Two new tricks for entrepreneurs: 1. Eat your own dog food 2. Crowd-source your creative requirements.
Firstly, please allow me declare a vested interest: I am proud to be one of the co-founders of Concept Cupboard. Secondly, may I also clarify, Concept Cupboard is not a brand of dog food - it’s a cupboard, that is full of concepts.
More accurately Concept Cupboard is an on-line marketplace that enables businesses to buy creative marketing services from creative people, especially students who want to build a creative portfolio (to help them get a great job when they leave university).
Next month Concept Cupboard will celebrate the second anniversary of it’s launch - which in itself is a momentous achievement. Success first demands survival.
Despite Concept Cupboard’s many successes: the awards; the 187 briefs posted; the c. £100,000 earned by students; and the 1,312 creative concepts submitted - until now, I hadn’t actually used the service myself.
I have always advocated the importance of entrepreneurs using and testing their own products - as we say in the UK: “you have to eat your own dog food”. And so I just did - in order to create a proper identity, logo and avatar for the Tall Man Business blog.
Ta-da - and here it is - beautifully rendered in the new black banner at the top of the screen. A clean, crisp, professional new logo that can be used across different social media in order to create one image for the blog that hopefully over-time people will come to recognise (and I hope, love). Well done Tom, the winning designer, (who recently graduated from Bath Uni) - and Marina for the amazing photographer.
I am delighted that my brief received an amazing 1,882 page views
Resulting in 41 finished logo designs being submitted for my consideration
I’m extremely pleased with how easy the whole process was
I spotted a couple of minor bugs and UX issues which we’re fixing, that will improve the user experience
But it was easy and worked well
The quality of the designs far exceeded my expectations - the submissions were quite polarised, I’d say c. 50% were brilliant, 50% not so good. I have worked in marketing for 26 years and the best designs were definitely professional-grade
It cost me £300 (£250 for the designer and £50 listing fee)
It’s pretty much risk free - had I not liked any of the designs, my only financial risk was the listing fee. (You feel less financially obligated than if you commission a freelance designer directly)
The experience was so compelling it was addictive. I got an email message every time a new design was submitted. When you get this email, all you want to do is see what has been submitted
I felt good about it. Not just because it’s a business in which I have a vested interest, but primarily because I felt compelled to take care with the feedback I gave each designer because I wanted to give them something constructive in-return for the effort that they’d invested in providing their creative submission
I’m delighted by the outcome. I love the logo design that has been created. It’s been a totally brilliant experience creating it with a group of designers who are amazingly talented.
So the most important lesson for entrepreneurs and start-ups is: if you and/or your business is currently trying to sell stuff with a brand and identity that is tired an in need of a make-over - stop wrestling with an unattractive brand and put a brief on Concept Cupboard and let your brand do some of the heavy-lifting for you.
And, help creative students acquire valid commercial experience in the process.
Crowd-sourcing creative works. And those that know me, know that despite my interest in Concept Cupboard, I’d say if it didn’t.
Secondly - what ever your line of business, invest the time to ‘eat your own dog-food’ - I don’t just mean the usability testing that all on-line businesses do - I mean really, walk in the shoes of your customers. Although this is not a guarantee of success, one thing is absolutely certain: your business will only ever be as good as the stuff in the tin - so make the stuff in the tin good.
Finally, Concept Cupboard has very kindly agreed to give a 20% discount off the listing fee for new briefs posted (for the first 50 customers to take advantage of this offer) - simply enter the promotional code ‘Tallman’. Do it. Do it now.
I worked on pet food brands many years ago - I loved it and learned loads - learnings I’ll share in future posts. My favourite was Felix catfood.
The beauty of my job with Wayra is that I get to meet some amazingly talented people - like Marina, a photographer commissioned to capture an entrepreneurs networking event in Croatia that we attended. Serendipitous timing that coincided brilliantly with the origination of the Tall Man Business logo - combining the logo and the photo to create great synergy. But then, I’ve always believed you have to make your own luck.
