Most entrepreneurs have limited financial resources and very limited time, yet far too often, I see business owners investing both their hard-earned money and their time into aspects of their business that don’t matter if sales do not occur. As a 37-year-old entrepreneur, I have been self-employed since the age of 16, and I have yet to allow a single business venture to fail because I lost sight of the importance of eating while dreaming. Many graphic design firms, accounting practices, law firms and human resource compliance agencies charge clients like you by the hour and love it when you spend four months on the same subject. When it comes to designing a logo, I know of many graphic design firms that enjoy working with passionate business owners who are willing to invest three months of their time and money into creating 20 revisions of the same one because it’s going to be expensive. If you are going to succeed as an entrepreneur, you must keep your focus on solving problems for your ideal and likely buyers.
Don’t get me wrong. As the owner of a creative marketing agency and as an entrepreneur, I do believe that having a great logo is a good thing. However, your logo isn’t going to pay your bills if you don’t sell something soon.
Marketing Myth No. 1: You must have the perfect logo before you can start marketing.
When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built and sold their first Apple computers out of a garage, their logo didn’t matter. In fact, as they were busy making computers that solved real problems for their ideal and likely buyers, they created a terrible original logo. It featured Sir Isaac Newton himself sitting under a tree with an apple over his head, surrounded by an intricate font and a cloud. In fact, the original Apple logo was so detailed and so intricate, they changed it completely.
Marketing Myth No. 2: Once your logo is great, you’ll begin to sell.
Entrepreneurs rush to revenue by obsessing over solving the problems of their ideal and likely buyers. You must offer an experience that appeals to your buyers’ senses, find a profitable price point that the market is willing to accept and get their attention through relentless marketing. If you spend every waking thought obsessing about your logo, you won’t even have anything to sell, let alone people to recruit, hire and inspire.
Marketing Myth No. 3: Branding is the most important thing when starting a new business venture.
Branding is the collective impression that your ideal and likely buyers have about your business and the way you solve problems for your customers. However, your branding will not solve your financial problems if you don’t get out there and start marketing to find out what works and what doesn’t. You must ultimately make a product or service that people are willing to pay you for. Your customers simply do not care how much money you’ve invested in your branding.
Marketing Myth No. 4: With the perfect logo, customers will come flooding in.
Once you have created the perfect logo, you may feel satisfied, but it doesn’t make your ideal and likely buyers compelled to call you. To quote my business partner, Oklahoma-based marketing expert Jonathan Kelly, “People do not come flooding out of the woodworks just because you have a great logo. On the flip side of that, if you focus on marketing and delivering to your customers a product or service that they actually need in a way that blows their socks off, you will start selling something.”
Marketing Myth No. 5: Customers decide where to spend their money based on logos alone.
Think about it: When was the last time you didn’t do any of the following due to a “bad logo?”
• Eat somewhere
• Buy a car
• Buy gasoline
• Buy a product
• Try something new
I’m willing to say never.
Marketing Myth No. 6: A world-class logo will make customers love you.
To be remarkable means to be worthy of notice or attention. You must create a product or service that wows your ideal and likely buyers if you want to generate sustainable word of mouth. You must offer a superior customer service experience, the highest quality product on the market or an experience unlike anything currently being offered by your competition.
The most selfish thing you can do for your business is to overdeliver to your ideal and likely buyers.
Marketing Myth No. 7: Your logo is standing in the way of your success.
I have something to tell you that may offend you (if I haven’t already). Your logo is not getting in the way of your success — you are. When you spend all your time and energy on perfecting your logo, you are taking time and focus away from the most important thing in the world: selling something.
I get it, creating sales scripts and systems and making your business scalable is hard work. Putting yourself out there to succeed or fail on your own is scary. But I am here today to tell you to stop putting off the hard work and get it done.
Your success is waiting on you, and you do have what it takes. All you have to do is realize that your logo doesn’t matter if you don’t even have the sales systems in place to actually afford it.
Article Provided By: Forbes
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