If you’re a small business owner (or soon to be the owner) you’ve probably realized that there’s a lot of ground to cover. From the very get-go, you’re faced with countless worthwhile investment opportunities. 

There’s mindset training, marketing, business coaching, branding, advertising, design, and many other essential components of a business that need attention.

Picking and choosing which to invest with your precious time and hard-earned money is by far one of the most difficult tasks facing business owners today (even myself). 

OK friends, you want to nurture every aspect of your business and striving for perfection is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s usually what makes a business successful after all.

But oftentimes we simply can’t afford to put enough time and money into every aspect we want to. Budgeting our time and money becomes a question of focusing on what’s important.

But where does brand design come into this?

Design acts as the visual side of your business. It’s the first thing people will see when they come face to face (or online) with what you’re offering, and of course, you want to make a good first impression. It’s only natural to want to add a piece of yourself into this design but don’t want to go it alone. Maybe you’re not quite sure where to get started yet and it’s eating up too much of your time.

This is where brand designers come into play.

Working with a good designer means bringing someone onto your team who will use their creativity and savvy to dig deep into the heart of your business and tailor-made the design that conveys your vision. We’ll be able to look at all sides of your business, who you’re trying to reach, what you’re trying to say, and where you’re going.

When you find a brand designer who is perfectly in tune with your business and who you can trust, you’ll find that we free up time for you to spend on other parts of your business. And that’s priceless. Not only can a designer do any small design task that may pop up along the way, but we can also create a comprehensive brand design for your business that’ll rid you of the need to ever rebrand.

As you can see, a good designer isn’t just going to make your business look pretty, we’re going to make it real, authentic, and trustworthy. Because good design builds trust. And trust is very important in business. 

You might be left wondering when’s the best time to work with a designer, or if you’ll really even need design help. So, let’s get into some things you’ll have to consider before taking the leap.

When should I Hire a Designer?

Despite all the solid evidence that supports the importance of a polished and professional business image (your branding and brand identity), hiring a designer might not be right for everybody. 

You just starting out and don’t see the value of a custom brand identity design. You’d rather focus on other start-up costs and education opportunities.

No need to rush the process if you already stressed about the cash flow and not sure about your business direction.

If you’re just starting out especially this is your first time running a business, it’s best to get your business rooted on its ground before focusing on professional design. Skipping the brand foundation can cost you really bad. The deep level works are likes, not knowing exactly what your business is about yet, discovering your brand story, who you love serving and what makes your brand stand out.

My two cents: Design is not only making things beautiful but to solve a problem and deliver a message. Learn more about how’s branding power can shape your client perception. Stopping yourself to get educated is like leaving money on the table.

When you are clear about your business direction, having clients consistently coming your way and you are ready to grow your business, it’s time to look for a designer to upgrade your business identity to get a consistent sales.

You’d prefer to go DIY and enjoy taking the time figuring out yourself than hire someone to do for you.

Maybe you have some experience in designing or want to learn for yourself. Either way, there are plenty of courses (like Udemy) and resources (like Canva) out there that help beginners to educate themselves. Check them out.

You understand the design is important to your business and would like to hire a designer but your budget won’t allow it, and you need it fast maybe within a week.

Tailor-made a design that incorporates an entire business takes a lot of time, hard work, and energy. This is why a custom brand identity is a one-off + big investment and certainly it worth to spend. Design is not making things pretty, but solve a problem, convert a message. Good design increase the client’s trust and trust is essential in business.

So asking a designer to work for free is disgraceful, it’s pretty rude and won’t work 99% of the time.  Also, an underpaid designer might not invest as much time and effort into your business as you’d like them to. 

Start saving up for your design investment. You can always ask for payment plans from the designer, usually there’s no interest charge, at least I don’t see one out there. All of your hard work will make the results all the sweeter. Because letting professionals do their work is a smart way to free yourself from a lot of hassle.

What else you can do, you can always fall back on a pre-made branding kit or get to work DIY until you can afford custom brand identity design.

However, you can also shop around and do your research to find the right designer that suits you at a price that’s fit to your budget. 

But what if you think you are ready to hire a designer but can’t 100% sure yet. Sitting on the fence about such a big decision is fully understandable but you may feel like all this caution thinking is taking too much time.

And your time, isn’t best focusing on another side of your business? That’s why you’re reading this, so let’s get into it!

