Are You Ready for Branding?
This is a post for the business owner who’s ever wondered
‘Am I ready for branding?’
Or, in reality the question you’re asking is: ‘Is branding worth it at this stage?’
Running a business, especially near its inception, means that you have an influx of options regarding how you should invest your time, money, and energy.
I remember being overwhelmed with that. On top of running your business and doing the actual work, you have taxes, invoices, a website, social media, newsletters, blog posts, operations, strategy, and of course, branding. Before I get into the nitty-gritty, I want to make one thing clear about my perspective on these things: I am not inside your business. I can’t tell you with 100% clarity that branding is going to provide more ROI than finding someone to write gorgeous, consistent newsletters. This is your business, that’s the whole point.
What I can say with certainty is that branding is one of the most valuable things you can have in your toolbox as a business owner.
Let’s zoom out a little bit.
Remove the notion from your head that branding has anything to do with a logo for a moment. Let’s look at what brand strategy does for you.
Strategic branding lays the foundation for your mission, vision, values, and personality.
Regardless of how you produce an identity from those pieces, this is an integral part of running a business with intention and vision. It goes beyond “we do this” to “we do this because…” and on to other questions you haven’t even thought of yet.
Now for the question of “are you ready for branding?”
Some reasons you might not feel ready are:
You’re busy and bogged down with work and can’t add another piece to the puzzle
You don’t have the budget
You need to invest in other things before branding
You need to do some soul-searching first; figure out what exactly you want to do
These are all valid reasons! Truly, sometimes, the timing just isn’t right. It’s a wise decision to hold off until you can afford it or until you navigate the ‘what’ of your business.
outside of that, the reason I would say that you’re nearly always ready for branding is just this:
The earlier you can get clarity on your why, the easier your who and how will become.
The quicker you can get a grip on who you’re talking to and how, the easier you can reach them.
The sooner you invest in and take pride in how your business looks and feels, the more confidence you will have to grow it.
What you might not realize you’re getting from branding is a whole list of byproducts that impact you and your business in positive ways:
The confidence to present your business.
The permission to take yourself and your business seriously.
The ease to hit the ground running and create whatever your business needs.
The language to talk about your business with clarity.
The foundation to grow.
Those are from two of my clients. They know because they’ve been there.
The other day, I received one of the greatest compliments I could ever hope to get. A client told me that she was working on an area of growth for her company and that the brand materials we created over a year ago made it simple, easy, and clear to create this. If you can grow from that place, the place of knowing who you are and what your mission is, and have all of the assets to make it happen, you’re in a great spot, no matter how “ready” you felt at the beginning.
A brand is a living, breathing entity. It should shift as you do. If you shift industries, markets, demographics, you should also shift your branding. Sometimes, this prevents people from investing in branding: the acknowledgement that you may have to reinvest down the road. When in reality, you’re not rewriting the script with a rebrand, just refining it.
Let me repeat:
The earlier you can get clarity on your why, the easier your who and how will become.
The quicker you can get a grip on who you’re talking to and how, the easier you can reach them.
The sooner you invest in and take pride in how your business looks and feels, the more confidence you will have to grow it.
And you are the only one inside of your business who can make the decision of when exactly that happens.
