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The world seems to have awakened to the power of women. No wonder, there has been a significant upsurge in the number of women entrepreneurs, over the years. The rising generation of passionate women entrepreneurs constantly challenges the gender imbalance of the business world. Though women power is on a rise in the business world, there are some things that still haven’t changed.
Hollie Slade, Forbes writer, recently revealed in one of her articles that “getting angel seed funding or VC investment can be tough, especially if you happen to be a women entrepreneur, according to the stats. For the first half of 2013, women-owned ventures accounted for just 16% of all businesses seeking funding, with 24% of these ladies receiving angel investment, according to the Center for Venture Research.” With such stats in hand, it is safe to say that most women-owned ventures don’t have the luxury of spending huge amounts on some of the business aspects such as graphic design which includes logos, business cards, etc.
But many business experts strongly believe that great design plays an important role in the success of any business. Therefore, the real challenge that women entrepreneurs are faced with is procuring graphic designs that reflect their taste, passion and vision at an affordable price.
Let’s face it, getting high quality graphic designs is not a cakewalk. No wonder most entrepreneurs are forced to shell out more than $1000 for a professional graphic design by design studios. But are such design studios the only way to get graphic designs? No! Heard about crowdsourcing marketplaces such as Designhill?
Crowdsourcing marketplaces that offer custom design services make it easy to source high quality graphic design services such as logo design, stationery design, and more by holding design contests that are run online.
Cost-effective Solution
While there are plenty of cardinal rules that any entrepreneur must live by, one of the most important is to keep operating expenses low. Crowdsourcing graphic design projects goes a long way in ensuring just that.
Jennifer Alsever, writer for Inc., quotes marketing director Stephen Bailey of Fluevog Shoes on the matter: “The design contests not only create marketing buzz but also provide customer insight.” He further adds, “You get a sense of where customers are and what they’re looking for.”
Crowdsourcing Benefits
Popular online magazine, Entrepreneur, recently stated a few prominent reasons why every women entrepreneur should look at crowdsourcing. Here’s a little list of just some of those reasons.
1. Low Cost
Hiring a design agency isn’t usually cheap. But with crowdsourcing marketplaces, thousands of talented designers from around the world compete to provide high quality graphic design solutions at significantly affordable prices compared to those charged by most design studios. So for any entrepreneur running their business on tight budgets, this option fits the bill.
2. Abundant Options
Crowdsourcing a design project usually means getting as many as 100+ design concepts in less than seven days. This ensures that entrepreneurs have more ideas and options to take their pick from. And as it’s cost-effective, not having thousands of dollars to spend won’t stand in the way of your getting the graphic design that works well for your brand and business.
3. No Overhead
Crowdsourcing design projects also help women entrepreneurs save loads of overhead costs. Business owners do not need to worry about paid design previews, minimum project coverage charges, etc. That’s a lot of money and hassle saved.
By simply crowdsourcing your design project, women entrepreneurs can get so much for so little.
Hiring the Right Designer
What about those who are still apprehensive about ‘open innovation’ and wish to tread the traditional path of working with a single graphic designer or a freelancer? Reliable crowdsourcing sites also offer their clients a chance to work with graphic designers on a 1 to 1 basis. However, it makes sense to be mindful of certain points when hiring a freelance graphic designer for a 1 to 1 project.
Hongkiat.com reveals certain easy tricks to ensure that entrepreneurs are able to hire the right freelance graphic designer.
1. Don’t Fall for Low Rates
It is important to take some time to find the right freelance graphic designer and not just settle down for the one with the cheap rates. Low cost resources are not always good and you will get nothing but conceptually inferior or ineffective graphic designs for lower than usual rates.
2. Browse through Portfolios
It makes sense to browse through designer portfolios on crowdsourcing sites to find the designer that has solid experience designing in your particular niche.
3. Rules of the Game
Setting up written rules before initiating the project makes sense to entrepreneurs working with individual freelance designers. Provide all the necessary data to the designers. Include submission dates, formats, and any additional instructions that you might have.
4. Pay Reasonably
Crowdsourcing is affordable compared to design agencies. However, it makes sense to ensure that you pay fair rates to the designer you work with. Affordable doesn’t mean unfair and unjust payment terms.
5. Payment Terms
It is important to set the payment terms when working a freelancer. Remember, it’s a general observation that freelance graphic artists tend to work much faster and better when their work fairly compensated.
Special Offer for Women on Business Readers
Designhill is offering Women on Business readers a 40% discount on any design contest posted on its website for any design. Just click on the image to the left and use the coupon code in the image to get your discount.
Note: This is not an affiliate promotion and Women on Business receives no compensation of any kind if you use the link and/or coupon code.
