Me: "How much did you spend, if you don't mind?

Founder: "Just under $7000 for branding, a website, and the pitch deck."

"Wow, that's a good deal."

"Yeah, the guy just started his own studio and we were his first client. We were lucky."

"Did you do some sort of strategy workshop with him? You know, figure out your vision, mission, value proposition, persona, competitive landscape, all that stuff. Or did he just do the design ?"

"Only the design. We did all the strategy work ourselves beforehand."

"Can you say how long it took you?"

"Sure. It was quite intense actually. It took us about 2-3 weeks in total, with the whole team."

"I see. So, two, three, or so of you guys spent a couple of weeks...over the course of a month or so working on this?"

"Pretty much, yeah..."

"So, if you had a way to get all this done in detail in less than a week...an hour or so per day....would that have been worth $1400 to you?"

"No, that's too expensive. I'm the founder. I should know my strategy."
____

I've had similar conversations before this one. 

Are you a founder? 

I have a question.

I'm trying to understand your process. Once you decide it's time for a brand design, or you need a pitch deck, or a website – how do you approach this project? 

Do you think about brand-, or go-to-market strategy at all? 

Do you expect the designer or agency to help you with that? 

Do you do it yourself? Or not at all?

Appreciate any insight on this. 🙏 