Are you a small business owner who needs to make your own logo on the cheap?

There are many ways to get around paying $500 for a designer to create your logo. If you couldn’t tell, I am a bootstrap kinda girl!

Don’t spend money you don’t have to get a logo. You can make your own logo that looks great! You can always have a professional polish it up when you start making money.

When I first started up my granola business I found a vector file that I could buy for like $20 and then just added the name of my business. Once I was more established and could afford it, I got some help to make it look better and more professional.

Learn How to Make Your Own Logo in a Class

CreativeLive offers some cool classes on logo design. If you are interested in creating your own logo from scratch it is worth getting some training. There is a lot more that goes into a logo than just putting some words and images together. A class will cost you less than paying a designer, but make sure to check what type of software you will need to complete the work. In most cases you will need something like Adobe InDesign. These classes go on sale often, so double check the prices listed here.

Logo Design for Your Small Business with Matthew Jervis $49

This class is geared towards non-designers and contains 8 video lessons. In this class you will learn:

• What makes a great logo, how to differentiate between types of logos, and how to get started on doing your own logo research
• How to create preliminary sketches of your logo, import it to the computer, and add color
• How to prepare logo files for many different use cases, from printed business cards to social media icons.

Logo Design: Wordmarks with Michael Stinson $49

This class contains 11 video lessons plus bonus content. In this class you will learn:

• How to draw and customize letterforms
• Working with digital vectors and bézier curves
• Pairing personalities with symbols

Logo Design 101 with Tim Frame $79

This is a more in depth class of 22 video lessons for people who have done some design work. In this class you will learn:

• Researching and gathering relevant info
• Concepting, refining, and rendering a design
• Producing identity standards and basic style guide
• Considerations for making color decisions

Create a Custom Logo with Software

There are a few ways to do this, but be careful to do it lawfully! Don’t use a graphic or font that you don’t have a licence for.

Canva Free for personal use, $12.95 a month for business

You read that right! Now Canva let’s you create your own logo, and even download it as a .png with transparent background. I love using Canva, it is super easy, even for beginners.

Tailor Brands $24 for logo only, packages available

This company lets you enter your business name and answer a few questions then instantly creates a few logos for you to choose from and tweak.

I have tried it out a few times and it is pretty fun! I got frustrated at how few changes you could make, it seemed I never got something that was really perfect.

But for only $24 per logo and a variety of bundles to choose from, you might find it makes a perfectly fine logo for you.

Buy a Pre-Made Logo

There are lots of designers out there who make pre-made logos and will plug your business name into it when you buy.

These are not one of a kind logos, a designer creates a logo and sells it to multiple businesses, changing only the name on the logo each time. This can be a great way to get a professional logo at a reasonable price.

There are a ton listed on places like Etsy. Lovely Parrot Designs does pre-made Marketing Kits and Stelaris Designs does Mini Branding Packages. Mount Pleasant Design does some really nice, simple logos.

You can also look on place like Fiverr and UpWork, make sure to read the reviews on someone before hiring them!

Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when you are first getting started. There are so many things to spend money on when you are building a business. Remember you can always update and change things later. You don’t need to spend a ton of money just to get working.

Did you make your own logo? I’d love to hear your story in the comments!