The Learning Center

Some entrepreneurs claim to be naturally creative, while others avoid the concept of creativity altogether. Whether you enjoy the creative lifestyle or run far, far away from it, you will need to face it head on in order to create a brand, logo and marketing materials for your business. 

As a business owner, you have two options:

Become the creative or the client.

Unfortunately, you will make mistakes, no matter which option you choose. Sorry, it’s true. But the beauty of mistakes are that we can learn from them. Or you can read the rest of the blog post and completely avoid them – your choice.

Unless you have professional experience in a creative field, you’ll make mistakes during the creative process. 

Creating On Your Own

So you’ve decided to go about creating your marketing materials on your own. Good luck, you may need it.

Entrepreneurs venturing out into the creative unknown tend to encounter a process filled with frustration, mistakes and poor results.

Creating Based on Personal Preference

Here’s the deal:

You are not trained in a creative field.

By attempting to take care of the design, writing or other creative field process yourself, you will make mistakes. It’s inevitable.

The most common mistake you will make is creating based on your personal preference instead of what your audience desires.

Imagine you are creating a logo for your business, and perhaps your favorite color is yellow. Naturally, you decide to use the color yellow in your font. Ask yourself, will your target audience connect with this color?

Throughout the entire creative process, keep the preferences of your target audience in mind and you’ll experience great success. 

Incorrect Tactics

Since the Internet is full of information and how-to guides, anyone could technically become a . 

However, reading a “How-To Use Photoshop” guide does not make you an expert.

Being a creative professional requires the perfect combination of natural talent, years of training, and an unparalleled passion for the field. Unless you’ve been suppressing your creative talent for all these years, you will end up using incorrect concepts and other improper tactics to complete your project.

Ultimately, you may remain unsatisfied with the end result due to the lack of natural talent.

Frustration Overload

As a business owner, you do a lot. And by a lot, I mean everything and anything related to keeping your business afloat. 

With that in mind, why would you add the stress of creating marketing materials (and other content) for your business? In the online marketing world, creating the content is only step one. Next comes distribution, tracking and so much more. 

Can you handle that on top of everything else? Frustration usually leads to mistakes during the creative process, and who wants to deal with that?

Tackling the creative process on your own is possible, but can you afford to make mistakes and deal with the learning curve?

Hiring a Professional 

Should you decide to hire a professional, don’t believe you are off the hook. You now play the role of “the client”.  Believe me, clients can make a lot of mistakes too. 

Fighting the Creative

Congratulations on finding a professional to take care of your marketing needs! Now, let them do their job.

I understand that you have quotas to meet, budgetary constraints, and a million other things on your plate. But, taking complete control of the creative process will only end badly in the long run and defeats the purpose of hiring the creative professional.

Creatives need to be creative. It’s as simple as that. 

Of course, you can provide guidelines, your ideas, and any project criteria that must be adhered to. But, do not try to take over the process by telling them how to do their job. Have they told you how to run your business? Probably not. 

Providing Awful Feedback

“Can you make it, oh I don’t know, stand out a little more?” In what way would you like your design to stand out? Size? Color?

“I don’t like this sentence, or this section. Please change it?” Well, what would you like me to change it to?

“Can you make it look like ABC Company’s logo?” That defeats the purpose of creating an original logo exclusive to your business, but sure?

One of the hardest parts about being a creative is receiving feedback. As creatives, we’ve all grown thick skin, but I’m not talking about negative feedback. I’m talking about vague, unrelated, and un-constructive feedback.

If you do not provide your creative professional with specific feedback and details, you are extending the process of coming to a final result or creative design. 

Creatives are not mind readers. Although, it would admittedly make our lives a million times easier if we were. The most specific feedback is the best feedback. Unfortunately, we will not know why “the design just doesn’t jive with you”.

Whether you choose to be the creative or the client, you will make mistakes. What you can control is how you react to those mistakes.

As an entrepreneur, you’ve experienced your fair share of mistakes. Instead of becoming frustrated with yourself or the creative, keep a positive attitude and keep trying.

Should you choose to enlist the services of a professional creative, contact Titan Web Marketing Solutions today. Our team of designers, developers, writers, and social media professionals can assist with all your creative needs.