I used to think a business is set in stone. Once you start, you have to stick with it. But I'm wrong.
1 year and 9 months later has me glancing back to my journey as a solo business owner.
Similar to how I have "Musings for Myself" where I talk to myself and readers on LinkedIn, I'm taking some time to reflect on my business.
Oh boy, there's so much to reflect on.
To kick start my reflections, I'm reflecting on one of the important features for businesses, organizations, and websites: the Logo.
In my early days of Waggish Writer, I was obsessed with the desire to put my genuine works up. Therefore, I designed my website's logo.
Professionals can tell the design was homemade. It was a homemade creation of PowerPoint where I utilized text, images, and color to create the logo.
What guided me in the creation is how I view my writing. My brain tends to be hyper and scattered as a butterfly flies from one flower to another. In a more creative sense, I imagined myself as a pixie. These creatures are mischievous but mean well.
One of the things I did when I decided to start on my journey was reach out to professionals. Nickalus Sunio was the contact I reached out for website advice.
Sunio created Permission, the networking event where I started on my journey to create the life I wanted. He serves as the Co-Founder of Michigan SEO Group. I asked if he would be willing to look over the website or ask a member of his team to look over it for how I could improve it with these questions:
1) How can I make the website mobile friendly?
2) If there were any pages/content that feels better as a blog post versus a page?
3) Thoughts about the current images on the site.
As I know he is a businessman, I offered to pay for the time he and his group invested when taking a look at the website.
Sunio accepted my request, sending two team members to check out my website.
One of the feedback pieces I received was "to get a more professional logo." The remark I had is that the logo featured a lot in my website that takes away from the viewing experience.
Writers have a problem. They can imagine the most beautiful thing, but when they try to create it visually, it falls short.
However, I always knew I wanted to improve my logo. Having the advice that it was distracting also helped me reach an understanding.
A logo is meant to represent an idea, not be an overbearing feature of a website.
What step on the journey did I do next for the logo? I decided to call in a favor.
My best friend, Sophie, is married to an awesome man, Drake. They recently welcomed a new member to their family. Drake had offered in the early days of my website to illustrate my work as he read a bit of my story, "Samurai Sisters."
I reached out to him to see if he would be interested in designing a logo for me, stating I would pay for his work and time.
He agreed, so we had a series of back and forth emails to create a new logo.
Over our multiple email exchanges, I knew I wanted to keep the playfulness of my logo because writing to me is play. However, I wanted to have grace and smoothness to represent my professional side. Several back and forth ensued before my logo came into being.
Could my logo change as I discover changes that I want to bring to my business?
It most definitely could. And it will give me more time to play with how else I can bring my creative professional persona out to play.
Thank you for visiting, and if you like what you read, could you share a picture of your logo and how it expresses you?
Until next time, have a wonderful life. <3
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