When Do I Need To Start Branding My Business?

Start-ups, small businesses, and online businesses all face this question at some point: when do I need to start branding my business? They might even wonder, what is branding, how can branding boost my business, and isn’t it all about the logo (hint: no, it’s not). In different Facebook groups and forums I see questions that often pop up around “not having time” for branding or “not needing it yet” and, to be honest, this makes me a cringe a bit.

You need to start branding your business immediately. [Tweet That!]

Here’s the thing, the process of working with a branding designer and strategist will do a lot more for your business than just get you a logo or a website. It will help you figure out the foundation of your business, uncover your target audience, and set realistic but valuable goals for success.

Now, I don’t want you to feel bad or like you’ve missed out on the branding gravy train, because you can always revisit branding and make sure it’s working the best for you and your business. Here are the two most important times to focus on branding your business: 

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STARTING A NEW BUSINESS

The best time is in the beginning, for what might be obvious reasons. Start off strong, right? New businesses can knock it out of the park if they come in with a strong visual brand, as well as the foundation to back it up. What I mean by foundation is that they’ve figured out who they are working with, why they want to work with them, and how they can be serve them. These are issues that not only build a strong base for your branding, but ultimately for your entire business.

Ready to learn more about building a strong base? Grab the eBook now!

In the past when I worked with a client who wanted to focus on strategy for growing their new business we worked through those questions. Within answering them, something magical happens and paths start to open up for questions like: what do I blog or talk on social media about? What solutions can I offer within my service packages? How can I position my business and myself?

Knowing these things from the start is hugely beneficial, because most business owners just start working and trying to figure out these questions a few months in – causing strain on their business, their mental capacity to “do it all”, and generally creates a non-cohesive look to their audience (because they’re flip flopping all over the place trying to make sense of their business).

From a visual standpoint, creating a strong branding identity during business launch forces people to take notice of you, trust your authority, and immediately want to know more about your business. Having something that looks good and appealing to your target audience off the bat will only help you to gain those first few clients and launch successfully.

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CHANGING/ADJUSTING TARGET AUDIENCES

If you’re already a functional business, but have started to make some shifts and narrowing down of your target audience or your offerings then it may be another great time to re-check in with your branding.

You may have done everything “right” in the beginning, but through general business evolution have started to realize where your happy place is and who your happy people are – and therefore are making some adjustments.

A few months into TheCrownFox I had this moment. I didn’t have a “total rebrand”, I had a “branding tune up”, where I just made things a little more clean-cut, more professional, and a lot more visually appealing to the clientele I had realized were the ones I wanted to work with. The want to do this is normal - just make sure you aren’t thinking “rebrand!” as a way to avoid doing other work, and that it is actually coinciding with changes in your business.

If you are going through a major business overhaul (i.e. changing business names or completely changing your offering – like going from being a designer to being a health and wellness coach) then head back up to example number one, because chances are you are just creating a whole new business. 

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Something that is a common thought is that branding is expensive and therefore needs to be put off until a later date. I get that investing upfront is terrifying for a lot of people and have been developing a solution for you. 

First and foremost, a disclaimer: I will always think that investing in branding and strategy mentorship is the best way to go. I am a strong believer in the idea of outsourcing things that are not your specialty, so that you can focus on the parts of your business you love. 

But, if that’s something that you can’t do right now – for whatever reason – I still want you to have a strong visual presence and the ability to develop and grow your business. 

As far as the visual presence goes, I am SO excited to be launching The Shop in a few weeks. The Shop is going to be a template shop, where you can get quick and affordable solutions for your business. So far I’ve created completely affordable logo packages that will set you up with a primary and secondary logo and three variations, blog/social media graphic templates for Photoshop, and business card templates. The launch is happening at the end of this month and I am so ecstatic to offer solutions for everyone at TheCrownFox (as my brand vision is to be an invaluable branding resource and there’s no dollar sign minimum on that)!

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3 Times You’re Not Paying Yourself + Knowing Your Worth

Something that comes up in conversations with other business owners is figuring out what to charge and the battle between wanting to be “affordable” but still make money. I had the realization in my own business was realizing that what I was charging versus the amount of time it was taking me to accomplish my services versus the value for the customer were not equaling out to a profit. I realized this pretty early on and made immediate adjustments, but I wanted to share with you the three times that you are not paying yourself correctly so that you can start seeing profit in your business.

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NOT HAVING A SOLID PACKAGE/OFFERING

The first issue is not having a solid package or offering. From experience I can tell you, I’ve wavered between packages since I started. What I wanted to offer got glazed over by what I thought I had to offer which got tweaked and nitpicked by clients. In the beginning you are so terrified to turn down any clients or any money, so you take time to tweak and customize and go out of your way to become what someone needs you to be (just to lose the proposal anyway).

I’m not saying this is wrong by any means. But it’s not the most efficient or the most profitable way. What I want you to do instead is go back to that initial spark of an idea that motivated you to start this business (your passion). Write that down and DO NOT forget it, lose it, or let it disappear within your offering.

Your passion needs to stay in your business no matter what. [Tweet That!]

Forget what every other copywriter or coach or designer offers and focus instead on what you really, really, really enjoy doing. Combine your strengths with the needs of your audience or potential clients. Do not just mimic or pick and choose pieces of your competitor’s packages – or you’re just putting yourself in competition. Instead, create something that is catered to your ideal situation and skillset that can still be a solution for a client.

