You probably get dozens of brochures, flyers and general junk every week. Pay attention to what you do with them and why. Some you probably scan quickly and file for later reference. Others, you toss straight in the garbage. A very few you will actually read. Why? Take a second look and see what attracts and sells you . . . and what repels you.

1.Learn from your competition. Before you start to develop a brochure for your company, review all your competitions' brochures. You'll be surprised at what you learn. Pick out the points and techniques that attract and sell you. It is easier to point to a brochure with the type of image you like than to verbalize it in briefing a creative person.

The best way to learn about your industry is from your competition. You do you have their brochures, price sheets, promotional material, samples of their products, don't you? This is the first step.

2.Involve your Creative person from the start. Bring in a creative services person for a preliminary chat. Show him your competitors' material. Give him an idea of what you are trying to accomplish and a little company background.

A skilled, creative person should be able to elicit from you all he needs to develop an initial rough concept, copy and layout. Work together to develop the brochure you need.

3. Determine how much you can spend on your brochure? It's no good just telling your designer to develop some ideas unless you provide a realistic budget within which to work. You do not want to waste money, but neither do you want to produce some schlock just to save a little. That's penny wise and pound foolish. A good bench mark you could use is that your brochure should match or better the quality of the best competitive brochures.

Set a budget that tends to hurt and than add 10%.Your brochure must reflect the quality your company sells. There is seldom profit in looking second rate.

4.Printing Budgets Setting up a reasonable printing budget is easy, if not painless. Call up a couple of printers and ask them, in general terms, what it will cost to print the type of brochure you have in mind, based on all artwork supplied. Usually they will be glad to assist. After all it could mean an order.

5.Pre-Press Budgets As a rule of thumb, use about 50% of the printing cost as a budget for your copy, design, type and final artwork. This percentage will be lower on larger printing jobs of course. Take heart. There is some consolation in the fact that your pre-press costs are a one time item.After you get over the initial shock, fire up your spread sheet and set a realistic budget.

For the best results, let your printer print but have your creative person do all the copy, design and related pre-press work. Do NOT have your printer designing brochures. And no matter how good your receptionist is with her paint program, do not have amateurs creating your corporate material, unless of course you want to look amateur.

Kishor Nayak is a Business Consultant working with International clients. Did you find this information useful? You can learn a lot more about how
business brochures can help your business.