Is Your Logo Holding You Back?

The way your business is perceived is a major factor in how successful you will be. And your visual identity is a major part of how your business is perceived. As someone who owns a small business myself, I can understand the attachment you might feel to your logo, especially if it was the first logo created for your business. However, in order to grow we sometimes have to let things go. Your logo might be holding you back if you’re relying on it for too many things, it doesn’t look like it was professionally designed, or if you’ve been using it for a long time.

OVERUSING YOUR LOGO

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One big mistake I see small business owners make is overusing their logo. While you should use your logo often, you should not use it in a way that makes the logo the sole focus of all of your branded materials. Normally when this happens it's because the business is lacking a full brand identity with things like fonts, colors, illustrations, patterns, etc. so in order to stay on brand they use the one thing they do have: their logo. This overuse is made even worse when a business only has one logo. Most businesses really need at least three logos in order to have logos that work well for all of their use cases.

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If this is you, your logo isn't the only thing holding you back. Not having a clear brand identity (and guidelines you can follow to stick to that brand identity) is the major roadblock. A brand identity allows you to have varied designs on your packaging, social media, website, etc. with all of those designs fitting into the greater visual identity of your brand. More variety is more interesting and will look ten times more professional than just having a logo stamped on all of your materials.

SHOWING IT'S AGE

Ok, I actually think aging is a really beautiful thing and that it's pretty magical when we as humans get to show our age. But I don't feel the same way about logos, and you shouldn't either. You might feel attached to your logo because you’ve had it for a long time and it's been with you as your business has grown. But chances are if you’ve had it for a long time, it’s dated and doesn’t represent your business as it is now.

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Your branding, including your logo, is a large part of how you communicate and draw in your ideal customers. Although your logo may have not changed in a while, the rest of the world is not standing still and neither is your business. Your ideal customers and what they respond to and care about changes over time. Your business goals and what you stand for have changed over time too. Now, I'm not saying you need to redo your branding every 6 months (you shouldn't do this!) but if your business has grown since the last time you looked at your logo and branding, it's probably showing it's age and not communicating what you want it to.

DIY LOGOS DIMINISH YOUR AUTHORITY

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I'm not one of those designers who say that you should never DIY your logo or branding. There's absolutely a time and place for it and that's when you are just getting started and cannot afford professional design services. If you've been in business for a while, it's time to upgrade. People can tell that your branding is not professionally done. And if you're using a Canva template, you should know that Canva has 135 million monthly users, so there's a very high chance that your Canva logo is going to be easily recognized as a template.

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A DIY logo is generally quite obvious to your customers and it makes your business look like it’s just getting started and isn’t successful yet. Many small business owners spend years developing their knowledge and craft and process. For all that work, you deserve to be taken seriously and unfortunately, that's just not going to happen with a DIY or Canva template logo.

TIME FOR SOMETHING NEW

You might be thinking: "If I change my logo, what if nobody recognizes my brand anymore?" Well, that's probably not going to happen! Brand recognition is not as important for small businesses as it is for large corporations. And if your logo is truly holding you back, it's probably not doing that much for your brand recognition anyways. Colors, fonts, and messaging are all way more memorable than your logo is and if you're not being consistent and clear in those areas, it's definitely time to work with a designer. Your designer can also help you work through the transition from your old logo/branding to the new in a way that feels like an evolution rather than a complete reset. If you're interested in working with me on breaking through this barrier that's holding you back, let's chat! Apply for a branding project on my website or shoot me a DM on Instagram.

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