After all, this is where all my experience comes from… I started out as a graphic designer, helping very-first-timers design their first business brands.

Along the way, I learned many, many valuable lessons about designing your first brand… so I thought I should share.

Many first-time entrepreneurs consider designing their brand a “first order of business” -  they think that before they launch, they’ve got to design their logo, business cards and their website.

I get it… there’s a lot of not-fun stuff to do when you start your business. Setting up accounts. Creating contracts. Dealing with your business entity choice (whether you’ll be a corporation, sole proprietor or LLC).

This is important stuff, and at the same time, it’s really not the creative adventure you set out to have in your business.

So you avoid it… and try to have some serious fun by commissioning or creating your business designs.

And you’re counting that fun towards the cause of “advancing your business”

That’s oh-so-wrong. For many reasons.

First of all, it’s a stalling tactic that nervous entrepreneurs use to avoid selling their services. Selling freaks them out, so they say, “I just have to have this website put together… then I can start making calls.”

That’s straight-up crazy… you don’t need a website, or a logo, or really any graphics at all. You just have to start having those first conversations with potential clients and start selling and delivering your services.

It may seem that having a logo will make that transition easier, and the truth is… it’s more likely to hurt you than to help you.

And reason #2 will show you why that’s so important: because a brand is a two-way discussion. You have to design your brand to speak to your ideal clients. To show and tell them what you stand for in your business.

If you haven’t had any clients yet, how can you possibly design your brand FOR them?

You’ve got to create your brand for your clients. They’re the ones listening in and watching you. And so your brand has to be meant to communicate with them.

Because they’re completely serious about a picture saying 1000 words… and you want to make sure they’re saying the right 1000 words to the right people. Right?

Your brand designs should communicate all of that meaning and emotion behind your business.

So, before you design, you not only have to figure out who you’re communicating with… but also what you’re trying to say.

How to figure that out? Answer these questions:

What is your business all about?
And how do you want your clients to feel when they work with you?

In your brand,  you have the opportunity to tell your clients all of that, and even more, about your business.

Your brand is powerful because you can show, not just tell.

A gorgeous brand can do so much more than communicate.

• Gives your invisible, intangible service a face and makes it more real and less abstract.
• Turns heads and opens doors for you.  Clients will say, “have you seen this?” and pass your marketing along for you.
• Sticks in peoples’ minds, making a memorable, lasting impact.
• Moves your clients from “know” to “like” quickly… and ease the transition into “trust.” You’ll know this is happening when you hear them say, “wow, I love that! Tell me more…”
• Raises the perceived value of your services, cut back on sales objections and speed up your sales cycle.

So, it’s imperative that you put the effort into figuring out what you want your 1000 word-picture to say, and who you want it to say that to. That’s the only way you’re going to make the gorgeous impression you want to make.

By: Erin Ferree

Like most small businesses, you may be wondering where to put your marketing dollars. The Yellow Pages is calling, your website host is constantly pitching online advertising, and advertising salespeople in droves promise you the next best thing in advertising. Where do you start? In this three part series, we’ll discuss the foundation of effective marketing

and how to determine where to spend your marketing budget. Part 1 focuses on having a strong brand, positioning and messaging.

Part 2 will cover things you can do for free, or guerilla marketing. Part 3 will help you establish an integrated marketing mix and put budget against that plan. So, let’s get started.

Part 1: Brand, Positioning and Messaging

The starting place is to assess your current brand and positioning and develop a branding statement for your business. A branding statement is living document where you articulate the following important marketing concepts:

• Who is your target customer? Are they in a specific industry, do they hold a specific job function, what do they have in common?
• Who are your top competitors? Sometimes your competition is simply a different way of doing things.
• What is your customer’s pain that needs to be resolved? Why do they need your product or service? What does your target customer desire?
• In a single statement, what is your brand position as it relates to the target customer, their need, and what makes you unique among your competition?
• What is the specific core benefit that you want customers to ascribe to your brand?
• Why should prospects choose you to provide the product or service? Do you have the best technology, are you an expert – explain why I should believe in your brand.
• What are your brand’s unique personality characteristics? Are you fun, serious, honest, fast, natural, etc.
• Fuse together your brand benefit and what the target customer desires into three to five sentences to create a single-minded selling proposition.

