It may seem early days, but as you would have all your identity and designs prepared by now, it is handy to have some business cards available. You never know when an opportunity may arise to flash your new fan-dangled cards, and it is such a gutter when you cant (speaking from experience). So get them printed in mass, and I’m sure you can’t go wrong.
Some inspirational links :
Veerle - Dynamic Business Cards
Inspiredology - Cool Business Cards
PlasticPrinters.com
Best thing to do, once you have decided what you would like printed, is to shop around for price and also recommendation.
And please, please check everything before it goes to print. Trust me, it is no fun having 500 gorgeous business cards turn up to find the phone number has one digit missing! *doh*
Now, you can pay someone to do this for you, alternatively, it can be cheaper and easier to do it yourself. Basically the law requires you to keep all records and receipts for 5 years and 9 months, for both your sake and theirs.
Best thing to do is stick to the KISS rule; Keep It Simple Stupid. Not that your stupid!
All you need is a copy of Microsoft Excel and to create pages where you can log all cash payments received, a log for all your purchases for the business and another log for all monies coming in and out. This will not only be able to help you complete a Tax Return later in the year but it helps you see in black and white, whether you have made a profit, or loss.
To save you some time, I’ve attached some starters which I use myself. You will need Excel in order to open them.
Cash Book
Expenses
Sales & Purchases
What I mean by this is, you need a nice range of stationary to present your clients and affiliates with.
You can find examples everywhere; your bank, your electricity, mobile phone, vets, computer manufacturer. All these companies you would no doubt recognise with 1 eye shut.
Take a leaf out of their book, study how they lay out their documents and apply this to your own.
A good start would be a standard letterhead, compliments slip, invoice, project approval, change order form, questionnaires and contract.
You can find some nice start examples at Bodo
I won’t tell be telling you how to create an identity, but you should have one.
What better to have than an easily identifiable way of recognising your artwork, paperwork, van, clothing… ?
Spend all the time you have on it, better yet, have an established designer create one for you.
Remember you will be using it on everything so it must be clear and scalable. I think if you are a designer this one is pretty much self-explanatory.
Some starting points :
Design a Logo - The Ultimate Guides
ColourLovers - Colour Trend and Palettes
Stop! Before you do anything! There are a few things you need to do before you even pick up that pen or click that mouse.
A lot of young starters casually start working as freelance designers without a second thought about contracts, payment, National Insurance, tax, VAT and so on. Unfortunately this can cause a lot of headaches further down the line, or worse still, large fines from HM Revenue and Customs (better known as the taxman!).
From experience I would say the following would need to be ticked off the checklist before even starting any work; whether it be a ‘guvvy job’ for the bloke next door, a logo design for your mam’s workmate or even that big pay-off website you can’t wait to sink your teeth into.
Checklist
Create an identity, stationary and a website
Create document templates e.g. Invoice, Letterhead, Terms and Conditions etc
Create an expenses sheet, cash book and sales & purchases spreadsheet
Get your business cards printed
Find a recommended solicitor / accountant / book keeper
Create advertising, such as flyer’s
Join networks and forums
Register with HM Revenue and Customs
Start working!!
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