Branding as Part of Your Business Disaster Recovery Plan
May 21st, 2008 Dina at Wordfeeder.com
Have you ever thought about what would happen if you decided to stop operating your small business?
Maybe you’ll be sitting on a comfortable retirement fund one day. Maybe you’ll decide that it’s time to do something completely different.
Maybe (and this is something nobody likes to think about, but it’s reality)… a physical condition or illness will prevent you from managing your business with the same passion and vitality that you are today.
What will you do? You’ve had years to build a presence and get a momentum going. We’re talking about hundreds, maybe thousands, of carefully tended professional relationships, founded in mutual trust. Scores of customers who rely on YOU, nobody else but YOU, to fulfill a specific need for them.
What do you do with all that steam that it took you years and maybe even decades to build up? Do you just open the release valve, take down the shingle and bow out of the scene for good?
Of course not. Any seasoned entrepreneur will advise you to SELL your business. That’s one of the biggest draws of establishing your own business in the first place. It’s something to think about, even if you’re “just tinkering,” designing a basic consulting website from scratch. Maybe this thing will take off… who knows?
I read an article by James Chartrand recently that I found to be quite brilliant. In his article, James talked about how it’s more important to build your business around a brand instead of around your own name.
I could not agree more. This very thought was in the back of my mind as Wordfeeder Copywriting became more of a permanent reality for me, and I started imagining the “what ifs” down the road.
- What if your business takes off, but then you decide not to go with it? What then?
- What if you’re a woman business owner, and one day you decide to get married and change your name?
- What if disaster befalls your business, and your reputation becomes tarnished along the way? (In that case, rebranding can be a handy escape hatch.)
When copywriting clients come to me wanting to develop online portfolios, they’re more than welcome to brand using their real names, if that’s what they really want.
But I’d have to politely advise them that this may not be the best business decision, if what they’re creating really is to become a self-sustaining enterprise one day.
Even if it’s a tiny, one-man operation, you want that business to have powerful presence and growth potential. Your birth name just isn’t going to accomplish that for you. But a brand name will.
Think about it. All of the blood, sweat, tears and toil that you put into your small business from the outset… and not even just in the early phase, but every incarnation that your business goes through.
You give up a major portion of your life when you run your own business. So if one day you elect to close up shop for good… well, remember that there’s still more revenue to be squeezed from this venture.
If you’ve done a good job building up your brand presence, someone’s going to come by with designs to buy your turnkey business solution.
You deserve to have that extra income. It’s the entrepreneur’s equivalent of a pension.
James Chartrand sums up the need for a brand name quite powerfully:
“Make sure that if you choose to walk away, your business lives on just like a big-name corporation. You can hire someone to fill your shoes and take over or run the business in your place. You create options for yourself, not obligations.”
So: will you make branding a part of your business disaster recovery plan?
Copyright 2008 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing. All rights reserved.
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May 21st, 2008 at 2:28 pm
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May 23rd, 2008 at 9:52 am
The little black truck is my brand. If you Google truck safety, I’m # 1 on page 1.
What else could I do to brand my company?
Thanks,
Bruce
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Hi Bruce,
You caught me with my brain turned off… we’re kicking off an American holiday weekend!
Your website is nice and clean… copy’s short and to-the-point.
Ontario Truck Safety… you can’t get better than that for targeted keywords.
You need a company name! I looked for one on the About page. Your company description doesn’t really mention you as an individual, OR the company brand. You really need that to help people trust you.
I’d have to spend an hour thinking about different company names. Then probably another hour brainstorming taglines!
If you aren’t ready to pay for that kind of service, I’d suggest you make a list of words and then try to spin those words into a brand and tagline.
I think I’d need to post an entirely new article to explain this better. If I don’t end up doing that, remind me!
Thanks Bruce.