Richard has an impressive track record of building successful businesses. He has founded, built, and sold multiple companies including MyDomain.com, Resume.com, and NamesCon.Along with success on the business side, he has a heart for giving back to others and is Executive Director of WaterSchool, a charity focused on clean water projects in Uganda.
Utilising his experience to benefit others, Richard has developed a passion for helping other entrepreneurs and potential business owners increase their own happiness and success. He does this through any venue he can - including podcasts, public speaking events, and conferences.
2020 is Richard's 20th year as a cancer survivor.He was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 30 after just moving to a new country with his wife & 3-month old son. His faith in God carried him through this trying time for himself and his family and gave him even more drive to help others through business.
On the Fearless Business Podcast in this episode is Richard Lau, the founder of Logo.com and builder of many successful businesses including MyDomain.com, Resume.com, and NamesCon. He is also passionate about helping others and is the Executive Director of WaterSchool, a charity focused on clean water projects in Uganda. From his professional experiences, but also personal as a 20 year cancer survivor, Richard developed a passion for helping other entrepreneurs and potential business owners increase their own happiness and success.
As the founder of Logo.com, an AI-powered, automated logo-maker, Richard shared some of his wise words. A lot of business owners, you become concerned with how the outside world perceives you and often you see the logo being a main focus.
Through focusing on your logo though, it becomes easy to overthink it and you get wrapped up in your logo design. This can actually impact your sales because rather than really doing the work and providing value to your clients, choosing a logo design can be a form of procrastination.
It is not that logos don’t matter at all. When potential clients see your logo, you need to think about what it is that you are communicating in that brief second someone sees your logo. When logos become the sole focus though, you start to see them overly-detailed with too many elements packed in. Whether that’s too many colours, fonts, images. If you are a small business owner and your business is just you doing everything, then you may want your logo to represent your multi hyphenate role. If you are a larger company though, it is important to take a step back and recognise if you are overanalysing your logo, but also consider the future of your business. If your logo contains too many elements, that could lead your audience to think you are a small business. It may feel like you are showing attention to detail and making an impact, but sometimes less is more when it comes to logos.
Something which Richard believes has brought him success in his various businesses is the desire to help people and recognising that technology can really help to change people’s lives for the better if you choose to harness this power. Logo.com helps small businesses to get affordable professional logos quickly. Resume.com focused on helping people, especially students, to get better jobs. The benefit of the business was recognised and indeed.com later went on to buy the whole business. Richard also established the NamesCon, which became the largest internet domain name conference. Its strength lay in bringing people together and helping the community. This went on to be owned by GoDaddy.
This passion for helping others also led to Richard’s work with WaterSchool, a charity which focuses on clean water projects to countries such as Uganda. He admired the charity for their transparency and positive work they were doing. This led to hosting fundraising events at NamesCon.
Doing business for good matters. Your clients matter, there is no denying that. If you have the chance and make money, you have the power to help others. Being able to give back makes a huge difference.
As a founder of multiple businesses and projects, Richard knows what it is like to have ideas that are worth your time and double down on them, but also when to walk away from something. Sometimes you can let websites or projects go on for longer than they should because you struggle to let go. Bringing in a business partner or coach or mentor who does not have the same sentimentality can help you to see why you are doing something and whether it is right for you. Likewise, you want to consider whether a project is a hobby or a business venture. Whatever it is, you don’t want to be putting your time and energy into something which isn’t going to work.
If you do have a business which isn’t working, or on the other side, is going well and you are ready to scale and start to remove yourself from it either by bringing in a team or selling, it is good to have an exit strategy from day one. Rather than going through the nightmares of an unplanned, messy exit, if you have plans in place from the start, the process is less stressful.
It is important to get things such as paperwork, licensing, terms and conditions and any other legal proceedings mapped out.
For more of Richard’s journey and fascinating insight into his career so far, head over and listen to the full podcast interview.
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/logodotcom/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/logodotcom/
Twitter: twitter.com/logodotcom
Instagram: www.instagram.com/logodotcom/
Website: www.logo.com
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