In this episode we will teach you how to build your brand. The moment you start your own business as a freelancer or entrepreneur, you by default start work on building your company's brand.
The brand is the environment's perception of what your company is, what it looks like, and what you can expect from it.
You need to choose between a personal brand and a company brand
For some solo-entrepreneurs, the personal brand is strongly associated with the company. However, using your personal brand or building a company one boils down to your personal preference.
Depending on your industry, demand, and other factors, a personal brand helps the clients get a personal feel. When they think of your company and products they think of you, and when they think of you, they think of your company and products.
In other situations, separating the personal and company brand is advisable. The company's brand is built more independently of you as an entrepreneur in order to include more people in the future and maybe sell the company further down the line.
However, as you will see, for many small entrepreneurs, the brand consists of both personal and company elements.
As you read through the article and get to think about all the components of the brand you can revisit this question and decide which of the three alternatives fits your company best.
You cannot not have a brand
Your business has a brand whether you like it or not. If you do not take care of your brand, it will take care of itself. The environment will form an opinion about your company and that will be your brand. In this article, we will discuss multiple brand building concepts and give some tips on how to own your brand building process.
The brand has 2 cornerstones
There are two concepts that create the basis of any brand:
The first one is the physical expression: logo, profile colors, and the like.
The second one is the value-laden identity of the brand.
Many entrepreneurs and freelancers mistakenly think that when they choose a logo, make some business cards and design the website, the brand is set. Don’t fall for this fallacy. Your logo and other visual elements are there to reinforce the totality of your brand. They alone are not enough. The visual elements need to be part of something bigger, they need to be part of the identity and perception of what your company promises its customers.
Long story short: the visuals should carry the meaning of the brand, not be the brand itself.
So let’s start there. Before you start designing the logo, you need to be clear about what your company means and wants to achieve. What is the purpose of your company?
Brand meaning
Begin by defining the vision, core values, and brand promise
Maybe you did some of these already when you wrote your business plan. If not, now is the time.
The following questions can help you define your vision, core values, and brand promise:
What do you really want to do with your business? Here you have to get past the obvious of providing the product you offer. Of course the product is a big part, but you do not run the company for your own sake. You come with a set of talents and abilities to offer the world and you are passionate about something. Spell that out.
What is your vision of running this particular company?
What do you want - really?
Use the answers of these questions as a starting point and write down your vision. This will be the core of your brand and the tuning fork that all your future activities will be tuned to.
Expand the vision to find your core values
Now that you have the vision in front of you, you need to expand it and see how it relates to everything that you do. This is a very important step in your entrepreneurship journey. You can use these following questions as a guide:
How do you achieve your vision?
What feeling do you want to convey when you achieve your vision?
What is your idea of how your company should appear and be perceived?
Brainstorm freely for a while and write down all the words that come to your mind.
Then see how the words in front of you are connected. Can they be grouped? Are there logical connections? Interesting contradictions? Sort them as you see fit. Take your vision as a basis, review the headings, groups and independent words in your brainstorming material based on the connection to your vision.
To find your core values write down the most important ideas/concepts that stand out from the expansion of your vision. Pick 3-5 words that really describe what you want to be in the market.
Get extra help from a coach
Even the most self-reflective of us could use a helping hand now and then. It is easy to want to express many things at the same time or remain vague with certain elements. Get a coach to challenge you to stay concise and clear, and support you in finding those exact core values that are important to you.
Find a coach here or download our free material on finding your core values.
Write down your brand promises
Now that you have your vision and your core values, the next question is: what do you promise your customers? What is your brand promise? When someone buys your products, what can they expect? Go beyond “high quality product,” and dive deeper into the whole experience. Write down your promises.
The external attributes of the brand
Create a logo
Good work. Now you have done the groundwork. Next, you can start thinking about the external attributes. Ask a graphic designer to sketch a logo for you. Or if you prefer to do the job yourself, you can now start thinking about:
What does a company like yours look like?
How do you visualize your vision, your core values and your promises to the customer?
Are they soft shapes or straighter lines?
What colors fit?
Extra tip: if you have a favorite color that you know you often use yourself and you want your personal brand close to your company, you can include that color in your logo or make it your profile color.
All visual elements should reflect the brand
Build your website, your business cards, your brochures and the decor of your office to reflect and strengthen your brand. Create a style that expresses what your brand stands for and find ways to include elements of the vision, the core values, and the promises.
If you promise exclusivity, make sure your business cards reflect that. If personal closeness is one of your core values, this should be apparent when I visit your website. If corporate professionalism is part of your vision, you may want to skip decorating the brochures with kittens and summer flowers (even though they are beautiful).
Separate the brand from your personal taste
Now keep in mind that your visual expression should reflect the brand you have created as an entrepreneur, not your own personal taste. It's about what your company stands for and promises in the market, not who you are. With a brand that is close to you as a person, it is easy to mix them up.
Practice separating yourself and the company even if you actually want to build a strong personal brand. You need to be genuine. You need to be YOU and like what you do. But you still have to have a private life as well. Not everything that you do should be expressed in the brand; this is about your professional persona. You choose how much of your entire identity you want to express there.
Let the brand live in your everyday life
Think about how you actually live your brand in your work day. Think about how you honor the promises you make to the customer as an entrepreneur. Think about what routines regarding purchase, payment, discounts, etc. will be right for a company with your brand promises. Think about the places where you should network, and the causes you should support.
At the same time, allow yourself to be unique and stand out. Your uniqueness is what makes the market notice and remember you - so take advantage of it. When you become too similar to all other entrepreneurs in your industry, it becomes harder and harder for those who meet you to find a clear hook to hang the memory of you on. What's your thing? Once you've worked on establishing your brand and people start talking about you - what are people saying when they talk to each other about you and want to remind each other of who you are? "It's he the one with…" or "You know her, her who…"
During the time you run your business, your brand will be alive, will breathe, and will develop. The reputation of your company will be built through the interactions with your customers, your competitors, your market, and the world around you. The more logical and clear you can communicate your intentions, the easier it will be for the right customers to find you. Your brand is strong when it clearly expresses the values your company delivers and the outside world appreciates what they associate it with.
Summary on how to build your brand:
1. Develop a clear vision - why does this company exist?
2. Select core values that reflect the vision. What is important for your business?
3. Formulate your brand promises. What do you promise the customer?
4. Design your style in the form of external expressions in line with your brand
5. Build business routines and networks in line with your brand
Live and communicate your brand day by day as long as you continue to run the business.
In our next and last episode of the RYOB series we will explore a topic that usually sets apart successful entrepreneurs from the rest: sticking to your own personal development journey.