| For a very long time, most companies have hired design agencies or freelance designers in order to source custom designs for their business. While it works well for multinationals such as Facebook, Microsoft and Apple that have exorbitant budgets, it proves to be a rather costly proposition for small businesses and startups as they mostly lack resources and bank balance to settle the bills of design agencies or freelance designers.But does that mean startups and small businesses don’t deserve to professional and creative logos, business cards, websites etc. for their entity? Do they necessarily dig a hole in their pockets for a professional identity? Of course not!If you’re at the helm of a startup in need of everything from a logo to a business cards, simply turn your attention to crowdsourcing design sites such as Designhill and launch a design contest. No matter how much people despise of crowdsourcing contests, it still rules the roost, especially for small businesses and startups with limited funds and resources.
Crowdsourcing design contests allow you to procure designs that share your passion, drive, and vision for your startup without spending an arm and a leg. But it’s not just that you get to save some fortune and a lot of hassle, there are numerous other benefits of holding a design contest. Let’s explore 5 of the most significant reasons why crowdsourcing design contests make for a great proposition for startups and small businesses. 1. Tap Creative Extremes: Inc.com reveals that most design agencies are in fact marketing agencies with a heavy focus on visual media. Resultantly, when you work with such agencies, you end up getting graphic designs out of complacency. This is because design agencies are not faced with any competition when working for a client. On the contrary, crowdsourcing contests thrive on competition and ingenuity. Competition gives birth to ingenuity. So, when you launch a crowdsourcing design contest, hundreds of designers compete against each other and come up with different unique concepts to win the competition making it easy for you to tap the creative extremes and get unique and superior quality designs for your startup or small business. 2. Get Much More than What You Pay for: Let’s face it; graphic design firms remain the first choice for most multinationals and large corporations. Quite expectedly, design agencies often treat multinationals and large corporations with huge budgets as premium clients and offer them better service as against startups and small businesses. After all, you’re just another low-budget client in their long roster of clients. Resultantly, most startups end up getting ‘just what they pay for’. But with crowdsourcing design contests, listed designers treat every design project as an opportunity to earn prize money and in a bid to outshine their competition; they come up with dozens of unique and professional concepts. Therefore, with crowdsourcing design contests, you get ‘much more than what you pay for’. 3. Get Innumerable Choices: Chances are that you may a design agency that would agree to work on your budget, but you would not get more than 3-5 design options to choose from limiting your choices. With limited concepts, at times, you’ll find the ideas stalled and will have no option but to compromise on your business identity. But, for crowdsourcing design contests, diversity is the name of the game. Startups can get many design ideas, inspirations and styles. With an average of 100+ design options to choose from, you’ll be able to find more than just a few concepts to match your project needs. 4. Get Affordable Designs: Forbes reveals in one of its articles that for most startups and small businesses, the real challenge remains getting things done in a nickel-and-dime. Well, with the price of graphic design services sky-rocketing these days, it becomes almost impossible for startups tobuild a brand around users with graphic elements that they can relate to and connect with. This is where crowdsourcing design contests help startups and small businesses reach beyond boundaries and get quality custom designs without burning a deep hole in their pockets. But affordable price doesn’t mean that you need to compromise on quality. So with crowdsourcing design contests, you get the finest of fine graphic designs for the price that you’ll set for your design contest. 5. Save Money & Time: Quick sprout mentions in one its insider stories that establishing a startup takes an awful lot: a lot of effort, time and money! Working with a design agency usually takes up a lot of time due to the long list of people involved in the entire process. And due to the involvement of many people, it takes a seemingly long time, a lot of energy and quite a fortune to meet people, exchange emails, arrange teleconference and personally visit the agency. However, crowdsourcing design contest doesn’t require you to spend too much time, money and resources. And all you need to do is just fill in the design brief, name a price and relax while the ideas start to pour in from graphic artists, logo designers, illustrators and an entire community of graphic artists from across the globe, ready and willing to work for you under the tightest of deadlines. It saves you money, time and efforts that you would otherwise incur on transportation, teleconference and physical visit when working with a design firms. So, Go For Crowdsourcing Contests And Give Wings to Your Startup: So, if you have a big graphic design project on your plate, launch a crowdsourcing design contests and explore the endless possibilities of getting affordable logos, business cards or web designs to establish your brand identity, garner media mileage and build a loyal customer base. |
From Talk to Walk
These days people make a lot of empty promises. Talk is cheap when you can’t back it up with action. Committing to do something means overriding your emotions and finishing what you started. It’s hard work…and most people bail out early.
So what about you? Are you commitment-phobic? There’s a cost for everything you do or don’t do. For example if you’re struggling with work life balance, it’s not going to go away by avoiding it. You either commit to resolving it or years pass by feeling guilty for not addressing it.
That’s why I want to help you with this 8-week online bootcamp where you’ll join others in the same boat. Don’t put it off…commit and you’ll reap the benefits!
Are You Living Passionately?
Follow your passion. It’s cliché right? It’s not just following what you love that’s important, but actively experiencing it is what matters.
