As I’ve mentioned before, I do alot of networking here in Brighton, Michigan and I see a wide variety of people at these events.  Have you ever been to a networking event and run into someone in torn jeans and a t-shirt?  Were you more or less likely to take them seriously as a business person?  Would you go to a job interview in yoga pants and a fleece jacket?  For most of us in the business world, we know these are no nos when you are out marketing yourself or your company.  You don’t always have to wear a suit, but you have to dress in a manner appropriate for the level of professionalism that is expected.

The same can be said for the look and professionalism of your marketing materials.  Passing out a business card that was put together on your home computer, printed out on plain paper and sloppily cut out instantly says, “I’m not professional”. So does some clip art you threw together with a whole bunch of different fonts.  You don’t always have to hire a professional graphic designer (although it can’t hurt, and let’s face it, as a graphic designer I would advise you to hire one), but you should at the very least educate yourself on some very basic graphic design principles to help make your materials look appropriately professional.

More in the next several posts on some of these basic principles…

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