One of my biggest challenges with moving forward on this idea was quite frankly, the fear of failure...which is still not outside the realm of possibility. They say that about 50% of all new small businesses fail within the first 5 years. Not great odds for me, but I will say that there is something magical about having an idea in your mind and then seeing it become something tangible.
One of the first hurtles was to choose a name, oddly I felt a similar pressure when choosing a name for a business, as my husband an I felt when naming our kids...lol. In my mind, I needed something that people would notice and remember. I wanted it to portray a Lego theme, while highlighting the "up-cycled" concept of my business. The name went though several phases of change...but I finally settled on BrickSmarts. I felt that was fitting, seeing that recycling is always a smart idea, and the brick part was pretty self explanatory. The tag line "The Smart Way to Play" seemed appealing to parents who may be environmentally and/or financially conscious.
The next phase of creating an identity for this business was to take the name and create a logo. I'm not sure if from a Business 101 standpoint that needed to be the next step, but for me it helped me to have something real that represented my idea.
This process took several weeks. I got about 4 quotes on logo design. They ranged anywhere from $50 to $800, and later I found out that they can cost even way more than that. I stumbled across a website called DesignCrowd. They are a freelance logo design company based out of Australia. That have been around since 2008 and have more than 500,000 designers in over 160 countries. I researched their website and it got good reviews. The most appealing thing to me was that, if I didn't select any of the proposed designs, I would get my money back.
So here is how it worked. You select a package that fits your needs. The price was based on how many design submissions you wanted to receive. I chose the 60+ designs option for about $200. I received a coupon code in an email, a few days after first visiting the site. I filled out an online worksheet with my info and what I needed. I uploaded a few of my own logo ideas that I had just scratched on some scrap paper, I gave color and shape, theme preferences, and Viola...shipped it off to cyberspace.
Within 14 days I truly had over 40 different designs, and many variations on each design. The designers were from all over the world. I received a few designs that I really liked and honestly it was hard to choose. One nice feature was that once your submission timeframe ended, you could poll your family and friends via email on the one they liked the best. How about that for your "market research." After that surprisingly painless process I requested a few color changes and selected my favorite design which is below.
There was something about seeing it that made it seem real.
I love it!
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