If you want to grow you must brand. There is no question about this now. We live in a digital age where everyone is oversaturated with imagery and content. We all know that our businesses have to be online, but for your business to survive it must be 1. easily found and 2. visibly different. Branding creates that difference. Cost of living and goods continue to rise. Unfortunately, our wages aren’t rising fast enough to meet it. Additionally, we have to deal with the looming threat of unexpected job loss and with that a devastating hit to our means of safely providing for our family. This drives some to suicide, couples to divorce or families to foreclosure. To stave off the threat of lost income we work second jobs, start side hustles, go into business for ourselves, invest and more. Ultimately, we diversify the ways we make money so that no matter what happens to one stream of income we have others. After all, losing 30% of your income is better than losing 100%.
What usually happens is that with our diverse income streams some start to grow to a point we take notice and begin asking ourselves if we might be able to free ourselves of the tethers of white or blue collar life. Many jump into it with the wrong assumption—that just because you can do the work you have a business. It just means you have another job and it will stay that way until your turn your job into a brand. This is why branding is more important now than ever.
We all have goals, some big and some small. Overall, we all want to have freedom, flexibility and security. Everyone desires the freedom to pursue passions of life and the flexibility in their schedules to pursue such passions, but with the security of making sure that our income will always provide for our family’s living expenses. These are the reasons why many go into business on their own, yet very few see their business become the tool by which they are able to fulfill their life’s goals. If your business is a brand it can.
What Is A Brand?
“A person’s gut feeling about your product, service or organization.”—Marty Nuemyer
When a person’s sees the clip art logo on your business card, they think, “small”. This happens subliminally and psychologically and is rarely ever said to you. What’s not subliminal is how they next react to your business. Let’s say you have a side business as a general contractor. Your logo is simply a hammer you found on Vistaprint as you were designing your business cards with your name, Joe’s General Contracting. You hand that card to a potential client who wants to renovate their kitchen. In your experience you know such a project will cost from $6,000-$15,000 because that’s what you do in your day job, with a company that has a brand by the way but we’ll come back to that later. You quote them $11,000 for the job because you have 15 years experience doing it. You never hear from them again. What happened? Why did you lose the bid? Your brand said small and you delivered a high price that did not show your brand was worth that price. Now you’re confused because your boss wins bids like this everyday. Why?
Simply, his brand is stronger than yours. You may not even like his logo. But, he has a website, quote forms, trucks with his logo on it. He pulled up to the house in that truck, he walked into the client’s home with a uniform. Before he left, he gave his business card and a brochure of the business complete with before and after shots. On top of that he has a bunch of reviews and the logos of all the third party sites that have vetted his business and endorse it as reliable all over his marketing materials. All those things registered in the clients’ mind as, “professional, reliable and expensive.” His bid was $25,000 and he won it. That was because his branding showed that he was worth that price. Heck, even bad branding can grow a business if it’s cohesive and consistent. If you want to be where your boss is, then your side business must be branded bigger and better than his.
Don’t just stop at creating a brand since they are everywhere. Build an amazing brand, the brand that everyone goes to when they need your product or service. When people do business with you make that experience so easy and amazing that they want to come back. They will then refer you freely and often rather than using the “carrot” of more business to make you drive down your price. Businesses have to lower their price, brands increase theirs.
Whether we realize it or not your potential customers do a lot of research about you before they even make contact. They look at your website, social media, reviews, etc. They do all this to answer one simple question, “Who can provide what I need with the least amount of risk?”
Benefits of Branding: Security
Having a brand does most of the hard work for you. In fact, it does all this without you even being aware that someone was interested in buying what you do or sell. Whether you realize it or not your potential customers do a lot of research about you before they even make contact. They look at your website, social media, reviews, etc. They do all this to answer one simple question, “Who can provide what I need with the least amount of risk?” They compare several others and the brand that appears to be the least risky wins the business. Notice I didn’t say least expensive. Brands don’t compete on price. They can be competitive with pricing, that’s strategy, however, if someone will only do business with you if you’re the lowest price then RUN AWAY. They will never be the ideal client that advocates for your brand and that’s what you need to grow. In fact, if they call you interested in your product or service they’ve already qualified and validated you so there’s no need to drop your price. Your brand has done all this legwork so that by the time they call they are ready to buy and you have to simply convince them that the process of doing business with you is the least risky. The best brands do this without even having to talk to someone. Owners simply see their bank account growing bigger with another sale they didn’t have to do the selling for, their branding did it for them. Brands deliver the security of continual income.
Benefits of Branding: Flexibility
Effective branding gives a business the opportunity to explore other avenues of growth beyond their core offering. Take Netflix for example. They started just as a movie streaming service. They could have made a very good living off that alone with all the movies that continue to come out. But as people began to recognize and appreciate what Netflix brought to the table the brand began to grow: original content, partnerships with other studios and more. Who knows what’s next for the brand. Their brand has grown to the point where they have the flexibility to explore options that will grow the business without the risk of jeopardizing their core revenue drivers.
