So You Want to Start Your Own Business – Branding Yourself
There’s a lot that goes on with starting a business. Deciding how you want to structure it (the eternal question – to incorporate or to not incorporate). Picking a name for your new venture. Finding an office space to call your own. Writing up a business plan to secure a bank loan.
But perhaps the most important piece of starting up is figuring out why you’re in business. What you stand for. In essence, your brand.
Most of us who are bootstrapping it think we can just pull up some clip art and find a font we like in MS Word and bam, we’ve got a logo. Or maybe we run down to Staples and have them whip up something to throw on a business card and letterhead. Get a neighborhood kid you know to make a website for you and you’re done, you have a brand, right?
The reality is, branding is so much more than just the visuals. Your brand communicates who you are, what you do, and what consumers can expect from your company and your products or services. And if you want to be on
the same page with your customers, you better understand who you are and what you stand for.
And I don’t mean writing up some incomprehensible mission statement or set of core values that promises commitment to empowering customer-centered initiatives or the usual corporate jargon. I mean an actual mission – the reason that gets you up every morning and underlines your day with purpose. For example –
“To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
How’s that for a reason to get out of bed and get things done every day?
Bottom line – you have to know where you stand before you can start reaching for the stars. Instead of hiring some high school kid to communicate your business proposition to the world, hire a team of professionals that will work to present you and what you stand for in the best possible light. I know it’s helped me.