Here’s what I’ve landed on (This was updated in February of 2017). When I started I referred to myself as a branding designer and strategist. Somewhere along the way I realized no one else was talking about what happened after we stopped working together. You had a logo and a color palette... but what about a way to make content upgrades or branded materials for courses, etc.? It dawned on me that there was a solution in this open arena - becoming a design assistant for established business owners who need more time to focus on their passions. You can learn more about this evolution here.

If you want to talk more about how we can work together click here.

I tell you this evolution to teach you a lesson. When you don’t have a solid package or offering you lose money. You lose money by wasting time first and foremost, but you also end up losing potential clients. If a client doesn’t know exactly what they need and you can’t tell them what they need/what you can do, then you’ve lost their interest. 

Create something that is complete, easily explainable, and repeatable and offer that like it’s the greatest thing that could ever happen to them – because it will be! You’ll be doing your best work, because you’ll love what you do, and provide great results.

If this sounds too scary, I’ll give you a stepping-stone. Do all of those things, but also maintain a list of ‘custom offerings’ (for designers it might be logos, business cards, etc.) and only bring those prices out if you are asked super specifically to do “just a logo” or “just a business card.”

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NOT HAVING SYSTEMS IN PLACE

Another major way you lose money is by not having systems in place. This falls back into the time is money thought, because in our businesses, with out 27 hats, time IS money.

I’ve written a lot about different ways I stay productive and it has definitely evolved as my business has, but the biggest piece of advice I can give you is this: CREATE SYSTEMS.

I co-hosted a Masterclass about this called Systemize Your Branding, which you can still catch the replay of. We go in depth about systemizing your process and documenting it, so that anyone (a VA, an assistant, etc.) can help you out easily and efficiently.

I highly recommend having a system for creating quick social media graphics, a system for quickly outlining blog posts, and a system for quickly answering emails – because these are the things that end up taking up your whole day.

For social media graphics all you need to do is make a template. I cover this in depth and show you behind the scenes of my templates in Systemize Your Branding. I go more in depth to my blog post process here, but I will say that outlining saves a TON of time and can (and should) be done in bulk. The hardest part of blog posts is generating the topic and the main points, so get that out of the way in bulk on a day you are feeling productive. The actual writing will be easy after that! With answering emails, please, please, please create canned responses. It is a LIFE SAVER because you will (if you don’t already) get the same emails over and over again.

These three things will definitely save you time, and therefore money, because you will free up your day to do things that make you money – client work, creating products, etc. 

Another extremely valuable place to implement systems is within your client work. Have an onboarding process that quickly gets contracts signed and invoices paid and homework or whatever initial steps started. Once you have a solid package or offering you should be able to have a ready made invoice and contract that details it so you no longer have to create custom ones each time. 

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WORKING OUTSIDE YOUR SCOPE/PROPOSAL

This is one that I was guilty of for so long. Even though my proposal detailed that I wouldn’t work outside of it, and doing so would require a new contract… I still did. They’d ask me to quickly do this or that, or show them how to set this up – which I wanted to do because I want clients to have a good experience – but that is money down the drain.

Repeat after me: Your time is valuable. Your work is valuable. You bring something to the table that can help others and you need to charge for it.

Your time is valuable. Your work is valuable. [Tweet That!]

I know how awkward it can feel to say, “yes I can do this but it will cost xyz amount.” But, if your client respects you and your time – which your ideal client will – they will understand. Or if it’s something that you just don’t want to do, or can’t do, then say, “that’s a great idea, but not my area of expertise. I recommend person so-and-so for things like that.” You’re still offering a solution, but not losing time or money in the process.

If this is happening to you a lot I would go back to my first point and include, extremely specifically, everything you are going to do in that specific offering. If they have a two week window to give you revisions or edits – say that. If you don’t set up lists and newsletters in MailChimp, say that. If you don’t create social media graphics, be up front about it. It doesn’t have to be mean or abrasive, just clear cut and straightforward. This will help you eliminate the awkward conversations and feelings of guilt when it comes to saying “I can’t do this for you.”

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KNOWING YOUR WORTH

The last thing I wanted to focus on in this post is knowing your worth. I don’t want to get to motivational-speaker on y’all, but it needs to be said: you bring value to your client’s lives. You solve a problem that they cannot solve on their own. You fix, adjust, navigate, or somehow alter something for them that was holding them back – and that is important and necessary and worth charging for.

I want you to eliminate the thought that a project takes you 5 hours so you should be paid hourly rate times 5. I want you to instead approach it as value-added to your client’s lives and price accordingly for that. Maybe you can build a website in 12 hours, but what is that website going to do for your customer? Grow their business? Convert people from passive viewer to subscriber or lead? Create your pricing with these thoughts in mind. I’m saying all of this with the thought that obviously you are going to provide these things (whatever these things are in your line of work) and therefore you’re worth more than $5/hour or whatever the lowest-priced freelancer is charging on Fiverr.

This post ended up significantly longer than I thought it would when I outlined it the other day. (See what I mean, once you start writing it’s a piece of cake). But I hope it shed some light on ways you can make sure you are creating a profitable business.

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