That statement illicits the idea that we should quit our jobs and pursue something we love. Not necessarily true. But in your personal life, what are you pursuing that is a life long love? What’s something that you’ve always loved doing and will never get tired of? A hobby is an interest you have, but a passion is something you can’t live without.
If you’re experiencing a work-life crisis maybe it’s because your professional life has eaten away at your personal life. If that’s the case, you have to take steps to get it back. In this 8 week course you’ll learn how to live passionately again because without passion, life is nothing.
Who’s in Charge Of Your Time?
You control your time or your time controls you. A lot of people run around like a chicken with his head cut off because achieving can be intoxicating. There’s nothing wrong with accomplishing goals, but at what expense?
If you work for a company, your schedule controls your time. If you own a business, your time is controlled by what you have to do. But what about a compromise between the two?
Time management is all about having priorities, setting boundaries and reevaluating the process. You can’t control everything, but you can choose to eliminate some “lesser” things in your schedule for more important ones. During this 8 week course I’ll show you how to manage your time better because it’s the currency that matters most.
The Tangible Benefits of Rest
We live in such a busy world that “resting” can be considered a waste of time. But if you look at the example of an athlete, there’s 3 parts that make him/her successful: training, performing and resting.
Resting? Yup. Training and performing takes a toll on you physically, emotionally and mentally, so rest is crucial for repair, recovery and rejuvenation. Take for instance a sprinter. The amount of training and rest they do far outweighs the actual performance time. That’s because if you’re too tired to perform, you can’t do it at a high level.
9 hours of sleep per night is what’s recommended, but also 10-15 minute breaks for every 90-120 minutes worked is needed throughout the day. A lot of us pride ourselves on our ability to multi-task, but that’s actually more myth than skill set. The brain is only set up to accomplish one thing at a time. Therefore an overworked brain equals more mistakes. During this 8 week course we’ll brainstorm ways to help put “rest” back into your life…for good.
Where Did All the Free Time Go?
Time is money, but just because you have money it doesn’t mean you have the time to spend it. After college, most people dive into their careers and attempt to climb the corporate ladder. At the top, one realization is made…
“It’s not all I thought it was cracked up to be.” The equation we are taught at an early age is: go to school, get a good job and you’ll make enough money to buy what you want.” First of all, it’s not a linear process and second, what good is being “rich” if you don’t have any free time to enjoy it?
No matter how much money you earn, everyone has to make a concerted effort to carve out time to spend doing the things you love. That may involve buying stuff and/or spending time with people you love. Either way, without free time you’re out of luck. That’s why I created this 8 week course, to help you figure out how to make free time a priority again. You career may have given you an identity, but it doesn’t have to define you.
Remember Recess?
Remember when you were in elementary school and the joy it brought when the bell rang to dismiss you to recess? That’s a similar feeling to when we can go home from work now.
But when did that change? Did learning take precedence over fun? Is taking breaks just mandatory now? Did we just grow up? The answer to all 3 questions is yes, but the concept of recess is still missed. Did you know you can only work for 90 – 120 minutes before the quality of your work decreases dramatically?
I doubt your boss will let you take breaks that often, so it’s up to you to make sure “recess” is still taken during your day. Work can consume us to the point where we become lifeless robots carrying out a task, but it doesn’t need to be like that. During this 8-week course, we’ll discuss ways to put recess back in your life…just because you’ve grown up, it doesn’t mean the fun has to be sucked out of your life!
Whose Dream Are You Chasing?
You have two choices in life: work towards your dream or help build someone else’s. It’s that simple.
This doesn’t mean you need to quit your job and start a business (unless you want to). It just means take a break from the daily grind and take a look at the bigger picture. How are you spending your time? What are your daily habits? What’s your ultimate goal?
The bigger your dream, the more time it will take to come to fruition. There’s no better time to start working towards your dream than today. Fortunately for you, I’m hosting a 8 week online course on work life balance and I’ll help you carve out more time to spend chasing your dreams!
What’s the Point?
You can have lots of money, but if you don’t have the time to spend it on/or with the ones you love, what’s the point?
In this case the “chase” may be better than the catch. You and I are geared towards achievement, it’s one of our 3 main motivators (autonomy and purpose are the other two), but maybe the most fleeting. What does more money represent? What will you do once you get there? Will you be satisfied?
Maybe the deeper question is, “What is it you’re really after?” I can’t speak for you, but for me it’s to spend time with my wife, daughter and son on the way. Money is a means to an end, not an end in itself. I gladly sacrifice money for more time spent with those I love. Maybe you’ve never thought of time/money that way. If this concept resonates with you, join me during this 8-week course and I’ll help you devise a plan to maximize your work life balance!
Are You Really Rich?
Time, not money, has become the most valuable currency. As professionals we spend a third of our waking hours at work. There’s nothing wrong with being career driven, but if you don’t value personal time at an early age, once you starting thinking about dating, marriage or starting a family it may be too late.
Think about it. You don’t look back on your life and say, “I wish I had more money.” You wish you had more time to spend it with your loved ones. That’s why time management is so important. You work hard, so you can play hard. Freedom and flexibility of schedule is what matters. Aim to be “rich in time” and through this 8-week online course I’ll help you do that!
