939 – Brand your business the right way: Tom talks Logos

SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

In this episode, host Tom Antion discusses the role of logos in business, emphasizing practicality and cost-effectiveness. He explores when logos matter and how to approach their design. Key takeaways include:
• Definition and Importance: A logo is a graphic mark that aids public identification and recognition. While logos can enhance professionalism, trust, and brand recognition, their importance depends on a business's stage of development.
• Priorities for New Businesses: If you’re just starting, focus on cash flow and selling products or services people want, rather than spending time or money on a logo.
• Common Mistakes: Many entrepreneurs overspend on branding, worrying about unnecessary details like matching colors across platforms, which may not significantly impact sales.
• Practical Tips for Logos:
o Ensure readability across formats and devices.
o Make your website logo clickable to return to the homepage.
o Avoid tiny, unintelligible designs.
• Cost-effective Options:
o Use free online tools like Looka.com for experimenting.
o Consider affordable freelance services on platforms like Fiverr.
o Use platforms like 99designs for competitive professional designs.
• Avoid Overpaying: High-end design firms may charge thousands for logos, which is unnecessary for most businesses.
• Focus on Value: A strong business reputation is built on quality products and services, not an expensive logo.
Tom concludes by encouraging listeners to prioritize customer needs and effective marketing over logo design and promotes his school, IMTCVA.org, which offers training in high-demand internet marketing skills.

===

Episode 939 - Logos
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute, the entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multi-millionaire Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody! It's Tom here with episode 939 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today, we're going to talk about logos, and I'm going to say good things and bad things about them, depending on where you're at in your business life. I hope you didn't miss episode 938. That was on celebrity endorsements. Again, pros and cons of that covered on that episode. And of course, anytime you want to get to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash, and then the episode number. That was 938 for celebrity endorsements today is 939. And of course, I want you to pick up a copy of my automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. You will thank me for it. If you even implement a tiny fraction of what's in that book. It's allowed me to handle up to 150,000 subscribers and 65,000 customers without pulling my hair out. All right. Also check out my mentor program, greatinternetmarketingTraining.com. And my school IMTCVA.org.

[00:01:23] All right. So what is a logo? The the definition. It's a graphic mark or emblem or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition of usually of a business or some organization. Well, how important is it really? Well it depends. See if you have a thriving business or brand already. Absolutely. It's good. You could you have money already in the bank. You can you can purchase a logo. You can create more recognition with it makes you look professional. There's a whole bunch of supposed benefits going along with having a logo recognition.

[00:02:11] Trust differentiates you from other people or businesses. Builds, supposedly builds loyalty. I'm not sure how that works. Well, other than yeah, if I am driving on the highway and I see a McDonald's, I pretty much know a certain level of service. I'm going to get there and I'm loyal to them, as opposed to some rinky dink place that never heard of. So yeah, I can see that a little bit. Uh, a lot of times the logos will tell what your brand is about, and there's a lot of a lot of other ones. But here's the deal, folks. If you've not sold much of anything, then know the logo is not the most important thing in your life. Cash flow is the most important thing in your life. Sell something to somebody that wants it. All right. And and with regard to branding, a lot of the brand people don't like me because I rag on branding. So many people will brand themselves into the poorhouse worrying. I mean, I've had people tell me, well, I want my printed press kit and brochures and everything to match the exact colors of my website. And I'm thinking, what kind of idiot are you? Go down to Best Buy and and open up ten different laptops and look at a website, and you'll get ten different colors, right? You know, they waste enormous amounts of money on this stuff that doesn't create cash flow. Yeah, maybe if you're in the fashion business, you have to pay more attention to this kind of thing.

[00:03:49] But for most people, your brand will find you if you just start selling things that people want and do a good job at it. So is a is a logo important? Well, yeah. It's important. In some cases. And also, by the way, just a sidebar here, your logo at the top of your website should always click to your home page. I get so many. I critique so many websites, over 10,000 of them in the years I've been doing this, and the logo is up there, it's pretty much unintelligible because they use some tiny, tiny, tiny writing in the logo, and then they reduced it to really small on their website. So it just looks like a blur of nothingness, and they don't even click it to their website or their home page. So. So you've got to think about these things. Where will your logo be displayed and can it is it readable or is it just a bunch of mush that's so small? And just look at tons of websites in your field, look at their logos and see, is it readable? Invariably you'll find some of the ones that don't know what they're doing have a logo. They probably paid way too much for, and then the tiny little text of their tagline or something is totally unintelligible on laptops, desktops, handheld, you know, cell phone. You know, so it's just a terrible thing to do. So don't let that happen to you.

[00:05:26] If you do have a logo, make sure it's readable in all formats and clear, nice and clear. And you got you should have some professional person double check the graphic behind the scenes and and to to know what the resolution is and all those kinds of things that make sure that it looks good everywhere. But if you haven't sold anything. Yeah, it's not that the most important thing in your life. Now let's see if you do want to have a logo. Well, I contend like I do in many cases. There's free things that as long as they represent you well professionally. I'm all for free stuff, all for it. But when it comes to certain things, if you get free stuff, it's going to hurt you. And that's why if you listen to enough of my episodes, you'll know the difference when free is good and when it isn't. In this case, if you're just experimenting or go to. I mean, there's loads of these websites. If you just Google Free Logo generator, something like that, you'll get tons of places. Now, anytime something's free, they got to make money somehow to stay in business. So they're going to hit you with advertisements or get you on an email list. So you know, that's the trade off. But anyway, I went to a one called looka.com and just played with it. And I could make a gorgeous logo with no, I have no graphic skills whatsoever. And I made a logo for myself. I threw it away because I don't need it, but.

[00:07:00] So that's one way to do it for free. Just to try to, you know, get a lot of people to say, what do you think of this? And you can always go back and adjust it. Then another the next little step up would be to go to Fiverr.com. Fiverr.com. And it's a very seldom is it just five bucks anymore, but for a reasonable price you could get some logos and see which one you like best. Then the next step up would be a site like a 99designs.com this is where hundreds of thousands of graphic artists are there. And you tell what you want and they bid on the job. And so I think, you know, I was talked into doing this on our school. So our school logo came, you know, the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia, IMTCVA.org, came from 99designs. Somebody bid on it. I think it was $200 or something. But if you just go to a regular graphics firm, they're going to charge you thousands of dollars and talk you into branding and all these printed things that are supposed to match your website that aren't going to and, and all that. So. So here's the thing. If I'd rather you concentrate on finding what your market wants and selling it to them, and let that build your brand and then create a logo, unless you do it for free and you can throw it away if you don't like it later, you know there's nothing lost there.

[00:08:33] Or if you are already an established company, you probably already have a logo, but if you don't, you could still use one of these methods because you know as well as I do, I don't blow money on these kinds of things. You know, that that are so easy to get nowadays with you just don't need a $2,500 logo or a $25,000 logo from some, you know, if you were some multi, you know, million dollar company, you just need a logo that somebody can click on go to your home page recognizable. And that's fine. That's good enough because guess what? I couldn't even tell you what the Verizon logo is, although I send them a lot of money every month, even though I bitch about it because of the idiots that run their websites. But anyway, I still do it, but it has nothing to do with the fact that I like their logo or nothing at all. So there you go on logos. You can get some free, you can get some really cheap, but concentrate on selling stuff that people want and doing a great job at that. And a logo will be the least of your your business problems. All right. Check out my school with IMTCVA.org And save you or your children enormous amounts of debt. And also get them a good skill that's in high demand around the world. All right. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.