Do Quality Work To Build A Quality Brand

Welcome to the first of the guest contributions for this month here at Small Business Branding. Over the next few weeks you will see a few different authors posting articles on this blog. Enjoy! – Yaro

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By Todd Richardson from Aridni.com – People are cashing in all around you. Don’t you think it’s your turn?

Building and defining your brand is one of the most time consuming projects that businesses tackle. It might even be something that you worry so much about that you lose a significant amount of sleep. Perhaps though, it is something that really small business owners shouldn’t worry about at all. If you work to produce the best product or service every time you do something, your brand will be reflected in a positive light. Even when you don’t necessarily produce your best work your brand is still reflected, so in fact branding is not something you need to consciously think about at all – you create one just by running your business.

Of course a tangible brand, such as a logo or name, has to be visible at some point or another for people to associate your hard work with your company. You are certainly not doing yourself any favors if you have the best roofers in town, but nobody knows who you are.

When you first start out, it is more important in my eyes to do a quality job. It is in your power to under promise and over deliver. As you get the bugs out of your operation and develop an actual foundation that your business can run on smoothly, then it’s time to move on to getting your business name on things.

Why should you spend hundreds of dollars to raise the awareness of the name of your company before you and your employees are competent and efficient at your task? I’m not saying that you are going into business to do something you aren’t competent, but merely pointing out that the more you do something the better you get at it.

It makes sense to build up your team’s skills and confidence levels before sticking your brand name on it. Think of it like research and development. Coke doesn’t simply take a great new idea for a soft drink and throw it out the next day with their name on it. They would research the market and demand first to determine if there is room for the new soda and how they can fit into that niche. Then they would take it to potential customers to take a taste test. Then they take it back to do more research and the process can repeat itself multiple times.

By all means don’t get yourself into an endless loop, but rather refine your brand and it will begin to take shape based on your values.

Once you have your brand’s virtues established this way you can then move on to building and expanding it. Building your brand is extremely important, but during the first six months or so it’s more important to build your business.

Todd