You’ll want to write these down and refine them until they are clear and concise. Once you have a draft, you’ll want to vet it by asking a few people for feedback. What questions do they have after reading your branding statement? Where do they challenge you? Take this input and further refine your branding statement.

Next, develop your key product messaging. What are three to five key things you want prospects to know about your products or services?

Once you can articulate these cornerstones to effective marketing – the branding statement and your key messaging – you are ready to move to the next step in creating an effective marketing plan. In Part 2 of this series, we will examine the low hanging fruit that should be a part of every marketing plan.

By: Melody Appleton

WIC Members, are you interested in:

- Mentoring other WIC members as they grow in their practices?

- Being mentored by WIC members from whom you can learn and improve?

We’re creating a new member benefit, the WIC Mentoring Program, and we’re starting a pilot program. This new program falls within my area of responsibility as a 2009 WIC Board member.

The pilot will be a six-week mentoring program where groups convene once a week by phone. Each group will be focused on one area of business, such as marketing, sales, operations, or other areas of interest.

Each group will be led by a mentor who is a specialist in that field.

Here’s our plan for the pilot program:

- We’ll create three or four mentoring groups of approximately 6 people. They will meet as a group, by phone, once a week for an hour. Each group will meet for six weeks.
- Each group will be led by one Mentor and will focus on a specific area of being a consultant and managing a consulting business.
- If we have more Mentees interested in a subject area than we have mentoring spaces available, we’ll create a waiting list. The people on the waiting list will go on the list (in the order in which their names were received) for the second round of the Mentoring Program, which we anticipate will happen this fall.

Here’s more information, if this pilot program sounds interesting to you:

Mentors:

1. We need WIC members who are successful, experienced managers of group processes, and who are comfortable leading a group mentoring process by phone.
2. We need Mentors in some of these areas, where the Mentee interest is enough to convene one of our first pilot groups:
- Starting a consulting business
- Marketing
- Sales
- Social media
- Financial management
- Operations
- Life balance
- Other (please explain the area where you think mentoring is needed)

3. We’ll match Mentors and approximately six Mentees to form pilot groups.

4. I’m creating a few basic guidelines and tools for our Mentors, working with several WIC members who are personal coaches.

5. We’ll refine the Mentoring Program based on pilot program feedback, before we expand it further this fall.

Mentees:

1. We need WIC members who are interested in being part of a group mentoring process that meets by phone once a week for six weeks.

2. We don’t know in which of these areas interest will be high enough for us to create a pilot program, but these are the ones for which we anticipate WIC members may be most interested in receiving mentoring:
- Starting a consulting business
- Marketing
- Sales
- Social media
- Financial management
- Operations
- Life balance
- Other (please explain the area where you think mentoring is needed)

3. We’ll match Mentors and approximately six Mentees to form pilot groups.

4. I’m creating a few basic guidelines and tools for our Mentors, working with several WIC members who are personal coaches.

5. We’ll refine the Mentoring Program based on pilot program feedback, before we expand it further this fall.

Here’s the next step, if you’re interested in helping with this pilot program:

If you’re interested in being a Mentor, e-mail me and let me know:
- What experience you have leading group processes, and if you have any experience leading mentoring or other group processes by phone.
- What group you’d be interested in leading.
- If you can be a Mentor in more than one area, give me your first and second choices.
- What week/s in July and August, if any, you will be unavailable to be part of the program.

If you’re interested in being a Mentee, e-mail me and let me know:
- What group you’d interested in joining.
- What week/s in July and August, if any, you will be unavailable to be part of the program.

If you’re interested in the program and have questions, please let me know.

Thanks, everyone,

Jan
—–
Jan Richards
J. G. Richards Consulting
Turning Business Goals into Great Results

jan@jgrichardsresults.com
www.jgrichardsresults.com

By: Jan Richards

Have you ever come across a company logo that looked like a jumbled mess of drawings? Where there were so many elements competing for your attention that you didn’t even know where to look or what it all meant? The job of your logo is to communicate what your business is all about in an instant. But if you try to say too much in that instant, it’s more likely your customers and prospects will either not get the message or get the wrong message.

