Although most entrepreneurs are too busy establishing their business to spend time on marketing, there is one essential step that must be taken before you do anything else. Your company needs a logo. Once your company has a name, it needs an identity, and that’s where your logo comes in. A logo serves the following vital purposes:

• It helps people identify and remember your company.
• It conveys professionalism.
• It gives your business a personality.
• It helps build trust.

In other words, a logo can save you time and money by giving you a head start in marketing your business. The opposite is also true: having multiple logos or no logo at all requires you to spend more money promoting, in effect, several different companies. Therefore, it’s absolutely essential to create and use a single logo that will identify your company on all your equipment, documents and marketing materials.

When designing a logo, or hiring a graphics professional to do so, it helps to keep the following guidelines in mind:

• Your logo should be simple so it’s easier to print and understand.
• The colors should be solid and should contrast well.
• The logo should be created digitally so it can be resized for use on anything from a business card to a billboard.
• It should not be excessively large, small, wide or tall.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that your logo will become the centerpiece of your identity. Once your logo is finalized, you can then turn your attention to other pieces of the marketing puzzle, such as brochures, signs, your web site, and design standards for documents and other visual communications.