What if designing your brand's logo and website was as easy as playing with kids' crayons? Brace yourself as I, Erin Olson, take you on a creative journey in this episode of the Quality of Life podcast. I reveal the secrets of crafting a unique logo that sets you apart from the crowd. You'll learn the 10 key considerations to create a logo that's not only visually appealing, but also resonates with your brand's identity and appeals to your target audience.
In the second half of the show, we move beyond just logos and venture into the world of website creation. Wave goodbye to your coding worries as I present simple, cost-effective options to get your website up and running in no time. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or someone just starting their business journey, this episode is packed with invaluable insights into branding. Tune in and discover how to leverage these tools to carve out a unique identity for your brand in the industry.
This week's homework: Start designing your logo, either with a graphic designer or the online tools I gave you. Secure your website and at least create a "Coming Soon" page and hit "Publish!"
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast, and share it with someone who could benefit from what you heard. Also, head over to https://theerinolson.com/links and sign up for the email list, and you can get all the downloadable PDFs and tools! News: We finally have a YouTube channel! Visit us HERE: https://youtube.com/@theerinolson?si=xPNSU1-C7Yt9zXgD
What if designing your brand's logo and website was as easy as playing with kids' crayons? Brace yourself as I, Erin Olson, take you on a creative journey in this episode of the Quality of Life podcast. I reveal the secrets of crafting a unique logo that sets you apart from the crowd. You'll learn the 10 key considerations to create a logo that's not only visually appealing, but also resonates with your brand's identity and appeals to your target audience.
In the second half of the show, we move beyond just logos and venture into the world of website creation. Wave goodbye to your coding worries as I present simple, cost-effective options to get your website up and running in no time. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or someone just starting their business journey, this episode is packed with invaluable insights into branding. Tune in and discover how to leverage these tools to carve out a unique identity for your brand in the industry.
This week's homework: Start designing your logo, either with a graphic designer or the online tools I gave you. Secure your website and at least create a "Coming Soon" page and hit "Publish!"
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast, and share it with someone who could benefit from what you heard. Also, head over to https://theerinolson.com/links and sign up for the email list, and you can get all the downloadable PDFs and tools! News: We finally have a YouTube channel! Visit us HERE: https://youtube.com/@theerinolson?si=xPNSU1-C7Yt9zXgD
See ya next week! Erin
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Quality of Life podcast. My name is Erin Olson and I am a businesswoman and mother who has been studying personal growth for over 15 years. I've tried almost all of the habits and hacks out there. My goal is to use my real life experience to show you which tricks and habits make the biggest changes to your quality of life with the least amount of time and energy on your part. We will cover everything from habits to hacks, fitness to family and everything in between. Now let's dive on into today's topic. Hi guys, erin Olson here, the host of the Quality of Life podcast. Thanks for sticking with me after a very legal episode last week where we learned all about the legal structure of your business and sales tax and filing where necessary. I hope you did the homework and determined the best structure for you and got your filings done, and if so, I just want to congratulate you on becoming a real business owner. This is big stuff.
Speaker 1:
Now that we got all of that legal mumbo jumbo out of the way, let's move on to the next step, which is WayFunner, your logo and your website. I lump these two together because this is where you get to tap into your creative side again and really decide the tone or voice of your business. Without a logo, you are just a bunch of letters and that doesn't make you stand out from the crowd. And when you start to create your first website, which I'm going to work you through today, you will have a great place to show that logo off. Not only that, but an eye-appealing logo can be used across all of your platforms and business cards and advertisements, creating a recognizable brand. Now don't let me get you worried about how to create your own website and how to create your logo scary off. It's way easier than you think and actually it's quite fun.
Speaker 1:
So let's talk about your logo. You want something that sets you apart, draws attention to you and helps people to recognize you. Your logo is basically the brand you put on everything in your business. Just like a cattle rancher brands as cattle, you are branding your part of your industry and making it known what products and services belong to you. Your logo says a lot about you as a business owner and about your business. It can give off a serious vibe or a fun one. It can evoke certain feelings and thoughts, and a logo is nothing to just guess at, and that is why there are people who do logo design for a living. I have used both great graphic designers and have used online services to create logos for me. Both can work.
