What Does Entrepreneurship and Personal Branding Mean?
Entrepreneurship and branding are popular words in the corporate and business world. Many people are choosing to leave the rat race behind in favor of starting up their own business. These two words have become essential to the wannabe entrepreneur. You may be asking yourself whether branding is really necessary. The answer is "yes." It is if you want your business to be noticed and ultimately to succeed. This book is an informative guide focusing on branding for small businesses.
Branding—Do You Want to Be Recognized?
● Having a simple design for your logo is a must-have marketing tool to introduce your product or service to potential customers.
● Using your branding logo to develop trust is one way to lay the foundations of reliability. Consumers will only buy your product or content once you prove that you're trustworthy. Doing what you say you will do is the best way to show potential clients your sincerity and values.
● Support your advertising and marketing campaign by building a well-constructed brand.
● To be successful, your brand needs to be recognizable straight away. Potential customers need to remember your brand. This can be achieved by using the same colors, fonts and other elements that embody your brand regardless of format. A little more on this later.
● Branding acts like the yeast used in bread, a leavening agent (helps the bread to rise)—a strong brand is a good recipe for the positive future financial outcomes of your business.
● Word of mouth is an important aspect of running a business of any size. New businesses rely on referrals.
In a nutshell, when branding is properly done, it can have a favorable impact on your business. It'll set you apart from your competitors and develop a rapport between yourself and the audience you plan on targeting. Consumers will want to use your product or service. The right type of branding will become your greatest marketing ploy. Let's face it, consumers, whether they know it or not, determine how successful your business becomes. Therefore, they should have a clear-cut impression of your company. The image you create must stay in their minds—when it does, your business is a brand separate from competitors.
Entrepreneurship
The term entrepreneurship means that someone is creating their own business to generate a profit. At the same time, this word aptly describes a person taking hold of their dreams and turning it into the reality they want. Nowadays, entrepreneurship encompasses more than establishing an enterprise. It involves making managerial decisions, handling staff issues, having direction and purpose, creating new products and improving them when necessary.
Entrepreneurship requires you to remain committed to the vision and goals that caused you to create your business in the first place. This is crucial when things go wrong. Remembering your "why" will help to get you through times when a furious customer storms out of your store. Before jumping into your venture, you need to be aware that things are not always going to be "perfect.” In order to achieve your goals, you'll have to make sacrifices and work flaming hard. As an entrepreneur, you have to be ready for all developments.
You'll need to keep your emotions in check and never blow your top in front of customers, clients or the general public. Frustrations will set in when the delivery truck is late or when you receive the wrong order. Through no fault of your own, your business might receive a bad review. It is extremely important to keep your cool. Take a few deep breaths, focus on your vision. Outside influences may have a bearing on the success or failure of your business—some things are out of your control. Whatever has occurred may or may not be due to your actions. Regardless of who is at fault, maintaining a professional attitude is paramount. Remember to keep focusing on your why.
If I haven't scared you off, take a few minutes now to think about your why. There are many reasons a person takes the leap into entrepreneurship. Maybe you identify with them. Do you want to:
● Solve the world's challenges? To some, this may seem impossible. However, your solution, even if it only concerns a small local community, may just be the answer.
● Be your own boss.
● Work flexible hours.
● Be able to work from any location—even on the beaches of Hawaii.
● Are you a risk-taker?
● Are you curious and ambitious?
Compared to 100 years ago, the options available for today's entrepreneurs are limitless. Many of the powerful men and women in this century began their careers as entrepreneurs. They look at the world's problems with a different lens than the rest of us. It is easy to sit back and complain about the negative aspects of the world, yet not doing anything to change it. People close to you will probably say things that may cause you to doubt yourself. If this describes you, then please ignore them.
Comments such as, "What can you do? You’re a nobody and don't have money to burn," are unhelpful. Everybody is somebody, and changing the world starts with one person making a change, whether they have loads of bucks or are living from one paycheck to another. Picking up Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs: Proven Personal Branding Strategy and Why Social Media Marketing Is Crucial for Your Business shows your determination to have your own business, so just do it! Whatever, or whoever, is stopping you from acting on your desire, your Goliath will keep holding you back if you keep waiting for the right time. The time to act is now.
Leaders find a solution to every problem. The world's influential people take the ideas floating in their minds and bring them to life. Entrepreneurship is about the implementation of ideas. Congratulations for wanting to join these leaders.
Being a sole trader means you wear different hats. Handing out business cards and pinning leaflets on notice boards, not to mention actually talking to people, are things that might be out of your comfort zone. Know that all of the effort you are putting in now will bring future rewards and that startups are less likely to receive funding from investors.
Remember, when creating a brand, to be consistent across all channels of communication you use. This means using the same logo, colors, wording, layers and other features you add, across digital and offline promotional materials. Digital marketing is popular and using social media is essential in spreading the word about your new business. What’s more, using traditional methods of branding in the form of print, word of mouth, and video is as indispensable as digital branding.