The key to avoiding a confusing logo is to keep it simple. Here are three easy steps to create a clear, uncomplicated logo as part of a corporate identity development strategy — a logo that communicates your key message to your target audience:

1. Don’t try to say too much. Your logo should tell the story of your brand. That story is made up of four parts:
      
   • Your company’s personality
     
   • The type of services or products you offer
     
   • What distinguishes you from your competition
     
   • Who you can best help

   Once you develop your brand story, scale it back to one or possibly two main ideas that you want customers and prospects to instantly see in your logo. If you’re trying to tell a complicated story, then your logo design will reflect that and have little impact. Again, simple is best.

2. Don’t include too many details in the icon. A logo that contains a lot of visual elements may turn out to be too complicated. Keep the number of shapes, lines, and other design elements at a minimum to make the image as clear and clean as possible. If you include too many design elements, it’s more likely that when you scale the logo down, some of the finer details will be blurred, and it may not print well.
3. Keep the icon and the name of your company separate. If you layer your company’s name on top of the icon in your logo, it can be difficult to read. Moreover, if you include text on top of the icon, the concept may get lost. Separating the image and the company name will make both easier to read and understand.
   

By: Erin Ferree

There are 3 main types of logos that a consultant can choose to use for their business. Each has advantages and disadvantages for the consultant. Here are explanations and samples of each type, to help you choose the best match for your consultancy.

Combination logo: The most effective option for creating a consultant’s logo is to make a logo that contains both a graphic and your company name. This approach is called a combination logo. This type of logo contains both a memorable logo graphic that tells the story of who you are, what you do, and what makes you different as well as spelling out your business name for easy identification. One big advantage of this type of logo is that it combines an image and text – and having both combined will make the logo more memorable for viewers.

Text logo: A logo can be as simple as having your company name typeset in a unique font. The company name can have a small graphic embellishment – like an underline, or it can appear on a colored background. This is a simple approach that can work for many consultants. If you do go this route, you’ll miss out on some of the benefits that you can get by including a graphic in your company name – namely, that your logo won’t have an image in it to help clients remember it. However, if your company name is long, this approach will help you to keep the logo as clean and simple as possible. And, if your consultancy’s services or goals may change over time, there is no danger of your icon becoming inappropriate – since you don’t have one.

Symbol-only logo: You can design a logo that’s a symbol only (think Apple Computers or Nike). This approach is not recommended for consultants, though, because this type of logo takes a big investment in brand education to build up the association of your business name with the logo. Without that association, the logo will not have any meaning to the viewer, and will not help to build your brand.

By: Erin Ferree

Are you in the market for a great business read or a few?

Here are the ones included in the bounteous basket of books one lucky bidder got at the April WIC Silent Auction. Check them out!

• The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth by Fred Reichheld
• The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
• Million Dollar Consulting and The Global Consultant, both by Alan Weiss
• Marketing Your Career: Positioning, Packaging and Promoting Yourself For Success by WIC’s Linda Popky
• Outliers and Blink, both by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Art of Possibility: Transforming Personal and Professional Life, by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
• Market This!: An Effective 90-Day Marketing Tool by WIC’s Sherry Prescott-Willis
• The One Minute Organizer Plain & Simple by Donna Smallin

There was a DVD in the basket that you may want to catch, too: How to Make Your Business More Successful by Michael Levin.

By: Jan Richards

A quick read on Small Biz Internet Solutions offers “50+ ways to brand yourself online.” For anyone starting to explore online marketing, it’s a nice laundry list of things to try. The key is selecting the ones that work for you. You can’t do them all at once — well you could, but it sure would be hard to get any client work done — so choose the components that will deliver the most benefit. 

On a side note, while the author has a category called “Tactics,” I’d argue that these are all tactics or components of an overall online strategy.

