1. Create an unforgettable logo. The Olympic Rings are among the most recognized symbols in the world. They’re simple and bold yet also don’t resemble other logos. (OK, maybe the Audi logo is similar.) A logo is how potential clients recognize your company, and it’s vital you come up with one that best represents your products or services. It’s a design task you don’t want to skimp on.

2. Find your niche. Watching the Olympics the other night, my friend asked if Olympians compete in different sports. “Do hockey players pull a ‘Cutting Edge’ and also dabble in figure skating?” he asked. We didn’t do too much research but decided that no, Olympic athletes tend to stick to what they’re good at. That’s a tip you can take to the bank: Develop a niche and market the heck out of it. That’s not to say you shouldn’t offer more than one service – rather, if you’re a graphic designer, do graphic design and be really good at it. Don’t spread yourself thin by also offering eBay services, psychotherapy and automotive repair.

3. Represent yourself as best you can. Bronze medalist Scotty Lago was sent packing from the Olympics earlier this week for behavior deemed inappropriate. The Olympics have a reputation for consisting of freshly scrubbed and bright-eyed athletes, while bad-boy behavior is frowned upon. Don’t forget that just like Olympic athletes represent their countries, you represent your company. When you’re out on the town, you don’t necessarily stop working. Keep yourself in check.

4. Aim for gold. Every Olympic Games there is story after story of athletes who are back to prove themselves after “settling” for silver or less in their previous outings. Bode Miller, after wowing ski fans for years, finally snagged his first Olympic gold medal a few days ago. As a business owner, you can always find ways to learn, grow and better your company. Network, advertise and create a great product. Don’t let yourself get out of shape.

5. Go green. I was happily surprised to hear that the medals being distributed this year in Vancouver are made of recycled computer motherboards, and the Olympic Village was built to the LEED Gold standard. Maybe your company doesn’t have the funds to completely green your building, but there are plenty of actions you can take and choices you can make, such as rethinking your lighting and making eco-friendly printing and paper choices.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Cheap printing doesn’t mean printing cheap materials – it means making smart decisions about how you invest in your campaign and getting a quality product without jeopardizing your budget. The politician who is able to do this demonstrates his or her ability to be an asset to taxpayers, who count on their leaders to make sound financial decisions.

So how can you leverage cheap printing and run a political campaign for less than $2,000? It’s easy if you’re in a district with fewer than 10,000 voters. Here’s how I would spend it:

Free website: Take out a page on Blogspot.com or a similar service…………………. $0
Vinyl banners: Two strategically-placed 2-foot by 6-foot banners will do… $160
Brochures: Start by printing 1,000 and go from there………………………………… $340
Door hangers: Distribute your message to 10,000 voters sans postage….. $750
Stickers: Start with 1,000 and order more when you run out…………………….. $100
Postcards: Get 10,000 postcards to mail to every voter…………………………….. $550
Business cards: Start with 1,000 business cards and get more as needed… $80

Total………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… $1,980

If $2,000 is still outside of your budget, no worries. You could cut out door hangers and save nearly half the investment – with cheap printing you could conceivably run a well-rounded political campaign for less than $1,000. Or ask friends, family and other supporters for donations. If you have a great platform and prove yourself to be an asset to citizens, cheap printing can definitely help you quickly get the word out to the masses – and fast!

Image use Creative Commons license via Flickr.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I did a little research on the topic to see what was available to me in the way of calendar templates and to see if using one was worth my time. I found that the No. 1 aspect of using a template was the time and cost effectiveness. I have tried to make my own calendar on my desktop, but I had limited success in that I could easily make the calendar, but getting it to jibe with a printers’ requirements was another story. The time saved using a template means more time with the family during the holidays and less time at the desktop.

Another benefit of using a calendar template is the variety of sizes and binding that is available to you. Your calendar can range from 6-inch by 6-inch to 12-inch by 12-inch, and be bound using a flip top Wire-O, as it is called in the business, or it can be saddle stitched. As I was looking around I found that you had to be careful which software the templates were compatible with. I discovered that the best were compatible with Adobe products such as Photoshop or Illustrator.

Should you use a calendar template? I think so. The ease of use and convenience offered by these downloadable templates far outweighs the struggles that you will face if you try to work it out in Word.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Templates. I’ve seen templates for stationery, brochures, newsletters and even logos, and they range in price, edging into triple digits. But PsPrint offers free templates for such important items as event tickets, posters, presentation folders, catalogs and club flyers. If your graphic design skills are limited, free templates offer a quick and cost-effective way to create your own printed materials.

Shipping. I have a rule for myself when it comes to holiday shopping – I refuse to pay for shipping and handling. So many online retailers offer free shipping that I simply can’t stomach paying twice as much for a gift to cover the mailing costs. So look around for the online shops that waive shipping. For example, Amazon offers free Super Saver Shipping for two more days if you want your order to arrive by Christmas, and Zappos not only always ships for free but also offers free returns on your shoe order.

Freecycle. Have you ever lost yourself scrolling through Craigslist or eBay, finding treasures you didn’t know you need? Freecycle is like that but better, because it’s all free. You simply join a local group and find things that people want to get rid of. Some of it’s junk, of course, and could be useful in a Burning Man project, but you’d be surprised at how much valuable stuff people give away: computers, household appliances, baby items, firewood, etc. In addition, Freecycle is a great opportunity for you to get rid of that old filing cabinet or oversize suitcase taking up space in your closet. And you can feel good about keeping junk out of landfills!

