Building Your Brand
 Building a brand can be one of the toughest parts of managing a small business, particularly if your business is relatively new. Branding can be expensive and time-consuming. It requires great attention to detail and a basic knowledge of common graphic formats and logo styles. It can even require a fair amount of research, if you intend to trademark your products or register your logo or company name in the future.
A solid branding strategy begins with a few simple but well-researched first steps. One of the first items to consider for your business is its name. There are as many schools of thought on what this should be as there are unique business names. Choosing a name — or changing your business name — requires careful thought, as names are crucial to marketing and branding both in the immediate term and for the long haul.
In short, your business name should help a customer immediately know who you are and what your business is about. Your name shapes a customer's first impression and hopefully leaves a lasting impression as well. Many businesses choose to use some or part of the owner's name or family name. Others use a location-based name to help customers more easily determine where the office is located. Still others use a more descriptive name that signifies what the company does or sells. Some business owners simply name their company after the name of their premier product. The choices are limitless.
While larger companies often hire consultants to conjure up names, you should be able to do it on your own. If you're launching a business or are considering changing your business name, first you should make a list of several potential names. Then use this checklist to analyze each of them:
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Does your current business name accurately personify your business?
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Will changing your name be too disruptive to current customers?
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Will the name still work if you change your product mix or service offerings?
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Did you use common words for your name or did you purposely misspell?
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Does the name align with your mission?
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Will the name be easily confused with existing brands or business names? |
After you decide on a name, the next branding action item is to create a logo. Unlike the randomness used when naming, creating or updating a logo is a more disciplined task. A logo should reflect the nature of your business and provide people with some clues as to the services you provide or the products you sell. The right logo can give even the smallest new business a polished, professional look.
Here are some time-tested guidelines that may help you envision the right logo for your business.
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Keep the design simple. Complicated graphic images don't have staying power. Plus, once you reproduce them in small sizes such as on your business cards or on your QuickBooks invoices, they may lose integrity and become blurry. A logo should be easy to see no matter the size, easy to recognize, and easy to download.
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 Be careful with color. Adding multiple colors to your logo can increase your advertising and printing costs drastically. Talk to a local printer before you commit to final colors, as a printer can offer color suggestions based on standard ink colors and color combinations of black, yellow, cyan and magenta. Also, be sure your logo reproduces well in black and white. Many times you'll have only black as an option, such as in fax cover sheets.
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Choose a common typeface. If you use a typeface that is built by hand by a graphic designer, you'll have to spend additional amounts of time and money each time you need to reproduce a font that includes your logo. If you use one of the more common typefaces or fonts, you can reproduce your image in multiple displays, including on your Web site, on your checks, and in other promotional materials. Also, choose a font without serifs, or "feet," as they can look blurry when reproduced. Thin typefaces can also cause problems as they can become illegible on letterhead or business cards.
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Create and store your logo in multiple formats. Your logo needs to be ready for action at a moment's notice. If your designer used Adobe Illustrator to build your logo, make sure you also have copies of it in a variety of usable formats that will work for the Web, your local printer, QuickBooks, and other PC-based applications. The most popular graphic formats include: Bitmap (required for using your logo on QuickBooks forms), JPEG, and GIF.
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Use classic design elements vs. random choices. A memorable logo will stand out based its own unique components and combinations of color, image and font. You don't want to be remembered because of your logo's random design. Don't be too off-the-wall with your design elements.
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Create a logo with staying power. A logo design should endure possibly even 10 to 15 years if not for the life of your business. Avoid building a logo based too heavily on today's design trends, colors, and styles.
You may want to get outside help to create your logo. Having a logo designed or modified can cost anywhere from $500 to $50,000, depending on how elaborate the process and the design. Try to find a designer or design team that understands your idea and market, knows your competition, and can work within your budget.
Once your logo is ready, don't forget to include it on all of your business correspondence. Use this checklist of places where your logo should go.
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Business letters or correspondence
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Shipping labels
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Business cards
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Envelopes
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QuickBooks printed invoices
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QuickBooks e-mail invoices, statements, and estimates (certain QuickBooks products require an additional service, QuickBooks Deluxe Online Billing, to allow you to do this)
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QuickBooks sales and purchase forms
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Statements of Work and project estimates
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Presentations
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Every page of your Web site
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On Web sites of any partner companies
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Your front door or outside your office or building
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On the side of delivery trucks, if applicable
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Any ads for your business
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Yellow pages or other business directories
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Lastly, once your business has settled on a logo, you may want to trademark it and protect it from use by other companies. The best source of information about the trademark process is at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The department is online at: http://www.uspto.gov/.
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