[SAM]:
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Welcome to the Marketing a Practice podcast with me, Sam Carvalho, where you will discover everything you need to know about marketing and branding your business. To find out more about how I can help you brand your business, visit www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram @samanthacarvalhodesign.

Hi there. Thanks so much for joining me today on the Marketing a Practice podcast. So today I thought I would talk about the benefits of outsourcing your design. If outsourcing is a concept that you aren’t yet familiar with, it basically means providing work to someone that is not employed inhouse. So, they don’t physically come to work every day, but they actually work on the other side of the world or they can be located close to you, but they work from home. So basically, they fulfill their work obligations virtually.

So, just a bit about me and my story and my background and how I got involved in becoming a virtual assistant, as it were, for design specifically. I’ve always been a creative, but I actually started out my career in marketing and project management. And although I learnt a lot and there were parts of the job that I enjoyed, I ultimately wasn’t fulfilled. And so, I started freelancing on the side, offering graphic design services through a platform called Upwork. Some of you may be familiar with it, but it basically allows you as a freelancer to join and to submit a proposal to people who are offering jobs on the site. And so, you can research jobs that you will enjoy doing. For example, designing social posts or designing a website or designing a logo. It’s not only for creatives, it’s for all sorts of virtual assistants, but obviously, I focused on the creative stuff. And so, you can basically apply to complete a job and then the person who posted the job will choose somebody to complete the job based on their profile and experience and things like that. And so that’s actually how I met Joe Sanok, who’s the owner of Practice of the Practice.

The first project that I did for him was I designed quirk images for his social media. And he was so happy with them that he asked me to do more work for him, which I then did. And eventually pretty much went full time with him. And so, I have since helped hundreds of private practice owners with the design of their logos, corporate branding, print material and digital marketing designs, and I now love what I do. And I love partnering with businesses to help improve their official identity. And I think Joe will agree that his business has grown since outsourcing his design and marketing. I know he often says that even though he enjoys being creative, he knew a couple of years ago that as his business was growing, it was not the best use of his time, and that it would actually benefit him and his business to outsource that so that he could focus on other areas. And since then Practice of the Practice has grown from strength to strength because he’s been able to focus on the bigger picture and not be so involved in the nitty gritty. And so, that’s a bit of my background and how I kind of got to where I am.

So obviously now, Joe and a bunch of other people outsource their design to me, and I think it’s just a win win situation for everyone. And it’s pretty much where the world is headed, I think, in terms of outsourcing being more of a preference, than hiring an inhouse graphic designer. And obviously, for a lot of you, that’s definitely not needed. And so, having the option to outsource design work to somebody when it comes up or when it’s needed, can really be beneficial. So, in this episode, I’ve outlined five benefits of outsourcing design, which I’ll go through now.

The first is that you will save time. A lot of you may have tried up until now to attempt the design work yourself. Obviously, when you’re starting your business out, you’re bootstrapping, and so you may not feel as though you have the finances to hire someone to do the design work for you. So, you try and do it yourself. And that’s all good and well, and you know, there’s platforms out there that can assist with that. Canva.com is a great one; it’s free, and it’s got a bunch of pre-loaded, pre-designed templates that you can play around with. And so, I’m not speaking against that too much. But the time it takes you to design something on Canva is probably going to be way longer than the time it takes a professional to design the exact same thing. So obviously, graphic designers have the correct equipment, and they know the basics of design that you aren’t necessarily familiar with. So, while you’re struggling to figure out what size a Facebook cover image actually is, or what format it needs to be in, the designer could have already started with the design. So, in the end, it’s really going to save you time. And, you know, instead of spending three or four hours being frustrated, trying to get something that’s in your head to appear in front of you, you could have paid a designer for one hour of their time to design the same thing. So that’s the first benefit of outsourcing your design.

The second is you will get a fresh, professional perspective. So, for those of you who don’t have a creative bone in your body, having an expert handle the design for you can be an absolute pleasure. An outside expert opinion always has the potential to show you what you may have been missing and need to bring to life. So, a lot of times people who aren’t creative struggle to bring what they have in their mind into a good-looking design. And that’s where a designer can really come alongside you, and they can hear what you have to say about what you want to communicate, what your aim is. And they can help transform that into a visual medium that’s going to attract your ideal client. And essentially, graphic designers are problem solvers. So, we address the problem of you having this thing to communicate that you don’t know how to communicate. And we solve the problem by creating a design that effectively communicates what you want it to. And so, having an expert come in and provide that fresher perspective may be just what your business needs, especially if you are rebranding. So, if you’re feeling as though your branding is getting a bit stale, it may be a good time to bring on a professional graphic designer.