One could look at that and say, “yes, with millions of dollars behind me I can grow to that level”. What you’re forgetting is that the principles are there. If you have a brand that resonates with people you may start with your product or service, but now you can expand to consulting, swag, education, sponsorship and more. That’s why we have Instagram models and YouTube stars. These are average people with a brand that makes them millions. Brands are identity and just like cliques in high school, people will hang around and buy from brands they identify with. Brands give you the ability to scale your business faster from where you started giving you freedom.
Benefits of Branding: Freedom
We all have things we’d love to do. Learn a new language, play an instrument, travel, etc. When your business becomes a brand you have the freedom to explore various opportunities with the security of regular and flexible streams of income. You no longer have to clock in day in and out to make sure that a check is coming. In fact, you could take a trip around the world and come back with more money than you started. That is what many talk about when they say jump and go out on your own because the freedom you want in life is best achieved through having a brand. That brand could be you, what you do or what you provide.
How to Build Your Brand
While there are several steps in building a successful brand these are some of the most common no matter what industry you’re in.
1. Create a product or service that solves a problem for a large enough niche audience that will continually buy.
Your business should be one that people seek you out or at the very least seek out a solution to their problem. For example, I was listening to The Tim Ferriss Show, and he was interviewing Dave Elitch. He’s known as the Drumming Mercenary. Why? Because when a band is on tour or about to go on tour and the drummer gets, sick, injured or fired, they need to find a replacement drummer super fast. The drummer needs to be able to learn all the songs immediately and not skip a beat when 30,000 screaming fans are in front of him. When they are looking for someone like that, they are looking for someone who, very literally, is the least risky option since millions of dollars are on the line. The drummer who plays in a cover band at local bars is not who they’re hiring, they’re hiring Dave. What’s more, being known as the “Drumming Mercenary” we can be sure Dave doesn’t charge $500 a show like the cover band would. Why? Because Dave is sought out. He has a service for a niche audience that has a regular problem he can fill and will readily pay to fill it. While Dave is his own brand, he has leveraged his brands’ flexibility to coaching, private lessons, swag and more.
2. Define your brand values
The best way to define what your brand is about is to, as Simon Sinek says, “start with why”. Why do you want to do this? What’s motivating you? Why do you feel it’s needed now? Why are you the best one to provide it? None of those answers should be money. Money is a byproduct of consistently delivering value to the end user. The reason why you “start with why” is because people want to hear your story. They love the underdog and will get behind it. Why do you think there’s crowdfunding? All underdog stories that people want to look at down the road and say, “I helped them become what they are because they are the ones that can best fill my need.” Defining your brand values helps people both resonate and identify with you.
3. Create a system of fulfillment
Now that you you’ve identified a problem that needs solving and you’ve defined why you’re the best one to do it you have to have a system in place to deliver it. That’s one of the backbones of business growth, systems of delivery. A system can be duplicated and be trained on giving you the freedom to not have to be around everyday to make sure the business doesn’t collapse on itself. Say what you want about McDonalds, but I guarantee that every franchise owner is not there every day flipping burgers. In fact, if they own several that’s impossible, but they are making money everyday. Why? The entire business is composed of systems that deliver the same experience to the end user every time. So much so that the end user comes back for the same experience which results in more business and growth. What’s the process you will undertake to deliver the same result your clients will expect every time? Documenting and repeating that process becomes your system.
4. Create a symbol that represents your brand values
With the biggest tasks now addressed you can go about creating your logo, the symbol that represents the values of your brand. The most crucial part of this process is that it has zero to do with you and 100% to do with your target audience. This boils down to creating the symbol that satisfies the emotional need of your target audience.
Looks nice but looks small.
Going back to Joe’s General Contracting we mentioned earlier, part of the reason why Joe didn’t win the bid was because his brand didn’t show that he could satisfy the emotional need of the homeowner. What does every homeowner want to feel in the contractor they hire? Confidence! Confidence is the least risky option and a hammer doesn’t exude confidence it just says I’m a contractor. Bold, heavy letters exudes confidence. Strong colors says confidence. Consistently done across all collateral and brand touchpoints seals the deal. To create the symbol that represents your brand you need to have a professional designer do it you can’t create it on your own. And please, don’t expect to pay $100 for it. Chris Do of The Futur often talks about something called symmetry of logic. You want this symbol of your company to help you make hundreds of thousands of dollars but you can only pay $100 for it? Doesn’t make sense. In fact, anyone that will charge you $100 to make a logo for your business that is suppose to make you hundreds of thousands every year don’t you dare pay them. They clearly don’t have enough experience to ask the right questions and understand your brand and target audience enough. Going with them puts the future of your business at risk. If you can’t afford to “pay the piper” now start with what you have and lower your price until you have enough revenue coming in to invest in your business and create a proper brand. You don’t need a brand to start, but you do need it to grow.
The Future of Your Business Is Your Brand
We all have goals and desires in life. Say what you will but dreams have a price tag and brands can cash the check. If you want to stop being harassed at work with bosses that don’t appreciate you, if you want to stop putting in 14-16 hour days with no break in sight and if you want to have the freedom to explore other options whatever they are then it is imperative to create your brand today. Your business wasn’t built in a day and neither will your brand. Start now and your brand will help deliver rewards not only for you, but for everyone that comes in contact with your brand. It’s more important for to do this now than ever before.
