One of the big challenges in starting a small business is working out where your work will come from. Without some serious investment in lead generation and visibility a degree of cunning is required. I recently met up with Heather Lee from The Little Design Lab in Hawke’s Bay, who faces similar challenges. The Little Design Lab works with businesses on design, with an additional focus on design for print, in order to create stunning branding for clients that translates effortlessly to print media.

We talked at length over an excellent coffee at the Village Green café about these issues. We both identified target markets as being a mix of local work and clients from further afield, given that both our businesses can offer attractions to either set of clients – local work is a great benefit in terms of economic community, while our location can benefit distant clients due to time zone and currency differentials.

One thought Heather had for local businesses was setting up a short workshop to promote the use of design and content professionals (that’s us!) to create a natural brand identity and story that can instantly tell people what a business is and does, while showcasing it in a unique way.

We’ve all seen business cards that come from online stores, created using a template and just a little thought and time. They are created using the cost-only approach to brand marketing – don’t spend more than you absolutely have to – and often it shows in fuzzy mismatched colours, poor use of imagery, and erratic changes in fonts. This approach to brand also translates badly to print, such as letterhead which is often an afterthought, and web; a DIY approach to a website can be a disaster, with slow-to-load pages, mixed messages, and poor layout leading to poor conversion from reader to customer.

So one thing that we’ll both be working on in the near future is putting together a morning workshop (or an afternoon one, we haven’t decided yet!) for small businesses to review their branding and copy, and learn a little more from us about how to get things right to send a consistent message to clients and prospects. Keep an eye out for more details on this. After all, first impressions count.