The pros and cons of do-it-yourself design
Pros
Save – Do-it-yourself (DIY) design is good because it can save you money. It’s good to know what your time is worth. Maybe doing your own design and social media is worth it or maybe it’s not. It’s up to you to decide where to put your money and how you value your own time.
No contractors – Doing your own design can save you from having to hire someone to do it for you.
Easy – It can seem like the easy, quick option rather than dealing with someone else, much less finding a designer to help you.
But let me tell you a few reasons why do-it-yourself design is not the best option.
Cons
Time – If design is not your superpower, the do-it-yourself approach can take you more time than if you just hired someone. It may not look as good either. Your superpower is coaching, writing or coding, my superpower is design. You are at your best when you are in your own wheel house and not someone else’s. Don’t ever ask me to fix your car or your toilet or code my own website. I would make sure it looked pretty but I’m not sure it would be functional when I was done because I have no idea what I am doing. I have no idea what tube or wire goes where. But I do know fonts, photos and graphics. I think it’s best to stick to your area of expertise and leave the rest to the professionals.
Copyrights – If you use someone else’s content you could get in trouble. You can’t have a logo that is exactly like someone else’s just like you can’t copy someone else’s article and use it as your own. Besides why would you want your logo to look like someone else’s. Your business is unique just like you are. Your branding should reflect that.
Online tool restrictions – All of the material is owned by that site unless it is something that you have uploaded to use. They can delete your account and all your content at any time. They could also close the business and take all of your saved content with them.
Font licenses – If you want to be a little bit different than your standard installed fonts you can go out there and download some to use. There are a lot of free fonts out there but did you know that a lot of them are only free for personal use? “Free for personal use” does not include using those fonts on advertisements or items that you offer for sale. That would be a commercial use and you would need to pay for the font in order to use it that way.
Photography – Did you take the photo or get it from a source that allows you to use it for commercial purposes. There are a lot of images out there online, it’s important to know what you can and can’t use so you don’t get in trouble for stealing images.
If you think a cheap service will work as an alternative to DIY. It might but there are risks to that too. Just think about your time and what it’s worth. Think about what types of businesses you want to support and what that says about you and your business.