As my business is approching its 1st anniversary im thinking of adverstising a little more.... and with this feel i need to improve my logo/design just wondering how you other guys came up with your company desig/logo...
right now my logo is just plain letters and i want a design/logo that when people see it the think "thats Joes electrical"


any ideas or places to find help are greatly appreciated

Denny

My wife is creative and got good with alot of the Adobe desktop software. I told her I wanted to stay away from the lightning bolt. She played around with fonts and arrangements and colors and it came out good. I have it on my bus. cards, but have yet to get it on my proposals. If you can transfer it to the right picture format, you can export/import into all kinds of programs (QuickBooks, AutoCad).

But here is my latest idea for the truck........

Nice lettering, rich colors, classy not flashy...... Then no phone number and put "by referal only"

I know if I saw that on a truck it would get my mind spinning.

first thinking "who does that guy think he is"

then "boy, he's got a lot of nerve"

then "must not need the business"
" must be pretty good"

Then you'd remember it. when you finally did get the number you'd feel included in the club. I'll bet word would would spread.

To take the gimmick further....... Customers need to earn the right to refer. If you haven't authorized them to refer, then when you get a call you'll have to turn them away until they can give the name of an authorized referer. This way you can reward your good customers by letting them pass out your name, and in turn that tells thier friends that they are good customers. They'll be dying to give out your name.

Now here's where this goes from crazy gimmick to serious marketing strategy: If only your favorite customers and their 'types' are calling you, and the job is 90% sold already, you charge top dollar for service, and you aren't wasting your time with chiseling tire kickers.

There are alot of companies on the internet that design logos. I had mine done by The Logo Company. http://thelogocompany.net/
They did a great job and it was fast. I think it took about a week. I had already created a design and sent that to them and they created several variations of my design for me to choose from. At the time the logo design was $75 or for $150 they designed a complete stationary package with business cards, letterhead, envelopes, etc.
I went with the stationary package. Well worth the money spent. You don't need to send them a design you can just describe what you would like and they will design it.

Try www.elance.com
It's a bidding site where service providers enter a bid for your project and you select which one to use with no obligation on your part. I've put about 6 projects up for bid and been happy with all the results. I currently have a project listed for a new website. You can get all types of business services done there, but design work is one of the biggies. If you ask for a logo expect bids from $25 - $200 with the high end including letterhead and business card design.