Speaker 1:
But let's go through the 10 keys to consider when making a logo. First, consider your brand. Your personality, values and the message that you want to convey. Your logo should align with your brand identity. Second, know your audience. Remember that target customer that we talked about in part two of this series all about the business plan. Well, your perfect customer is drawn to a certain theme or color or font, so make sure you think about that when choosing a logo. If you haven't listened to it yet, I will link it in the show notes.
Speaker 1:
Third, keep it simple. I know it's tempting to put lots of elements into a logo to show off all that you do, but you want a clean, simple logo. Trust me, it makes it easier for people to remember and identify your brand. Fourth, versatility. You need your logo to look good in all types of mediums and sizes, from the teeniest, tiniest favicon in the browser of your website all the way up to the large logo on a banner or billboard. Not only that, but consider embroidering it on something or creating business cards and t-shirts. You also want it to be adaptable to different colors black and white and used with different backgrounds.
Speaker 1:
Fifth, color and fonts play a huge role in conveying your personality. Certain colors can give different feelings. For example, blue can give off a trustworthy or regal vibe, and green is usually associated with businesses that are environmentally conscious. Orange and yellow give off happy, optimistic feelings, and while purple, black and red give off a more luxurious feel. There is actually a lot to this, so give it a good Google search before you commit to a color. There are almost 3 million fonts and sizes to choose from. All have their merit in place, from something very scrolly or handwritten to a bold western theme. They are almost the most important part. The key is that it is legible in teeny, tiny sizes all the way up to extra large. Too many people use fonts that are hard to read and, while that may be perfect for a wedding invitation or on a beer stein, it's not a good idea for your logo.
Speaker 1:
Sixth, make sure it is somewhat relevant to your industry. If you are a lawyer, usually they are using a very professional font. If you're a date, care, maybe some crayons or a chalk type font, but at the same time, maybe you are very different from the current market and want to breed that into your logo design as well. Seventh, make it original, memorable and unique. Think of logos like the Nike Swoosh or the McDonald's Golden Arches or Coca-Cola. We recognize them all by their logo, and that is a type of brand recognition that we are aspiring to. Eighth, make sure that it is legal. By that I mean you aren't infringing on an existing logo. A simple Google search is probably good enough, but try to steer clear of looking like someone else's logo. It's just not good business.
Speaker 1:
Ninth, get feedback. Ask your friends, your customers and your coworkers. Make all feedback with a grain of salt, but if you hear repeating comments, look at them from a very constructive point of view. And tenth, number 10 is just my opinion, but a logo that is your business name in a cool font with a symbol is a great thing to strive for. Then, as you gain traction and get bigger, your symbol can be used as an identifier. Think ball caps. You can put the symbol, and not the whole name, on the front, making it something that people can recognize, and it might be cheaper too. Okay.
Speaker 1:
So, now that we've covered some of the things to think about how do we actually get that logo to a file that we can use? Well, there are a few different ways to get there. First, if you have the funds, I would highly suggest finding a graphic designer who specializes in branding, not just creating logos. This can run anywhere from a few hundred bucks up to five thousand or more, but what you get out of this is so valuable. You will get all of the file types that you need, from JPEG, png, vector, svg and Favocons to Zoom backgrounds and letterhead. They can also help you to make sure that your brand is consistent by giving you a brand kit so your colors, fonts and everything match across all of your platforms and advertising. By the way, a Favocon is that teeny, tiny little logo that you see in the search bar on the web that belongs to each individual website. If you aren't in a position to spring for a real graphic designer, no worries, I got you.
Speaker 1:
There are two options that can work. First, fiverrcom has lots of graphic designers that can create a logo for you for as little as five bucks. You can work with a graphic designer or use their logo maker and create your own. Find an example of work that you like and pick the creator. Then you just work with them to get what you need. You might not get an opinion of what might work better, or any opinion, but at least it's a starting point. Make sure you get all of the files that you can and save all the edits. Second, if you want to do it yourself, canva is a great option, and I believe they have a logo maker as well. Canva has so many great resources to create all of your digital media that you should probably at least sign up for their free account and check them out. I will link both options in the show notes as well.
