As a graphics designer, I spend most of my time interacting with new people most of who are starting new businesses. There are several Key things that can make or break your business as it kicks off. To my surprise, most clients haven’t done or even know they should do certain things to ensure business starts off well
Competitors Research
This is one of the first things if not the first thing one should do if you are thinking of starting a business, no matter how small or big a start you have in mind. For example if you are thinking of starting a restaurant. You should check out other restaurants, it doesn’t matter if they are your immediate competitors or far from your vicinity. Check as many as you can out but make sure you cover both in your research. Look at things like location, exterior and interior setting, schedule, how big a workforce in relation to how big the restaurant is, these are just the basic, then you go into more in-depth details find out what makes each restaurant unique, start conversations and make friends with some of the owners and workers. Find out about rush-hours; find out why those times are rush-hours, perhaps people just closed from work or school. Talk with customers or even random people on the street; ask them to direct you to a good restaurant where you can eat. When they do, ask why they prefer that one, they would tell you. With these answers you can start building your restaurant in your mind already. Assuming you have already secured a place, you would already have an idea about the changes you have to make, maybe clearing and covering a gutter, your menu, the things you would emulate from other restaurants, the things you would do differently that would make you stand out.


Online Research
It doesn’t matter the business, every business should have an online presence in this age. Check your competitors. Do they have a website, Facebook page, are they on other social media. Find out what they talk about, I think I’d write an article on accurately using social media and link it here later. The online research is a crucial stage. At this point you should have been thinking of names for your business. Write down as many as you can and check if social media handles are not in use as well as if the domain names are available, list the ones that pass, that is what you will take to the CAC (Nigeria) or Company registration body in your country . Check for availability and begin your registration process. It would be a good Idea to buy the (website) Domain name once the registration has begun, depending on how long it usually takes and also create your social media pages too to avoid others coming in possession of it.

Initial Branding
I say initial branding because it’s a never ending process; it is the taking control of how the public perceive your business. This means branding involves interactions between business and customers, Interactions can be physical, visual, written, auditory etc. As a new company the most important branding would be the initial visual branding, and then you can move to the others.
The Initial Visual Branding Involves your logo mark, this is the face of your company, and the most important aspect of your company identity. Logos should be made with the target customers in mind. The logo for a toy store would be different for a clothing label, even within clothing labels, one targeting male buyers may differ from one targeting female buyers. Having an Idea of who your product is for is very important. Your entire business should revolve around that single information. After the logo design, business cards are next, then flyers, online ad designs, letterheads, invoice design, envelopes, folders and as far as you want to go. The branding continues with your social media posts, talk about topics your target audience would be interested in, your customer service and entire experience are also part essential parts of branding.

Below are pictures of a design I finished recently, After you’re done with the logo all, depending on your kind of business and the path you want to follow, you may need to create visual appealing mockup images of your product, displaying it in good light, this is usually done to show potential investors during presentations or for you and/or your team to see how your product would look like when manufactured. That’s exactly what was done here.

Thanks for reading; I wish you the best in your business and endeavors

You can contact me via
Whatsapp: 07018880219(Joseph) or
Email: kilojodesigns@outlook.com
If you have any question or wish to network.