#171 – How to Launch Your First Brand in 5 Steps
Advice for young (or new) entrepreneurs
This is Adventures in Storytelling your bi-weekly note with resources, insights, and actionable tools for better communication through storytelling. Enjoy.
A short but special one today. I was chatting with a friend recently about young entrepreneurs looking to start their own thing. When she asked what they needed to do, I paused. It’d been years since I’d started my own first clothing store slash branding boutique for young designers. Would I do anything differently? Probably a lot. I decided to share where I landed on it with you. So here’s what I’d tell my younger self and my friend to focus on when launching a brand with no budget but lots of passion.
Outline your vision and purpose – Be clear on what you’re trying to do and why. How do you imagine your world or the world of your customer might change as a result of your brand’s existence. No you don’t have to write a long business plan, but getting clear on the fundamentals is important. It’s an easy cheat sheet to refer to when you’re feeling overwhelmed.
Choose who you want to serve – The best thing about running your own business is that you get to decide everything and shape it to your preferences, including your customers. Decide who you want to help through your business and get hyper-focused on them.
Figure out their needs and wants – I want you to obsess over your customer. You should talk to them, work to understand them, and figure out what they need or want. Then give it to them. Not knowing who you serve deeply is a mistake many new entrepreneurs make.
Meet them where they are – As in understand where they spend time and focus your marketing efforts there. Are they reddit folks? Join the conversation. Are they on twitch everyday? Jump in. Are they tiktok users or Instagram or facebook or google. Figure out where they spend most of their time and focus your marketing efforts there. Don’t show up on every single channel just because you can—use that youthful energy wisely.
Find a designer you trust to bring them to life – Then, and only then, after doing the first four steps do you go out and find a designer who you can tell all about your customer and your vision and ask them to bring that to life with a logo and colours. Brand building is about more than design, it’s the entirety of the experience you create for your customer, but a solid logo and visual experience is a valuable part of that process.
Bonus note – when starting out figure out ways to be creative so you don’t have to spend as much money. See if your designer is open to an energy exchange, product for a logo for example. Reach out to people in your network who may be connected to your customer and see if they’re open to sharing.
And the most important part of building your first brand? Have fun. People can feel when you enjoy the process of putting something out there for them and they respond to that as much as they do a great logo and focused vision. So enjoy the ride and take all the lessons that come with it so you can apply them as you continue to evolve and learn.
A Story Well Told
If you’ve been reading for a while, you know I’m passionate about re-imagining work. That I’m a true believer in the idea that work doesn’t have to and shouldn’t suck. That burnout should (and can) be avoided at all costs and there is a better way to do it. I help people do that through Re-Work. But I also continue to learn and read and explore for myself. I just finished a short little book called, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport and I am telling everyone I know about it. It has practical tips for knowledge workers and entrepreneurs with a bit more autonomy in the working lives on how to avoid burnout and do great work.
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