Over the years I have worked with a number of startups.  It's interesting to watch entrepreneurs get ready to open their doors.  They form an LLC (or some other type of company.)  They get their insurance and whatever licenses are required.  They jump through all the hoops.  The last thing they often think about is corporate identity.  The truth is, most entrepreneurs start with a small (sometimes too small) budget, and spending money on logo development, packaging design, etc. is “a luxury” they can't (or choose not to) afford.

And while the business is just emerging and sales are nil, that might seem like a reasonable response to some people.  But what is that cartoony, clip-art logo going to look like when you're doing $10 million a year in sales?  “Oh,” you say, “We'll re-do it when we get bigger and have more money.”  Wrong.  You will never have more money.  It's not an issue of money.  It's an issue of priority.  If presenting yourself in the best possible light isn't important now, it's not going to be important when you're growing like a week and putting every penny you can scrape together into moving that growth forward.  Not to mention the disruption to your market when you totally re-design yourself after everyone gets used to seeing you as you were.

No.  Now is the time identify yourself.  Decide who you are and then make sure everything the public will see supports that vision you have of your company.    Would you go to a doctor who made TV ads that looked like a used car lot?  No.  You want to go to someone who is “dignified and better educated and more reliable.”  What makes you think she's more dignified, better educated and more reliable?  The “corporate” image.  The used car salesman may well be as educated as the doctor and even more reliable, but the image portrayed doesn't bear that out.  Make sure your corporate identity accurately portrays who you are.