If you’re a regular reader you might have noticed the new logo appear in the top right hand corner of the blog a few days ago.
I’d decided a few weeks ago that I needed a “logo” for the site to help position it as a friendly informal place to share and discuss business opportunities and ideas, but I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted until I saw an impressive caricature on another blog (which annoyingly I can’t find again) and shortly after saw Rea Maor’s new logo.
So I set out to find someone that could draw me a suitable caricature/logo, something that should have been easy, but instead proved to be a lesson in how bad most small businesses are at sales.
So what did the businesses do wrong?
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Several I approached never even responded to my email, or the contact form on their website.
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Two that did respond simply replied “Yes we can do it” but when I sent them a follow up with a request for more info they did not bother to reply.
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Three that did respond simply replied “Yes we can do it for £X” but failed to provide any examples of previous work.
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Two took too long to reply, I’d already gone back out to look for more suppliers and found a supplier that I could work with.
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One gave me too many hoops to jump through to be able to work with him.
Overall I contacted nineteen businesses directly and had quotes back from nine of them, just three of them were credible, but one of those only came after I’d chosen a cartoonist.
The cartoonist I chose to use was Richard Duszczak of Cartoon Studio, despite the fact that his quote was the highest I recieved. Working with him was a pleasure - he was prompt, asked enough questions to establish what I wanted without wasting my time and provided some quick sketches to ensure he had understood what I was after. We were able to communicate clearly by email (and a quick phone call) as the logo evolved through several iterations.
My logo is actually part of the full caricature below:
Expect to see more of it in the coming weeks and months. I expect to be using Richard Duszczak (Cartoon Studio) again over the coming months for future illustrations/cartoons as his work is excellent value - and he made me thin! 
This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
That’s great you got what you wanted. My brother and I know exactly how you feel about not getting replies. We’ve contacted numerous companies about a full website design + coding, and a lot of them don’t even reply. It’s quite annoying, but I guess some companies just don’t care about their customers :-\
-Gregg
Well done on getting the logo. It looks good.
It never ceases to amaze me how some businesses can be so bad.
John, your new logo goes against all the design principles of a modern logo in a “web 2.0″ world…. but I like it!
Very original and amusing.
Thanks guys. Ben, I like to be different!