being better

> If you run a small business, you have to work harder to stand apart from your competition. It's not impossible though. In the June 2009 issue of HOW Design magazine, Glenn John Arnowitz wrote an article specifically directed to in-house creative departments, but I believe the information applies to any small business. He shares a couple of suggestions that are so simple, you may think you're already doing them. And if you are, good for you. But maybe you can be doing it better. 
> First, let people know what you're doing that's different or better than your competition. Explain what you do. Next, do good work, outstanding work. Then finally, tell everyone about the great work you're doing. If you're doing it right, the cycle will feed itself.
> Sounds simple, doesn't it? I have been designing for over 20 years (eek!) and I've had a couple of occasions where someone who has known me for years "discovers" something they didn't know I could do. I realized I needed to do a better job of sending a clear message about what I do, especially as I refine my areas of expertise. 
> While your "categorical" target audience may remain the same, the companies and individuals who are within that target change. Making the effort to continually educate others about your service, is vital to having a smart marketing strategy.
> Another vital part of that strategy is making sure your "visual message" is consistent with the verbal message you're broadcasting. Do your business card, your web site, and any other applications of your brand visually "belong" together? Do your logo and brand accurately represent you and set you apart from your competition? Are you confident that they present you professionally and in the most positive light when you're competing for a potential client?
> If you're just starting out and you need help creating your brand, or your small business identity just needs a facelift, or an expansion of what you've already got going, mGraphicDesign specializes in creating projects that will help small businesses put their best foot forward.

petnames

> Back when my first niece was a baby, I created an alphabet with hand-drawn, hand-painted animals and drew her name, and gave it to her parents as a gift. I got an email last week from a friend asking me to do the name of her beautiful newly adopted son. 
> Over the past 20-something years, I've finessed and refined the drawings, and have probably painted over 100 names. Things have come full circle...that "baby" niece is expecting her first baby soon, and as I am with each request I get, if she wants me to do her baby's name, I will be flattered.

one thing at a time

>  Years ago, I was concerned about launching my first web site—I wanted everything to be "perfect". My background and expertise is primarily in print design, where you don't "finish" and distribute a job until there are no errors. However, I got some advice from a fellow designer. He told me, "Just get it out there. You can finesse and make changes as often as you want, but at least get it out there".  So I did. 

>  Since I'm the one doing everything: the design, production, accounting, sales, janitorial, etc., I'm not always able to take the time to finalize and finesse things for myself, like I do for my clients. My own projects take the back seat, but it doesn't mean I can't make things happen. I just have to do them a little differently. Like my blog. I knew I wanted and needed to get one going, but only took a minimal amount of time getting it started. I made sure it was green, (of course), but didn't play too much with the formatting at the time, knowing that as my brand continued to develop and expand in other areas, the graphics and style would be take less time if I applied it as I went along.

>  Yesterday, I finally took some time to update the header and style of my blog. Through my email newsletter and the overhaul to my web site, I had figured out the style elements I wanted to apply to my blog, so I was able to reduce the design time and just do a little production to make my blog a more cohesive piece of my entire brand.

>  Not necessarily the ideal, but it works. For myself, I've found that I can do everything, as long as I do one thing at a time.

visual messages

> In the text of my new (but not live yet) web site, I talk a lot about visual messages. What's a visual message? Just what it sounds like: a visual message is what any application of your brand (business cards, blog, web site, brochure, etc.) "tells" anyone who comes in contact with it.

> You can tell people all about your business, about how you are unique with skills that no one else can provide, and that you offer something better than any of your competition...but if your web site is built using a free downloadable template and clip art, your visual message isn't consistent with your verbal one.

> From your business card to your web site, and everything in between, make sure there is consistency beyond just slapping your logo on everything. If you didn't know there's more you should be doing, you're in luck, now you know, and mGraphicDesign can help!

little m...literally

> I've been tending my niece and nephews the last couple days. Before coming, I searched with my sister to find a fun activity to do with them, and we ran across a blast from the past...Shrinky-Dinks! We have fond memories of them from our childhoods. I didn't even know you could still find them! 

> The kids love to draw, so we had fun creating and coloring on the special plastic sheets, then the real fun began...we placed the cutout shapes in the oven and watched as they curled, shrunk to one-third their original size, thickened up, then finally lay flat.

> We all made lots of fun creations, and they have all talked about what they will draw next time I come and bring more of the special magic plastic.

me or we?

> I've been working on updating my web site. I wrote all the text, edited, and edited, asked others to edit, then finally decided it was "ready". But as I was placing it into the site's content management system, I ran across an inconsistency that needed fixing. The problem is that I'm not really sure where I "land" on this particular issue: Is mGraphicDesign a "me", or a "we"?

> mGraphicDesign is a one-person business. I'm okay with that, in fact I prefer it. But when I'm trying to get new business, sometimes there are reservations about hiring a "freelancer". I've been told it's better to appear larger, more experienced, and more substantial—that somehow size "proves" capability. One of my colleagues (also a sole proprietor) once pointed out to me that we don't literally work solo, so why not refer to the company as "we"? He's right. When I'm designing a web site, I hire skilled programmers who handle that part of the project. If I'm working on a brochure, the photos may come from the client, they may come from an online stock source, or I may hire a photographer to do custom work. Same goes for printing. In fact, there have been many times when my workload has been heavy enough that I hire freelancers to share my load. So in that sense, mGraphicDesign is a "we".

> So how will I handle the correct pronoun usage on my site? Good question! Right now I'm working on making sure the portfolio section of my web site is as impressive as it can be, showing a wide variety or projects, for a diverse clientele, and if I can get that right, maybe "we" and "me" will be okay either way.

spring cleaning

> I went to my parents' house a couple weeks ago. They've been spending a lot of time going through files, boxes and shelves, getting rid of things that they have decided they can't justify keeping anymore. I have to admit there is something very free-ing about going through and trashing stuff you just don't need anymore.

> I subscribe to a couple different trade publications. They're perfect-bound, content and image-rich, and are more like books than magazines, so it's easy to justify keeping them. For awhile, I kept them all, but before a move one time, I took the time to thumb through some of the older issues, and found that technology had changed so dramatically in the couple of years since the issue was published, that I was able to throw away several older copies.

> I can always tell when it's time to go through and decide what to keep and what to trash. I finished reading an issue I received in last week's mail and there is no more room on my shelf...that's a sure sign that something's gotta go.