Your Branding (or lack there of) Will Literally Make or Break Your Small Business

Created by Bianca Rothschild with Midjourney

I love branding, I've been obsessing over brands since 1994, and also the act of zero to one. Which in non-tech speak, is basically bringing dreams into reality. What's not to love about that kind of magic!

Unfortunately, there's a lot of confusion around the word brand and branding, to the point I was even trying to find another word to use. There is no other word. So to define brand simply: It's not your logo and font, it's the very fabric that makes your business what it is, and what it can become.

Here are the key reasons for building a brand, that can truly make or break your business as it grows:

• It's the Seed of Your New Business
  The process of creating, what I call you brand's North Star, (which is often called a 'value proposition', obviously I had to change that language!) is a very important and revealing project. Fully diving into your audience, their pain points, the customer journey etc. This where you will learn about what you are actually creating, and who its for. Plus a number of other major lightbulb moments.

• It's the Guide for Every Decision You Make:
  When days get foggy or hard and you might feel flat, your brand North Star will help you identify where you might have drifted off track, or to double down on messaging and solving your customers' real problems. It can hold keys to unlock next steps and help you stretch.

• It's the Vision of Your Future Business
  Setting up your brand, positioning and points of difference are essentially the road map to where your business will end up, the kind of people you will work with, and it will directly influence decisions you will make. If you are not clear on your vision you cannot get to the success you are setting out to achieve.

This is just skimming the surface of how powerful and important building your brand is from day one. Some coaches say, 'oh leave if for later it will emerge on the journey', but that is frankly, flaky. Of course there are pivots and changes, but you have to start with the end in mind, know what problem you are solving and why people are even going to care about what you are creating.

That's all for today.

I'm curious: Would you like me to journey deeper into the North Star concept for your new or existing business? Lmk and I'll write more about it.