Advice. I can’t imagine starting up a business, say, 30 years ago, before the Internet was so prominent in our lives. These days you can do a search and quickly find everything from legal advice to reviews of vendors to price comparisons. Businesspeople have had to find a new way to promote themselves, so they tend to give out a lot of free advice on the Internet. Whereas 20 years ago you might have paid a consultant hundreds of dollars per hour to learn how to build your company, nowadays you can find tips online. Check out PsPrint for a bounty of free articles on topics such as small-business marketing, graphic design, tips for new businesses and how to be environmentally friendly.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Online classes – I know so many people who’ve been laid off in the past couple of years. A number of those folks returned to school, stating they were going to wait out the recession as well as add to their skill sets and make themselves more marketable. And that’s great. But fees are on the rise at universities and community colleges, and it’s questionable for some people to commit to a degree program if they are seeking full-time work. That’s why online classes such as those offered by lynda.com are a great option. I know colleagues who were quickly and cheaply able to add technical proficiency in Dreamweaver and Photoshop to their resumes through online training.

Optimistic stories about print – With magazines and newspapers closing or at least laying off employees in droves, it’s been pretty easy to declare that print is a dying medium.  But I simply can’t imagine morning commuters giving up their daily newspapers. And it seems I’m not the only optimistic one. These stories are all from the past several months:

• “Printed Newspapers Still Holding Audiences”
• “Not the Last Newspaper”
• “Ultra-Niche Magazines Show Print’s Not Dead”
• “The Psychics Are Wrong: Newspapers Are Not Dead”
• “Media: Magazines Aren’t Dead Yet”
• “A Portuguese Success Story: Could ‘i’ Be the Future of Newspapers?”

Most of those articles are cautiously positive about the print industry. At least if print does die, it won’t be going down without a fight.

Freelancing cred – I’ve known plenty of people who mostly work from home and take jobs as they come. Most of those friends are hard workers who hustle to make a comfortable living. But they’ve endured a reputation that paints them as antisocials who survive on Cheetos and emerge from their hovels only to engage in live-action role playing. Now don’t get me wrong – I know those people, too. But the reality is this: In order for most freelancers to enjoy a thriving career, they must be personable enough to be retained for project after project. In this recession, a lot of creative professionals have been forced to – rather than choose to – enter the freelancing field. Because of that, freelancing websites and blogs have popped up. I check out FreelanceSwitch and FreelanceFolder practically every day for news and tips about being a freelancer. With this recession, going freelance has actually gained credibility.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.

A: You can use a peer-to-peer (P2P) software service or a bit torrent software to download and/or capture an illegal version of Photoshop. I do not advocate this, because it is ILLEGAL and punishable, and I believe that good products are worth their purchasing prices. Photoshop is one of them: When you can make anywhere from $100 to $10,000 on a single design, the $700 price tag of Photoshop CS4 really isn’t bad at all.

It’s a steal!

Of course, you can also try Photoshop free for 30 days, opt for the less expensive Photoshop Elements, or even use basic Photoshop technology free at Photoshop.com, a software-as-a-service application that I believe is the foundation for the next generation of Photoshop software.

Don’t steal it. Buy it, use it and profit from it legitimately. It’s the American way.

Q: How much should I charge for design services?

A: Whatever you’re worth. If you’re asking this question, you’re a freelancer and probably a newbie at that. You need a portfolio under your belt before you’ll be taken seriously and so your stock is low. Do some jobs on the cheap to build a portfolio (I’ve discussed picking a niche and cranking out 100 designs in 100 days before – link to this), something you can actually do incredibly fast, and your stock goes up exponentially.

Ultimately, you have to consider where you want your business to go. Many, many freelance designers make the mistake of budgeting for their time as though an employee. If you want to work your whole life as an employee and not as a business owner, you can go ahead and make this mistake as well. But if you want to own a business, then you need to base your hourly rate on things such as the costs to hire an employee, the cost to market your services, your physical and digital overhead, your insurances and, last but not least, your profit margin.

Create a professionally researched business plan to see where your money will actually go, and you’ll likely find that $20 an hour isn’t going to get you anywhere (unless you can pay your employees $5). Chances are, you’ll need to charge between $100 and $200 an hour to take your business where you want it to go.

Q: What niche should I specialize in?

A: Something you love to design, something you can sell, something you can profit from as a business. If you can’t define a clear way to do all three, you can’t specialize in it. Some say you don’t have to love what you do. That’s true if you’re an investor, but if you’ll actually be operating your business (at least until you can afford to hire a manager), then you don’t want to get bored.

Also keep in mind that selling and profiting are two different things. I can SELL logo design for $20 a pop all day long, but I can’t PROFIT from it at that rate. Now, if I can sell logo design for $1,500, I can pay someone else to do the work and still profit. I could also add that you must be able to do it well, because you can’t profit from something you don’t do well – at least, not for long. Customer satisfaction is paramount.

Q: How can I get a job with a great design firm?

A: By any means necessary. Scour job listings all you want, but being bold and aggressive will often get you much farther much faster. If you want to work for a particular agency, petition that agency with your spec designs. Network in the industry to make key connections that will put you at the front of the line for career considerations. Market yourself extensively. Perception pays now, but waiting around for opportunity to knock can take an eternity.

Do you have any stupid questions? Ask me and I’ll try to offer a legitimate answer.

©2010 PsPrint Blog. All Rights Reserved.