You know what to sell and have a rough idea on your vision, somewhat you know having a really lovely brand identity is important, but you feels you not ready yet for a designer.

First, I want to cheer on you because you are one step faster with those who don’t see the importance, the value of having a brand identity. Another credit to you if you understand brand identity doesn’t mean only having a logo, that is so much more inside.

If you think a logo is the brand identity and that’s it. Then you might want to spend a little more time to learn 7 Must-have in a Result-driven Brand Identity.

Let’s continue…

Before collaborating with a brand designer it’s absolutely necessary that you have an idea of what your business is about and where it’s going. You see, if you don’t have a good grasp on the vision, goals, and direction of your business, neither will your designer. And to create the memorable, authentic, and purposeful design that we all want, the designer needs some substance to work with.

So start finding a designer that you love their works or you two have clicked in some ways. Make sure to ask the designer’s process, check if they include a brand discovery session that helps you to figure out your mission, values, ideal client, personality and so on.

Also, do it early on searching for a designer, be sure you check their availability. Typically it takes up to weeks or a month or two to complete cohesive brand identity, depending on how the designer works.

If the designer doesn’t include a brand discovery session, you may want to find a branding coach or a brand strategist. They are the pro on this.

Figuring out the brand foundation will have a lot of conversations with your heart. If you need help by having a brand discovery/consultation session, good news! I am writing on a free workbook to define your brand foundation, welcome to join into the waiting list. You definitely don’t want to miss this out.

If you’ve got this all sorted out: what is your core offering, selling to who and why they should buy from you, but you get overwhelmed by the design. Then you’re ready for a designer. 

Be sure to search for a designer ahead of time and check their availability. Typically it takes up to weeks or a month or two to complete cohesive brand identity, depending on how the designer works.

Also, look into the designer’s process that includes a questionnaire and brand guideline. Not only the brand identity design is done by a designer, but they will also help you define and document all your brand foundation, even teach you on how to use your new brand identity to grow your business. So much peace of mind to you.

At first, you have done the logo on your own with a fair amount of success. Now your business is maturing and you need an up-level. Besides, your schedule is too full to handle.

Since you did the design at the beginning, you probably found it hard to let someone else take over. You might have the urge to teach or give a solution to the designer during the design process, like make the font bigger or use another colour. The key is trust. Remember you are hiring a professional designer who has spent years on study and working on it, their design comes with a purpose and only want to help you succeed. Always communicate with the designer about the reason behind a design.

That’s why find a designer that you admire their works and is someone you trust. You can also be considering getting a template on something like social media posts that you could use on your own.

You find that you’re stuck in designing, redesigning endless cycles. Something not right on your brand design but don’t know why.

That’s such a hard time, right? I have friends that are non-designer and tried to design on their own. All the feedback from them reflects that having way too much time to get the design right. A very time-consuming headache that can lead to frustration and sadly, a broken wallet. If you feel like you’re falling into a hopeless cycle and need to put an end to it once and for all, you’re probably ready to consult a professional designer.

The mission of a designer is to turn your headache into fulfilling, stress-free on creating your brand identity, listening to you needs with attention. Our design process involves you to understand your passion and design preferences, basically, we will learn all ins and outs of your business.

We will create a long-lasting and good quality design for your business that just can’t quite be achieved by those who are new in the design world. A timeless design that’s exactly what you want for your business.

You have the perfect logo and brand identity, just that you become too busy managing your business. You have a hard time to deal with designing on your own and keeping the brand consistent.

Possibly you’ve been doing just fine on your own, you’ve been able to think up a design that expresses every aspect of your business and put it into action. It’s been no problem up to now but as your business has grown (oh hey, congratulations!), there’s been increasing traffic and more clients to deal with – Keeping up with design consistently seems like an afterthought. 

It happens to many businesses and luckily, there are designers out there who’d love to take the work off your hands. Upon hiring a designer, you’ll find that you have much more time to invest in some of the more favourite parts of your business.

Whether you find yourself in the ‘ready’ or ‘not ready’ category, I hope this blog post has cleared up any doubts you may have had. Without a doubt, outsourcing work or investing in design services can make the running of a business much smoother and bring you to new heights. It’s pretty much like taking a shortcut. I truly believe that it’s worthwhile weighing all your options up and taking the next step if you’re ready to.