Professional graphic designer or DIY? What a conundrum!

When your car breaks down, do you pop the hood yourself or send it to a mechanic? If you feel sick, do you only Google your symptoms or go to the doctor? When your dishwasher breaks down, do you rip it apart yourself to find the problem? Probably not, right? Then why do you try to do professional graphic design projects yourself if this isn’t your area of expertise? Oh, we know why… Because you are, first and foremost, an entrepreneur, a small business owner. And we, as small business owners, LOVE to wear all the hats – even if it’s so that we can save a little money!

But the main problem with being your own graphic design department is that it takes you a long time to finish those projects. Plus, it doesn’t look as professional as hiring a pro.

As one marketer put it:

“Graphic design….You could try to do it yourself. Design a “logo” for your business or organization. Throw together a “website.” The only problem is, everyone who sees your handy work will admire your do-it-yourself attitude but look upon your ugly-duckling logo with underwhelmed confusion. Your “free” logo will look like… well, a free logo.”

You don’t want your brand remembered for its DIY spirit. You want your brand recognized for creativity, excellence, and professionalism!

Hiring a professional graphic designer can get you there.

Daily, we talk with a prospective client or someone at a networking event who is still deciding to work with a professional graphic designer.

We offer them these X reasons why it will be one of the most intelligent business decisions they’ll ever make:

Saves You Time

As an entrepreneur, what is your time worth?

You have a lot on your plate. This means you may be putting off a new marketing piece, even if it is something you need. Hiring a designer can have a project completed in a fraction of the time it would take for you to do it yourself.

Saves You Money

Yes, of course, a great professional graphic designer can cost you some money upfront, but working with a professional saves you money in the long run.

When a business doesn’t take its marketing and branding seriously, it will more than likely go through at least one design overhaul — if not more. However, good design has longevity.

By paying for great design, you are saving yourself from repeatedly paying for subpar design.

Another factor is that a professional graphic designer will know the most cost-effective ways to design your materials. They will likely have suggestions to help keep your printing costs to a minimum.

Helps You Make A Great First Impression

You know you only get one chance. Whether it’s your small business’s website, your email signature, a direct mail advertisement, your business card, or even a social media post, viewers are going to judge a business in seconds based on its appearance alone.

Professional, high-quality graphic design will give your business credibility – and that’s priceless. You could indeed have the most outstanding product or service out there, but if it’s presented with a bad design, many people aren’t going to stick around long enough to find that out for themselves.

Makes Your Business’s Image Consistent & Memorable

High-quality professional graphic design work provides a uniform look and feel across every customer-facing aspect of your business. This applies to everything: your logo, social media, business cards, website, direct mail pieces.

A great graphic designer knows which fonts to use, how to leverage your color palette, and what “mood” should be in the images and supporting graphics on every piece.

Through this consistency across all of your marketing, you will appear more professional, trustworthy, and — most importantly — memorable.

Professional Graphic Designers Understand “Brand”