Some business owners will spend a few hundred dollars to get a crappy logo designed, and then they'll spend tens of thousands of dollars to have that crappy logo applied to signage, vehicles and collateral.

It's "penny wise and pound foolish" thinking, I tell ya.

Here's a nickel's worth of free advice: spend as much as you can on the creation of your brand and look to save money elsewhere.

You can have the nicest fleet of trucks, the most impressive offices and even the snappiest web site in your industry, but if your brand -- your logo, your tagline, your secondary graphic components -- doesn't differentiate you from your competition, you're wasting your time and money.

Sigh.

I know this all sounds self-serving, but I'll tell my competition's clients this. Don't skimp on the important stuff.