our logo, I actually created, I created it myself. I was fortunate enough to be self taught in Photoshop and I created the first versions of them. Eventually when I launched with the logo and we started to have an actual business and get customers and I had some money to invest, I was able to clean up my logo a little bit. I'd send it to a real graphic designer who can clean it up and vectorize it for me and make it look really polished. But even then I didn't spend too much money because I used one of those sites I mentioned. There are even lots of sites like Squarespace that offer a free logo maker, a tool or wizard to help you build your own logo. This is also an option if you love using Canva, which is absolutely free to use. You can create your own logo inside of there. But if you want a professional to actually get it done, there are tons of options out there that are very low cost. Like I mentioned, upwork and Fiverr. But there's also Design crowdsourcing, like 99designs that will get you lots of different versions of your logo from different designers for a low price. Now, I'm here to tell you, yes, the logo is important. It represents your brand. So this is why I recommend whatever your logo is, is keep it simple, keep it clean, because you may want to iterate and improve it later on without overhauling it completely. A simple typeface, maybe even a simple icon that can really go a long way. Just like Nike simple icon, which is the swoosh and the word Nike. And a simple typeface. If you look at all the most popular logos around the world, whether It's Nike or McDonald's, Apple, Coca Cola, Walmart, whatever it is, these logos are simple. They're not intricate, they're not complicated. There's not a million colors. A good rule of thumb is can you sketch the logo yourself on a notepad? If I was looking at the Apple logo, I can pretty much sketch, sketch it myself on a little notepad because it's simple. If I'm looking at the Ford logo right in front of me on a screen, I can easily copy it and sketch it out. There you go. It's gotta be simple, it's gotta be easy. And of course you can iterate. I've iterated my logos in my businesses several times, improved it, refreshed it. In fact, we're doing that again with webinar Ninja and depending on when this gets released, you might be able to see that new logo on our website@webinar.com and, and that's natural. Your business will evolve, it will grow and it will need to be refreshed. So don't worry about spending too much money in the beginning. Make sure you invest on the things that actually move the needle to prove if this business has legs and then you can iterate and change the logo later on. I encourage you to take a look at the evolution of big company logos. Have they changed over the years? Companies like Pepsi Even tech companies like mailchimp, if you go back to their original logo, pretty dinky looking, but now they're polished and look fabulous. So my advice, spend as little as you can to get a professional, simple, clean looking logo. Don't feel pressure to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars when you don't have to. You can have a very good logo at a low cost and if you compare it to a logo that maybe somebody spent thousands on, the difference is actually not that big. And you can then later on spend that kind of money once you have that money from your revenue. But just to get started, to get the wheels in motion, be modest when it comes to spending on your logo, guys.

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To wrap up today's lesson, your branding, how you represent your company is important, but it's not as important at the start as it is later on. Why? Because you're unknown right now. You're not a household name. And really, in the beginning, your potential customer wants to know what's in it for them. They're not really paying attention to the logo and the branding so much. They're not seeing you everywhere on build billboards and TV commercials right now. They just really want to know how can your product or service help me? And if you can deliver on that with some simple, clean branding that represents your values and what you deliver that will get you over the hump to the point where you are a viable business. You have gone past, you know, escape velocity where you're paying all your expenses and able to sustain yourself. And now you can grow your business and invest on the details later on. Thanks so much for listening to the.

$100 MBA show and thanks Brandon for.

Asking today's Q and A Wednesday's question. If you've got a question you want to ask, just email me over at Omar100- MBA net and I'll answer it right here on Q and A Wednesdays. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I love a good logo. I love great design, but all designs tend to age. Even the best of logos will get refreshed from time to time. So don't fall in love or spend too much time or effort or money on something that you're going to have to change later on. You're going to have to improve later on, especially in the beginning when resources are tight. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care. Of. Gas, snacks, tolls. This trip is draining my wallet.

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