Entrepreneurs are hardy stock. But sometimes hardiness can get you \rinto trouble.

Especially when you¡¯re over committed and could use a little help.

All too often, new business owners decide they don¡¯t need to hire any \routside services. You know how it goes¡­.¡±I can do this myself. How \rtough can it be? It¡¯s just a simple direct mail campaign.¡±

Big mistake! Trying to do it all yourself ¡­unless it¡¯s your area of \rexpertise¡­.usually costs you more in the long run. And most of the time, \rthe work looks pretty unprofessional.

Here¡¯s the scenario¡­

You¡¯re starting a consulting business. You decide you need business \rcards, a logo, a handout of some sort and a website. Pretty basic. You \rfigure you can hire the right people and manage these projects yourself.

So you do. You brainstorm some names for the company, run them by a \rfew friends and select one for your business. Next you find a designer \rwhose work you like and meet with her. You describe the services you¡¯ll \roffer and what colors you do and don¡¯t like. Maybe you¡¯ll even have \rsome sketches of what you think your logo should look like.

So the designer (working with minimal direction) starts to work. Unless \ryou¡¯ve given her detailed information on your target market, your niche, \rhow you see your identity developing, this designer is pretty clueless. \rBut she comes up with some designs. Once again, you go to some \rfriends and family members for feedback. Based on the general \rconsensus, you select a design (hopefully, it will fit with your company \rname and what you do). You can now either leave it up to the designer \rto get printing quotes for your business cards and stationary. Or you can \rdo it yourself and get some price comparisons. You¡¯ll need to know \rwhat type of stock you¡¯d like, paper weight, quantities, etc.

Next you want to start on some sort of handout or brochure. Do you stick \rwith your logo designer? If so, better make sure you¡¯ve seen some \rsamples of brochures she¡¯s done. Often designers specialize in one \rproduct or another. I¡¯ve worked with great logo designers who can¡¯t do \rother collateral.

And what about your web site? Is your logo designer also able to do \rsite design? What about development? Not all designers are \rdevelopers. In fact, most aren¡¯t. The best developers I¡¯ve found started \rout as web folk, whereas my best designers are sticking to what they do \rbest ¨C graphic design.

You also need to decide how many pages your site will be, what they \rare (the menu), how you want the site to lay out (site map), whether or \rnot you need a dynamic or static site, what elements need to be \rincluded, etc.

Still happy with your decision? Better make sure you nail down the \rcosts on all of this so you¡¯re not surprised upon completion.

Lastly, don¡¯t forget about the copy. You need some for your brochure. \rYou need different copy for your website. They¡¯re different types of \rmarketing tools and the copy needs to be written in a different style for \reach. But everything needs to work together (be integrated) so you \rdon¡¯t look like a fractured company. Your brochure and website should \rhave the same look and feel¡­.but the approach is different.

If you¡¯re still managing this yourself -- kudos. Especially if you have time \rto do any selling or networking or research. Because you¡¯ve taken on \rfull-time work as a marketing person/project manager.

To think¡­. you could have saved yourself a lot of aggravation and time \rif only you¡¯d called in a marketing specialist at the beginning. Then \ryou¡¯d have one person who could manage all the above projects for you:

? working with the designer (or designers) and developers to making \rsure everyone involved understood what you do and who you do it

? reviewing, rejecting, and/or approving designs before you ever see \rthem

? writing copy appropriate for each product

? proofreading\r? overseeing all the various vendors to make sure workflow is on \rschedule and work is correct

... and only calling you for selection, fact verification or final decisions.

Then again, maybe you like a challenge. Or maybe you just need to \rmicromanage everything. Because by the time you¡¯re done, you¡¯re \rlikely to end up with a disjointed marketing ¡°program¡± (for lack of a better \rword). And when and if you finally do call in a marketing person to \rrevise your marketing material, you¡¯ll probably find that turning \reverything over to a specialist -- who does this all the time ¨C would \ractually have cost you less than doing it yourself.

At least you¡¯ll know better next time.

Rickey Gold & Associates is a small, hands-on marketing \rcommunications firm that helps clients identify, reach, entice and sell to \rtheir target markets. \rhttp://www.rickeygold.com\rrg@rickeygold.com
\r773.348.4973