So, the third benefit of outsourcing design is that you will remain up to date. And again, I’ve spoken about this previously, and design trends aren’t always important to stay on top of because a lot of them come and go. And for the most part you want your design to remain timeless and to not be based on trends. But you also want to stay abreast of where design is headed and ensure that your look and feel is contemporary and is staying with the times, especially if your ideal client is someone who’s a bit younger and wants to stay on top of trends. They’re not likely to engage with you if your website looks super outdated, or if your social media posts aren’t quality. So, designers exist in the world of design and marketing and part of their job is staying abreast of the latest trends shaping the industry. So, when you work with someone who is in that world and you outsource work to them, you can rest assured that your work will have a fresh and modern appeal.

This is also true in counseling, as I have found that a lot of private practices, especially when they are attempting to handle the design on their own, will resort to a lot of clichés when it comes to design. And so, they’ll make use of hearts to symbolize connection or relationships, or a person sitting in meditation to symbolize mental health. And all of that is very good and well, but you know, it’s overused and people become desensitized to it and it’s not going to stand out on their feed and that’s not going to encourage them to interact with you. And so, you really want to ensure that if you are making use of those more cliched icons, that you’re doing it in a different way that’s going to stand out and that’s going to attract your ideal client. And this is something that your designer can help you with; they can bring a fresh perspective, and they can ensure that they’re incorporating some of the latest styles to help you stand out.

So, the fourth benefit of outsourcing your design is ensuring that you gain a consistent corporate image. And this is something that can happen more easily if you’re working with the same person over a number of years. And so, each designer will come with their own style, but they’ll also be able to create the look and feel for you that obviously they have created, so they are familiar with and they can then revert back to whenever they create something new. And that can be really powerful for your brand because if someone is following you on social media, they’ll begin to recognize a post from you as they’re scrolling, from your feed. And they’ll begin to associate your brand with that look and feel. And if you are doing the design yourself, you may be trying a different look and feel with each post or you may forget what font you used the last time or, you know, you like the color blue one month and the color pink the next month. And so, your branding isn’t consistent, and there’s a lot of power in consistency, especially when it comes to branding. So that’s something that a designer can help you with. And obviously a brand style guide is very helpful with that as well. So, you know, if you’re serious about setting up your brand, and establishing a brand, a visual identity, then you can find a designer to help set up a brand style guide which will include what fonts you want to make use of, what color scheme you want to make use of, your logo, what you want to communicate through your branding, who your ideal client is, things like that. And then even if you do change designers, moving forward they can always refer back to that brand style guide to ensure that your design work remains consistent.

And finally, the last benefit of outsourcing design is that it enables you to focus on other areas that drive your business. And that’s what I mentioned earlier in my story with Joe is that, you know, he was able to no longer have to worry about the design aspects of his company, or some of the marketing aspects, and he could then focus on the bigger vision and he could launch things like Next Level Practice community or Podcast Launch School; he could move forward with those ideas because his time wasn’t taken up with the content plan for Instagram, or the show notes for the podcast, or things like that. And so you really want to… it’s just kind of a natural progression that as your business grows, you remove yourself from the day to day admin stuff, and you focus more on the bigger vision, and design can be a part of that. So even if you’ve enjoyed creating your feature images or you’ve tried creating a logo, it really can help for you to focus on parts of the business that you’re good at, that you actually enjoy, and outsource the rest to people who enjoy doing that.

So, as I said, I love design. I love partnering with businesses to help improve their visual identity. And so I would love to partner with you on that side of things and then let you get on with counseling, or creating a workshop, or creating an e-course, or whatever it is that you’re passionate about. So just those five benefits again: The first is you will save time. The second is you’ll get a fresh professional perspective. The third is you’ll be up to date with new trends and the contemporary look and feel of design. The fourth is you’ll gain a consistent corporate image. You can then focus on other areas that drive your business. So, as I said, I’d love to work with you. Be sure to reach out to me if you are wanting to outsource your design moving forward, and I’ll catch you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the Marketing a Practice podcast. If you need help with branding your business, whether it be a new logo, rebrand, or you simply want to have a print file designed, head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram @samanthacarvalhodesign.

Finally, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on iTunes if you like what you’ve heard. Talk to you soon.

This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests, are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.