1. You are not supporting your local designers. By supporting this type of design you are cheapening the art, the research & the creative/intellectual process of logo design & brand identity and the experience the designer will bring to the table.

2. Your business is unique, most likely original and deserves to have a unique and personal logo/brand

3. It will end up costing you valuable time & money that I know you do not have as a start up.

4.You will not be able to give the people who need it (printers, newspapers, organizations) the proper files when needed. Therefore costing you time, effort and usually extra fees to get it right.

5. 25, 000 other companies might have downloaded the same “free” logo and this might get you into copyrighting hot water later on. The effort to get something-for-nothing turns out to be very costly because it requires a COMPLETE overhaul of your brand identity and ALL of its marketing materials when you realize that someone else has used the same image / clip art.

6. It will look very generic and will not be customized to fit the look and feel of your company culture and brand.

7. Because you wouldn’t download a free Will from an unknown source or trust a plumber to do your electrical work would you? Or even expect them to do it for free?

Give the Brand of your company a healthy start by letting a designer, design your brand it will be very worth it in the end! Hire a graphic designer who specializes in identity design. It’s worth the expense and is also a legitimate write-off on your business taxes. To see how the design process works and to understand the worth of your logo here is a post I wrote a while back .

Google has some pretty amazing tools for entrepreneurs like this one as well as Google Calendar, Google Alerts, Google Locator and Google Keywords. I use many of these tools on a daily basis to make my workflow much easier. Which ones do you use? why do you love them?
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1. I got to see some amazing presentations by some of the best in the industry.

2. I got to go with a friend & colleague who introduced me to many new people & ideas.

3. I got to meet some “friends” from social networks in person and realize that we can really be friends outside of twitter, facebook & other networks.

4. I got to network with over 900 people and not feel intimidated by names, brands or knowledge.

There was something there for everyone whether you were a newbie or an “Expert”

One of my favorite sessions was about Pie Charts. Sound Boring? nope. It wasn’t and I think it had a lot to do with the presenter Zoe Siskos. She was able to combine a deathly boring subject (to some) with a great sense of humour and a new approach to visualizing and creating pie charts. For a Graphic Designer this was especially refreshing. Never again will I design a pie chart in the shape of a pie.

There was even something there for the “mummy” in me. One of the sessions was a panel discussion with Erich Ehm about communities for women. Her website is one of my favorite mummy communities “The Yummy Mummy Club” which started from the need to vent about the very real, very difficult career of being a mom.

There is much to be said about these types of events I have never come home and said “that was a waste of time” Here is what a few local friends have said about the weekend:

Andrea Stenberg at The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur wrote a great post about making the most of going to an event like this.

Ryan Wiseman from “Take on the Web”  who was also a speaker at #pcto2010 (that’s twitter talk for PodCamp Toronto 2010) posted a video blog about the weekend here.

It truly was a fabulous weekend. Thank you to the many organizers, volunteers and speakers for making it so worth while. See you in 2011!

A QR code is like a bar code/UPC code. Using your cell phone, you can take a picture of it and it would either 1. take you to a website, 2. start dialing a phone # or 3. send you a text with the information on it. I created my QR code at this site: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ You need an app for your phone for it to be able to work.

This article better explains the technical & historical side of it

So when you see my business card next you will see this little code on it. Oh, and hey look at that… there is one on my Hydro One bill too!

Heres a sneek peek at my new business card as well:

Pre/Post show Direct Mail campaign
Includes:
Design of 3 4×6* Post Cards:
1 designed, printed & mailed, 1 week prior to show with value added coupon
1 designed, printed for show with value added coupon
1 designed, printed & mailed, 1 week post show with customer appreciation coupon
Design Rate: $499
Print Cost & Mail cost to be determined by the pieces ordered, sizes and mailing qty’s.
*larger sized post cards are available for additional rates

HomeShow Information Package:
Design 9×12” pocket folder with 1 die cut for Business cards
Design of 3, 8.5×11” Single sided sell sheets
Plus:
Design of double sided Business cards or Magnet or Sticker FREE!

Design Rate: $699
Print Cost per 1000: $1699.99 includes 1000 4/4 business cards Free!
*Magnets and Stickers are additional

Homeshow Brochure Design
8.5×11” Tri folded Brochure Design
Includes: 3 stock photographs
Design rate: $275
Print cost (per 1000): $379

Combine any 2 of these design packages and receive 15% off design rates

***Fees and rates do not include shipping & taxes.
All logos, images and copy must be provided in high resolution digital format.
Any additional graphic design fees will be billed at a rate of $60 per hour.

