How to Design a Flyer for Small Business
The best resources to help you with that
People often ask what methods and resources are available in order to create a flyer or banner design for a particular event, business promotion, café, or restaurant. Most often, an entrepreneur finds themselves in a situation where they have to deal with everything on their own, especially in the initial stages of a business, or in under a crisis (for example now with Covid-19).
In this small collection, I am going to highlight all the methods and sites which help you create a flyer design. This will be especially useful for entrepreneurs who want to understand the topic and save some extra money. Hopefully, it will be useful for you, too.
- Order design from a freelancer or studio. Price: $20–150
Probably the easiest, and the fastest method, is to make an order for a freelance exchange. There is no need to describe all the freelance exchanges, so I will describe two main ones, these are https://www.upwork.com/ and https://www.freelancer.com/.
The ordering process does not take a lot of time. Sign up on a freelance website and publish a post with your project. For example, “I want to order a flyer design for an event”. Add a detailed description and make it as informative as possible. Publish and wait for responses.
Usually, from 10 to 50 designers respond to your advertisement. You need to choose a freelancer according to reviews (I highly recommend ordering from people with at least a 4.8 rating). When you select a designer, you have to deposit to the site (escrow), which becomes inaccessible to both you and the designer.
Then the freelancer makes several versions (depending on your agreement), but I would recommend at least 2 versions. You look through them and make corrections if there are any. You accept the work — the file in the format you specify (Psd, Ai, Indd, pdf, tiff, or other). It is advisable to clarify that at the beginning. After that, you unlock the payment and exchange feedback with the designer.
The average price for a flyer design can range from $20 to $150, depending on the complexity and uniqueness of the project. The designer can use ready-made templates for Photoshop, using websites such as https://www.elegantflyer.com/ or create a completely non-template flyer exclusively for you.
2. Organize a design competition with a prize pool. (Start a contest). Price: $199
Register on the site https://99designs.com/categories, create a competition for the design of the flyer, describe it in maximum detail to explain what you want to get as a result. Add requirements concerning style, colors, and texts. I would recommend you to indicate examples of what you like and dislike. Then, you are waiting for possible options. Usually, you get from 30 to 60 different design options, from which you will choose the one you like the most. Along with the designer, you can modify them later, and after that, you release the payment. In favor of this method, I can say that you will get many options for choosing + you will bring the selected option to perfection just for $199.
3. Make a flyer in Photoshop using templates. Price: from $0 + a little bit of your time.
This method is suitable for those who know at least a little Photoshop or are ready to take 15–30 minutes to figure out how it works. I will try to explain how to do it without preparation.
First of all, you need Photoshop. You can download and install it out here https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html. If you are installing that for the first time, then at the moment Photoshop has a free trial (just for 7 days), and after the trial version, you will have to pay from $9.99 per month.
Download the free trial version, install it, and go look for the relevant flyer templates for Photoshop. Fortunately, there is a large abundance of them on the Internet. Let’s take a look at the site https://www.elegantflyer.com/. There are a lot of free templates there, and if you do not find a free one, you can download a paid template for just $2.99. This is probably the most voluminous resource with flyers as there are about 10,000 of them (1200 of which are free for both personal and commercial use).
Download the template in zip format. Unpack and open it in Photoshop. Then, add the necessary changes such as editing texts, photos, color, etc. Here is a detailed guide on how to do this https://www.youtube.com/watchv=Hz32-IQac8o&feature=emb_title.
Save the flyer in the desired format. Then, you can send it to the printing office or post it on social networks.
4. Online editors. It takes a little time to figure out how everything works, but it is still easier than mastering Photoshop. Prices vary.
There are 3 main online editors with a large collection of flyers:
· Canva https://www.canva.com/templates/search/flyer/. There is a 30-day free trial. After the trial, it will cost you $12 per month. There is a wide selection of flyers (about 2000 pieces). As for the benefits, you get simple enough design of flyers, without extra frills. Quite a convenient editor.
· Postermywall https://www.postermywall.com/. Prices start from $2.99 per print format. There is a large base of flyers, some of which are of a little outdated design. Nevertheless, there are decent options, too.
· Crello.com https://crello.com/templates/flyer/. A modern constructor with up-to-date designs, which also has a 14-day free trial. The price for use starts from $ 7.99 per month after the trial period. A wide selection of flyers and user-friendly interface.
There are many more online designers, but they have the same working principle and prices, give or take.
5. Word + Templates for it
You can download Microsoft Word here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/buy/compare-all-microsoft-365-products. There is a free trial version, with a price of $9.99 after the end of it. Using the Word, it is quite easy to edit different products, many of which are familiar with the Word.
You can download flyer templates for Word out there https://www.template.net/editable/flyers.Unfortunately, there are not many free flyers on this site, and subscription costs start from $8.
Nevertheless, this is a good alternative to Photoshop and online designers.
In conclusion, I would like to say there are different options for creating a flyer. If you don’t want to immerse yourself in the topic — delegate the task to specialists. Keep in mind though, that the price can be high. If you have some spare time and want to save money, try to learn how everything works. You can create an original flyer design on your own using the sources I have mentioned above.
