However, you don’t need to be confused; you just need to do a little analysis of your requirements and your budget, afterwards, search for both the categories accordingly to get the best possible solution for your confusion. Yes, there’s a lot to choose from and you have to be sensible. To start off with:

Gather your Specifications and set a Budget: First of all, you as a business owner have to gather your Specifications. What exactly do you want? You need to figure out, what are the elements that you require besides the logo. You might need designs for your business cards and letterhead as well. Moreover, there is a possibility that your business needs an online presence and for that website design is what you should have. If that’s the case, where you require a complete package of design services, you need to make an appropriate budget. Once you are done with that, start searching for freelancers and logo design companies for your project.

Start Searching: The next step is to start your search for the freelance designers and the logo design companies, both online and offline. Make a list for both the categories keeping your requirements in mind. Of course your search should have the criteria of the price according to the budget set. You would ultimately shortlist two or three of them to choose from. I won’t rule in favor of any one of them since there are top class freelancers serving the market and there are specialized logo design companies with very affordable yet professional design services.

However, there are some known advantages and disadvantages associated with freelance designers and logo design companies, which I want you to go through before finalizing any of them for your logo design.

FREELANCE DESIGNER

There is a mushroom growth of freelance designers these days. However, it is said that hiring a freelance designer is a risk as most of them are mere starters and don’t know much about graphic designing as such. Well, it all depends upon the budget as well; if you have a big budget set for this project, you can go for a freelance designer, who is renowned and is the best in this field. An expert designer’s guidance would be of enormous support in delineating your logo and there is no comparison to it.

Advantages:

The following are the advantages of a freelancer:

• Renowned freelancers are reliable to work with
• They focus on few projects unlike big design agencies
• They can be cost-effective and they can be
• Minimum turnaround time
• Can be an expert in logo designing

Disadvantages:

• They may disappear for some time, they are less accountable
• Sometimes low price indicates low quality work
• You can’t have face to face meetings with your freelance designer
• One designer means less concepts or similar concepts
• Your freelancer can be a teenage amateur
• Credibility is one issue
• Can use a design template
• Don’t offer money back guarantee

ONLINE LOGO DESIGN COMPANY

Type ‘logo design’ in any of the search engines and you will get a list of design companies offering various features at different prices. Set your priorities straight. Go for the best option. Check their design galleries and then take any decision.

Advantages:

Online logo design companies are getting very popular each passing day and a lot many businesses are contacting them to get their logo designed.

• Cost-effective
• Expertise in logo designing
• Professional and accountable
• Renowned logo design companies are reliable to work with
• Handle large number of customers
• Have a battalion of professional logo designers
• More designers signify more logo concepts
• More designers indicate broader skill set
• They are secure to work with. They won’t disappear anywhere
• Fixed turnaround time
• 24/7 customer support
• Most of them offer money back guarantee

Disadvantages:

• No face to face meetings with the designers
• Not suitable for entire branding projects

Are you still confused of how you would go about it? Or do you think I have missed out on a very essential point? Don’t hesitate to put forward your feedback in the comments section. It’s always a pleasure knowing what you think. Take care!

This is guest post from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, custom logo design service provider based in UK.
http://www.logoinn.com

MT was kind enough to give me a free 30 day no strings attached trial if I blogged my experience. Being the entrepreneur that I am I decided to see what the competition would offer as well.  I twittered a little bit and got some good responses from some Rackspace folks.  Rackspace owns Mosso.  They had me talk with Mosso and right now Rob La Gesse the Director of Customer Development from Mosso is checking to see if I can get access to there Cloud Sites for the same kind of deal.  We will see. hooked me up with a test account with Mosso. There is more to this story but I will save that for later.

Already I have set up a network monitoring on MT and on my current host asmallorange(ASO). If you need a shared host I would recommend them.  If you use the coupon code ‘startupstudent’ you can get 15% off your order just so you know ;-D. I love ASO and they have treated me well but I have outgrown their services and I need my sites to be more flexible then what they can offer.

I have set up a site monitoring service to check the asmallorange site AND my MT site AND hopefully the Mosso site.  I used Siteuptime which is a great service! I have used them before and liked it … I liked you alot. I have included the links below so that you can check out the public stats on how the services are doing. They will be monitored every 15 minutes.  They monitor just the HTTP for right now.  I don’t have the $$ to monitor everything …

1. MediaTemple
2. asmallorange
3. Mosso (hopefully soon!)

I am going to put the StartupStudent site on each.  Full database and posts.  I have disabled commenting so that nothing can get too messed up.  I am going to put a post on how this is a test rig just to make sure people understand.

SO! The battle for best host continues.  We will see who wins.

Round 1 – Setting it all up.  How easy was it? (coming soon)

1. High Rise — This tool is used to track your most important asset … your customers! This is an online CRM suite which helps your business keep tabs on your customers.  The customer is #1 … or at least they SHOULD be!
2. Ship Wire — Are you a small business which has shipping needs or warehousing needs?  This is an amazing tool which can be combined with different online shopping carts to automate the processing of shipping and warehousing. It is definitely a time saver for sure! The only down side … it is a little pricey.
3. FreshBooks — This is an amazing tool which can be combined with High Rise to give you even more control over your customers, orders, invoicing and reporting.  This tool has made the processing of invoices, proposals and finances in general a super easy, efficient and speedy joy!
4. Amazon Mechanical Turk — Got a medial task that you HATE to do.  Give it to someone who could do it faster, smarter and for probably less money!  Ask the workers at Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to complete HITs – Human Intelligence Tasks. The whole idea is that you submit HIT’s to amazon … a huge work force is ready and waiting to receive your HIT’s and start working on them then you get results … FAST. Check it out!
5. EMachineShop — Are you in need of some light manufacturing done?  EMachineShop is the place for you.  Whether it be a custom chassis for high-end RC cars or a custom heat sink.  They can do it.  They have a whole list of materials and with the free software they make it super easy to start creating stuff fast!
6. *BONUS* Ponoko — I have already reviewed this service on the blog! Check it out here.

Do you agree? Disagree?  Think something should be added or have another even better Web tool!?!? Let me know! Comment away.

Their content is always lengthy and just good stuff which is awesome considering the lack of good quality content about entrepreneurship out there in the ‘tubes‘.  Their blog is something to be valued for sure but their forums also have a wealth of users who are more than willing to help you out with any problem or question that you might have.

YE’s blog has a great Entrepreneurship University category on there blog which is filled with some great series.  They help guide you through some harder topics including: How to Build Link to your Website, What a Business Plan Should Look Like and How to Build a Business in a Recession.

I have personally used the forum (startupstudent.com) and have been extremely impressed with the responses that I have received. I also subscribe to the blog as well.  I have found both really useful and I have enjoyed what they have offered.

The blog and forum together is an unbeatable resource when it comes to learning and networking with fellow entrepreneurs.

Don’t take my word for it check them out at http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/blog/

What do you think? What resources do you find helpful? What are some blogs that you follow?