So to celebrate adding this service to my laundry list of offerings, I have designed some relatively generic backgrounds I am going to give away free.  I aim to do this once or twice a month.  But if you see something you like and want to have it customized just for you and your business, don’t hesitate to ask!And of course I would love to design something for you to match all of your other Branding you have in place, and if you have nothing… I can help you with that too!

Enjoy! (click image to download)

Enjoy!

http://www.keylimecreative.ca/tips/KLC_PRC_tipsheet2.pdf
http://www.keylimecreative.ca/tips/KLC_PRC_tipsheet3.pdf

The Guides will have current pricing for the most standard product size, custom design prices and tips on how to make the most of your printed piece. If you need any other pricing on different sizes send me a note and I will get it for you.

Enjoy!

On October 2nd, I attend the annual Bridges to Better Business event, hosted by the Business Enterprise Centre.  It was a great day with lots of networking, fabulous food (Catered by Green Door Cafe) and a fantastic panel.{Jeff Sziklai, BellWyck Packaging • Neale Kemp, Aspin Kemp & Associate Susan White, European Bakery Café • Brad Locking, Locking Business Furnishings • Marsha Barrow, Butchart Estate Bed & Breakfast } The theme “Renew, Review & Rejuvenate” was a really tough topic for every one to define.  It made us all think carefully about what we were doing personally and professionally to keep our heads above water. This event is always a great success, thank you Jane, Janice & Rebecca for putting on such a great day!

You can find a complete list of upcoming events in our area on the Find it Grey Bruce Website.  I will highlight some of the more Business oriented ones here and give them links with more information if I can.

October 16: Business Women’s Breakfast. The Owen Sound Chamber hosts a monthly breakfast, the third friday each month, If you are a chamber member or are thinking about becoming a member I suggest you come out and do some networking and enjoy a great breakfast. you can sign up for it onthe Owen Sound Chamber website.

October 18th: Durham Tornado Relief Fundraiser, a Grey Bruce Agriculture & Culinary Association, Field to Fork Event. Great food prepared by our very talented local chefs & producers.

October 21: Grey Bruce Tourism Conference If you have a business directly or even indirectly related to tourism you don’t want to miss this event. The Regional Tourism Marketing Partners of Grey-Bruce invite you to attend our 10th Annual Tourism Conference, “Weathering the Economy,” where we’ll tackle the burning issues of the day —  uncertain weather and a fickle economy — and entertain some fresh, new perspectives on them.

October 22: Women In Business Event, the Saugeen Economic Development Centre is hosting a one day event workshop for all the women entreprenuers in the saugeen area. We’ll be talking about Customer Service with Connie Barker, Getting Started with Social Media with yours truly! and Amanda Farrell, Community Economic Development, Bruce CFDC who will speak about traditional (radio) marketing.

October 22, 28 & Nov 5: Getting back to Basics - Bookkeeping This three part Bookkeeping Workshop will allow you to use the tools and information to understand your financial statements and your own books confidently. Hosted by the Business Enterprise Centre - Call Rebecca to register! 519-371-3232

On October 23 I will be attending the Multi-Chamber Quarterly meeting. This meeting is open to the leaders, executive and managers of any Chamber of Commerce Group in the Bruce and Grey area. From this meeting we all bring back events and happenings from the other chambers to our respective groups. This meeting is held quarterly. I thought you should know about it since if you are a chamber member it effects you and lets you know that we are working on bringing you the most current information out there.

October 24: Go Green in Saugeen! Community Foundation Grey Bruce presents the 2009 Environmental Forum – Go Green at Saugeen – to bring together interested parties to address environmental challenges and issues in our area.  Go Green at Saugeen Environmental Forum provides an opportunity for environmentally aware organizations to highlight their products and services. Approximately 200 people are expected to attend and the trade show booths are limited to just 20 participants.

October 28: The Hanover Chamber of Commerce has partnered with Blackburn Radio to present Jim Letwin,  as a speaker on October 28th. Life’s A Pitch: Growing Your Business through Effective Marketing We all know that profitable business growth is the key to success. But how do we make it happen? Jim Letwin, president and co-owner of Burlington-based JAN Kelley Marketing, will be delivering a high-energy and informative presentation designed to help your business grow. Based on his more than 20 years of marketing experience as an independent business owner as well as his role as an award-winning instructor within McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, Mr. Letwin will be sharing practical concepts and ideas that you can quickly and easily implement.

November 21: Home Shopping Party Day! To end off all that busy networking you will be doing, why don’t you treat yourself at Paisley’s First Annual Home Shopping Day - with over 15 vendors from your favorite Home Party companies attending (it’s closer to 20 right now!) It the perfect place to pick up stocking stuffers and gifts for everyone in your family! A complete list of vendors is on our Facebook event page.

Well it will be a busy couple of weeks but I can’t wait to get out there and network! What events are going on in your community for Small business month?