People still buy print magazines and pick up brochures and skim flyers, so it is still worthwhile to include these types of materials in your marketing strategy. With that said, your brand captures the essence of who you are and what your products stand for. If your branding methods offline don't match the digital branding you've done, potential consumers may get confused. Having everything match reduces confusion and promotes familiarity—consistency breeds consumer loyalty, trust and demonstrates your credibility.
Anyone starting a new venture needs to have a presence online. People use their gadgets everywhere they go. So what are you waiting for? It makes good business sense to join the thousands of businessmen and women who use technology advertising to their advantage. Think of it this way, if you don't follow the trend, a massive amount of people will miss out on your extraordinary solution to their concerns.
Consumers will shop at your competitors' stores without giving you a second thought, solely on the basis that they have good branding and an internet presence. Without proper campaigns, nobody will know that your product or service offers better quality than the guys down the road. Begin to get in the habit of producing interesting and desirable messages. People looking for products and services don’t tolerate mediocre dribble, so no dribbling allowed. Even worse, there will be no conversions—no sales—nobody pressing the "buy now" button.
Let's Take a Quick Look at Why Society Is Dominated by Consumerism
Motives for buying anything are made up of a mixture of everything that makes us human. Emotion and rationality both influence decision making. Emotions are involved in the purchase of almost any product. The majority of human beings think of themselves as rational, who uses logic when making purchasing decisions—however, I got news for ya buddy. You can't make decisions without evoking emotions. The consumer society we live in is forever evolving. Every new gadget has become the focus of our desire. Our homes have gizmos, big-name brands and products we use every day to make our life easier based on our emotions. Family, friends and society in general influence our buying choices.
Two Types of Buying Motives
Product Buying and Patronage Buying motives involve buying something due to an emotional or rational reason. When a person is buying a product based on color, size, design, or price, they are using all the characteristics of a product to make their buying decision. Big brands cash in on the concept of product buying motives by trying to outdo one another in regards to their products' durability, utility, sex appeal and brand prestige.
The second buying motive is related to the notion of branding. Customers choose to patronize certain retail outlets over another for reasons such as location, brand reputation, word of mouth, staff interaction with buyers and the way the store is set up. We all know somebody who buys purely based on emotion and then later justifies their purchase with logic and rationalization. Keeping in mind these two factors, let's move on to how you can use them to your advantage.
Ways To Attract Clients And Consumers
The one lesson you should take away from reading Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs: Proven Personal Branding Strategy and Why Social Media Marketing Is Crucial for Your Business is that doing the right thing, the right way, gives you credibility. You’ll develop confidence and courage as you prove the doubters in your life wrong. Consumers need to know that your products and services will definitely solve their problems. This can be achieved by entertaining, engaging with and informing them. Make it interesting, use humor. Gimmicks work, enticing buyers with offers and discounts. Whatever you do, avoid doing the exact same behavior as your competitors! Make your brand groovy.
Choose A Name
Piece of cake, right? Well, not really. Taking a name out of a hat or drawing straws is not an effective method for choosing a name for your business. As a result, it may end up with a name you hate. Your name should reflect the purpose of your company, while honoring your uniqueness. Whatever you do, don't make your chosen name too narrow, obscure or hard to pronounce. If you do, you won’t be in business for very long. For instance, some enterprises have made up names that don't make sense and it is detrimental to their business.
Before you start printing marketing and branding materials with your "perfect" name, make sure you research its availability. Conducting searches with government agencies, databases and Google will ensure you're not stealing an established business’s identity. As a sole proprietor in the U.S. you have the choice to file a "doing business as" (DBA) name with state or county authorities. As you will need a website, it pays to think about procuring a domain name and which extension works best for your business.
Logo Design
The best method for creating your brand is your logo. People, in general, are attracted to a company's logo. Successful marketers, designers and brands all agree that a logo consisting of the following features will help your business identity to grow:
● Be original.
● Make it strong and simple.
● Use appropriate colors: red, yellow, green, purple, blue. These colors reflect moods and affect people differently. Individual colors have a range of shades and hues. Pick the ones that have meaning and that reflect your brand.
● Be flexible with your design.
The first time consumers see your logo, they'll decide whether to try your product or service. First impressions count. Though design logos and other components are important aspects of branding, it's what they represent that matters the most to future customers. Make your logo a representative of your values that creates an emotional connection to your company and products. If you need a hand in designing your logo, and don't have a lot of spare capital, you may find sites such as guru.com, upwork.com and fiverr.com helpful.
Chapter Summary
● Branding allows your customers to know what to expect from your product. It makes a distinction between your competitors’ products and your own.
● On his site, author Chris Ducker offers a free downloadable ebook about the importance of branding. He calls it his “road map.”
● Choosing the right name is important.
● Strong and consistent branding will help you to stand apart from the crowd. Success only comes when a company gains a good reputation for quality and reliability.
In the next chapter, you will learn how important social media is to your new brand.
