You have a cracker business idea or a product or service people are super excited for, but how do you know when it's the right time to invest in business branding?
Many people choose to use a cheap logo to get started and see if their business plan is sound and they really love working for themselves.
The only problem is - the first visual image you put out there that represents your brand is what will stay etched in peoples minds. It's your first impression, your foot in the door and the visual summary of what your brand values are and how professional and expert you are in your industry.
My belief is that having all of your assets and clear brand strategy is an essential part of starting your business. It let's you hit the ground running, clearly communicates to your audience what your are all about, projects the expert or excellence of your service or product and gives you all the tools that you need to create consistent marketing materials that will ensure your audience start to recognise you while you then build the golden tri-fector of marketing 'know, like and trust'.
However although I think it is paramount to starting a new business to have authentic well thought through branding development established. When do you know that you are ready to embark on this process ?
To make this simple I would summerise below the key checkpoints to have established before you fill in a brand package form
A clear name for your business with a domain that isn't compromised by multiple variations ( such as .co.nz .com .biz. .net etc) or taken by anyone else and rolls of the tongue easily without too many syllables, try to stick to 2x words if possible.
A clear audience profile or demographic, customer base for your product or service.
A business plan including costs involved in running your business, and how much you would need to charge to cover the costs of running your business, eg equipment, materials, accounting services, and the like
Purchase your domain as soon as you can so that it is not taken while you are setting up your business.
The time to commit to working through the branding process, responding promptly with feedback so that the process can run smoothly.
If you have taken the time and steps to set up your new business effectively as stated above, this will ensure your branding invest is money well spent at the right-time and that an effective authentic brand can be developed for a viable business going forward.
As one of my favourite quotes states, " Fail to plan, plan to fail"
If you are interested in working with us on your own brand package development please check out the packages section of this website and fill in the brief form.
Alternately if you are happy with your current logo but are interested in expanding your branding outside of just a logo into a full suite of graphics please check out the 'branding up-level package'