Speaker 1:
Okay, now that you have a logo created, or will very soon, let's talk about creating a website. I know it sounds so scary and complicated, but there are so many inexpensive options out there that I want to put all of your anxiety at ease. It's not about coding or anything like that. Now there are so many platforms that make it super easy to drag and drop and create a usable website in a matter of minutes. Really, do you really need a website? Heck, yeah, you do. A Facebook page is great, but let's be honest what's the first thing you do when deciding to use a company or go to a restaurant, I mean other than look for reviews from the Karen's of the world. You Google them and, yes, youtube and social media posts are coming up in searches now. But if you have a clean, informative website, you will instantly have some major street cred. So now that you are a real company, it's time to start acting like it and, honestly, it's not that expensive. So a few questions for you Are you planning to sell products or book clients online? Are you a service that will only use a website to drive people to your phone? These two questions will determine where you should host your website.
Speaker 1:
So I have a friend who did a great video to talk about building a website using WordPress in under an hour. Her name is Jess and she has an awesome company called Lead Nerds. They demystify all kinds of techy stuff. I will link her YouTube video in the show notes. She is a great resource If you are looking for a place to just have your business information without a shopping cart. You can build your own website on sites like Godaddycom or Wix for under a couple hundred bucks, and most websites give you a certain amount of free features and pages if you registered your domain name with them. If you are planning to sell products on your website, I'd like to point you to Shopifycom or Squarespacecom.
Speaker 1:
All of these companies have made it super easy to pick from an existing template. Then you drag and drop sections and info and then upload your photos and your logo directly. It is really that simple. Let's not over complicate it. I know there will be more steps to do to take payments, and I'm gonna make a podcast all about pricing and payment soon. But here is the key to designing your website. You are going to be tempted to tell everything about your company and why you're better on your homepage, but with most of these platforms, you can have up to a hundred pages on your website before you have to upgrade. So use them. Make your main homepage very simple and clean. There's a great book by Donald Miller called Storybrand where he talks all about how simple the website needs to be for people to spend any time on it and then become your customer. I listened to a great podcast a few years ago with Entry Leadership and Donald Miller and I'm going to link those episodes below. They are definitely worth a listen.
Speaker 1:
The bottom line is to make it non cluttered, and the templates. Each platform offers help, support, a clean, simple website. I can remember when we first started my last business's website, I found a hosting platform called Fat Cow. It made managing my own website super busy. It was crude and not the best layout, but hey, that was 2009 and I was able to grow and move it to bigger and better platforms as I could afford to.
Speaker 1:
There are so many options out there and they're all pretty decent, but don't let the worry about it not being good enough stop you from doing it. Even a coming soon page can make a world of a difference and give you some clout with your soon to be customers. I know in this world it is easy to get a Facebook or Instagram page and many think it's enough, but if something happens and they change their algorithm or policies, you may be erased from their servers or even hacked. So I want to make sure that you keep track of your customers and how they visit you. So don't delay on this. It's too easy to not do All right now for this week's homework, start designing your logo, either with a graphic designer or oneonfiverrcom or canvacom, and secure your website and at least create a coming soon page and hit publish.
Speaker 1:
This might take you a little back and forth to get your logo finalized. So if it takes a little bit longer than a week, don't worry, just start. The rest is coming along. I don't know if you have heard a reoccurring theme to all of my podcast episodes, but it is there. Just start.
Speaker 1:
We all tend to make things seem way harder than they really would be if we just got busy. So quit thinking and researching and waiting until you're ready. You will never be ready. The one thing that I know about business is that if you wait too long, putting off the work, god is going to give that idea to someone else. That doesn't mean you still can't bring it to life, but it might be a little harder. So start now.
Speaker 1:
Well, guys, that's what I have for you today. I hope that this helped you get motivated to get your logo and website figured out. If you have any questions or comments, just shoot me a message via DM or email me at infoatthearenolsoncom. I want you to share your progress with me. Take the Quality of Life podcast in your social media so that I can cheer you on. Next week we are going to tackle another, not so scary step to creating the business the elevator pitch. Please share this episode with anybody that you think could use some help creating that business of their dreams, and I will see you next week on the Quality of Life podcast. See ya, thanks for listening to today's episode. Be sure to check us out on the Quality of Life podcast Facebook and Instagram pages and our website, theaaronolsoncom, for downloads and more information. That is T-H-E-E-R-I-N-O-L-S-O-Ncom. Stay up to date by joining our email newsletter. Together, we can improve all of our quality of life. Good LUCK.