According to ABS statistics, for businesses established in 2013-14 with fewer than 20 employees, there was a 64% survival rate by 2016 (not a 60% failure rate as is often cited online). This drops to 55% for surviving a fourth year – a select group we intend on joining.

Deciding when our anniversary should be wasn’t as easy a choice as you might think. While a bricks and mortar store might have a more obvious first day in business, we had different anniversaries for:

• Registering our ABN,
• Registering our business name,
• Purchasing our domain and hosting,
• Becoming ‘LinkedIn official’,
• Having our first business meeting,
• Invoicing our first client,
• Our first client paying us (within two days!)

In the end, we’ve gone with registering our business name as our official anniversary, as that’s the day Civic Web Media was truly born. There have been major achievements in that time for us:

• Each year, we’ve had more income (and more tax to pay, including GST),
• Each year, we’ve grown our client numbers (both in Newcastle and overseas),
• We’ve gone from a home office to working in a shared office space of creatives at The Roost,
• We were invited to speak at an industry event,
• At the start of 2018, we invited one of our freelancers to work for us on a more official basis.

We also recently celebrated payment of our 200th invoice. While this isn’t always the best measure of success (for example, our biggest invoice contains 60x as many items and is worth 200x more than our smallest), it feels like an important landmark nonetheless.

When we started in business, we made the decision to make a donation after every 100 invoices – a local business helping the local community. The first time round we donated to the Hunter Wetlands; this time we’ve supported Newcastle Toy Run.

We’ve got a lot to look forward to – a celebration of a fourth anniversary and our 300th invoice among them – and every day in business is another reminder that we’re doing something right.

But before then, let us eat cake.

Designing your company logo requires creativity and when you’re operating in a crowded and unimaginative market it can pay to go against the grain.

It may seem like an odd place to get inspiration, but death metal band Party Cannon can teach a lot of companies about effective logo design.

Who are Party Cannon?

Party Cannon is a brutal death metal band from Dunfermline, Scotland. Currently signed with Gore House Productions, their releases include 2015’s Bong Hit Hospitalisation and the 2013 live album Drunk in Cambridge. They describe their musical style as ‘party slam’.

Why are they getting a shout-out on a content marketing blog that doesn’t typically cover the extreme metal world? Because their ridiculously inappropriate logo is a work of marketing genius.

The above poster for a metal festival in Oakland, California drew a lot of online attention in 2015, however bass player Chris “Prey” Ryan said it wasn’t the first time.

“Every time it goes viral we definitely gain legitimate fans that listen to the music, attend shows, buy merch, and properly get what we’re about, which is awesome,” Chris told BuzzFeed News.

“I’m pretty sure 90% of the people that follow those pages have never even heard of Devourment, but now they’ve heard of us, which I can’t really complain about.”

Unique like everyone else

One of the purposes of a logo is to make your company easy to identify, meaning it should set you apart from your competitors.

It’s true that there are certain colour combinations, typefaces and imagery that suit certain industries. If a distinct visual language exists in your field, you can use these familiar associations in your logo to give people some idea about your business even before they know anything about you.

But sticking too close to convention could see you become just another face in the crowd, a problem that can affect everyone from death metal bands to private spaceflight companies.

Graphic designer Andrew Sloan told The Verge that companies in this exciting new industry tend to be disappointingly unimaginative when it comes to their logo ideas.

“There are usually dominant blues, dominant blacks, all going with this rocket swoosh and a pointed star,” Andrew explained.

“At least from a differentiation standpoint, these new companies have such a beautiful opportunity to stand up and try new design conventions that are a little more friendly; something that suits your core values a little bit more than defaulting to a swoosh.

“As the commercial space sector starts to mature, the need to stand out is going to become more important.”

Dare to think different

You don’t always need to pull out the Party Cannon to get your brand noticed, but it’s worth pointing out that some of the world’s most recognisable logos were conceived outside the box.

Take Apple’s iconic logo. It doesn’t feature a computer or anything directly related to the products they sell. If Apple was less of a household name, you’d be forgiven for thinking, like Forrest Gump, it was “some kind of fruit company.”

There are various theories about what the logo represents, from a pun on the word ‘byte’ to the biblical interpretation of eating fruit from the tree of knowledge. Its designer, Rob Janoff, has confirmed that none of these associations were consciously intended, and that the bite was included simply so people wouldn’t mistake the apple for a cherry. But what’s not disputed is that Apple took a familiar image with rich and ancient associations and made it their own.

Whether you can do the same depends on how successful your company is, but a good logo is a great start.

See more examples of great and terrible design when it comes to designing your business website.

In order to be accepted into the training stage you have to meet the course requirements. The most important are that you must be over the age of 18, be connected to a jobactive provider or disability employment service, be available to work full time in your business and attend full time training for six weeks. Your business can’t be yet be operating and you must have a point of difference from existing businesses.

Taking the first steps

If you have checked the eligibility criteria on the Department of Employment website and meet the requirements, the next step is to speak to your jobactive provider or disability employment service about applying for the NEIS program. They will let you know where your local NEIS training providers are and issue you with a referral letter. Get in contact with the NEIS training provider and they will ask you to come in for a meeting to assess the  commercial viability of your business.

Initial assessment meeting

When invited for your meeting, you should take as much information with you as possible. A business mentor will ask you questions about the business idea such as where it will operate, how you will fund it, who will work in the business and what experience you have. They will also ask about your competitors so it’s a good idea to do some research before the meeting.

One of the requirements is that your business must have a point of difference. This means it has to have an element unlike any of your local competitors. You will be asked to explain what that difference is and why it will be an advantage.

Be confident about your idea; enthusiasm and passion goes a long way.

NEIS training

If accepted you will be offered a place in the NEIS training program and begin a Certificate IV in Small Business Management. During the course you will learn about various aspects of business and create a business plan which will be submitted as an application for NEIS assistance.

NEIS assistance

Your NEIS training provider will forward your business plan to be assessed. If found to be viable for funding you will be provided with both financial and advisory support. The financial support comes in the form of a fortnightly payment equal to the single’s Newstart Allowance, plus rent assistance if you are already eligible. This will continue for the first nine months or until you are making more than double the assistance given, which is assessed quarterly. NEIS participants also have access to 12 months of business mentoring.

For people looking to start their own business, the NEIS program is a great way to learn the basics and to get a bit of funding to help you get started.