You might have some design work to be done, could be for your business card, could be for your logo, might be for a brochure or other marketing collateral that you may have.

The next time around consider using the internet as your purchasing department to find resources out there that you might not have been aware of. I’ve used it and I’ve gotten some incredible results for incredibly little money. Here are a few resources to consider:

1. DesignOutpost How they work is that you post a particular project, you set a budget for the project and then you post the money for the project with Design Outpost. Here’s where the advantage of this particular approach is. You get people really competing at a deeper level for your work. When I went through with the business card design change, I spelled out what I was looking for and put that up as a project on design outpost. I set an amount that was pretty modest. I believe it was $125. What happened then was amazing. A beauty contest broke out. Several people began to sketch out preliminary designs on the card. What a great way to be able to get a feel for what people could do.

But it doesn’t stop there, it even gets better. I got to post back comments about the preliminary design for the ones that I thought were the best. Most of the people then did some additional touchup. So, it gave me some feel for what it would be like to work with some of these people too. So, by the time I let the project out to one of the designers, it was well along the way and I felt very comfortable that I was going to have a design I’d like and was working with somebody I could work well with. My expectation proved true and I’ve gotten lots of complements on my card. What an incredible process it was.

2. Elance  is another good resource. This works more in traditional fashion, where you put up a project, people propose on it and then you select the person. Perhaps, the benefit can be is that you don’t put money upfront. A disadvantage is that you don’t get as deep of a beauty contest experience like you can with Design Outpost.

3. Guru.com Similar to Elance, another good resource.

So, when you have that design project coming up, consider exploring internet resources to find the right person or firm to do your work. You might just have an amazing experience like I had and end up with a very pleasing result.

Jon Paul, MBA, CPA, CMC, CM&AA

President, Value Added Finance Resources
Bringing new insights on results and maximizing company value