Read 50+ Tips to Brand Yourself Online

By: Avery Horzewski

In today’s economic climate, it’s more important than ever that all of a consultant’s marketing materials be as effective as possible. But, if you’re just starting your consulting practice, it would pay off to know exactly which pieces you’ll really need to have for your business. 

Here’s what I recommend:

• A logo. Having a logo quickly takes a consultant from having an image of being a person working at home in their pajamas to looking like a real business. It shows your potential clients that you’re serious about running your business like a business — and that can give you a boost in credibility that can mean the difference between a client trusting you with their project or walking away.Be sure to get your logo in a variety of file formats, so you’ll be able to use it in your Word documents, on your invoices, and upload it to websites like Facebook.

• A business card. You need to have something to hand out at the networking meetings you’ll be attending. Handing out a business card that looks unique can help your new contacts remember meeting you.  Make sure your business card also includes your full contact information, and some basic information about what you do, so that your new contact will have a point of reference.
• A (small) website. Your website gives those new clients that you’ve just handed your business card to some place to go to follow up and learn more about you. If you create your website with this “job” in mind, then you can make sure that it will answer the first questions that your prospects typically have after meeting you. This is the most basic function of a website — and if yours can accomplish that, then it’ll truly be an effective tool. Having a website of about 5-10 pages should be plenty of space for you to accomplish this goal.
• A blog or newsletter header or some other branded way for you to get your ideas out into the world easily. One of the most effective ways for a consultant to market is through thought leadership — sharing your thinking on your area of expertise. In order to take advantage of this marketing form to its fullest, design some sort of branded template that you can easily modify and publish to your followers with each installment — whether that’s weekly or monthly with a newsletter, or more often with your blog.

These are the most basic tools that you’ll need to market your consultancy. In future posts, I’ll talk in more detail about how you can make each of these tools as effective as possible.

By: Erin Ferree

In Parts I and II of “Should I Become a Consultant,” the focus was on already-established professionals who were contemplating making the jump from corporate to consulting. If you’re a new college grad, the question takes on a whole new dimension.

I recently asked the WIC Community List members the following question, “I’m a new college graduate, and I’m thinking of going into consulting. What would you advise?” About 20 WIC consultants replied. Here’s a summary of their advice themes.

• Figure out the work about which you’re truly passionate and competent. You need to know this to drive your consulting practice.
• Get experience, mentoring, and contacts in that field.
• It’s hard to consult if you’ve never worked in the area you’re interested in pursuing. Most people in consulting have developed expertise by working for someone else in the field for a while.
• Few consulting firms hire new B.S. grads.
• Large firms generally hire MBAs. Bear in mind that those roles typically require almost fulltime travel. Most people find that pattern sustainable for no more than five years.
• Smaller regional firms may have opportunities for people with new bachelor’s degrees, but those positions are typically filled through college recruiting cycles in the fall and winter.
• Hold off on diving into consulting for a few years. As a consultant, you lose the opportunity to learn and collaborate with peers within your company or department. And this is a valuable part of the learning process, especially in your first years in a field.
• Mentoring is tremendously important. Take advantage of every opportunity to be mentored, especially in the early years of a career when there’s so much to learn.
• Consulting can be a rich and rewarding career. If you enjoy helping others, working with others, challenges, change, learning, teaching, communicating, being creative, and being an entrepreneur, this may be the right choice for you.

By: Jan Richards

In Part I of “Should I Become a Consultant,” I wrote about understanding what a consultant’s life really involves, exploring the waters a bit, answering the question about whether the entrepreneurial life is right for you, and researching the field that interests you, whether its marketing, management, sales, or some other field.

Next, research specific areas and ways you can help clients.

What Problems Can You Solve Well?
Think about the types of problems you want to solve, the organizations and people with whom you want to work, and the issues you have successfully solved for an organization in the past. What challenges come to mind first? What successes come to mind quickly?

Cite some specific examples to illustrate your problem-solving history. Describe them during your informational interviews with consultants currently working in your field of choice. See if how you like to work and what you like to do is a fit with that area.

Who Needs Help with this Type of Problem?
As a first fast pass at research into your market, search Monster.com or other major job hunting sites with a few appropriate key words. See who’s hiring for those types of skills. This gives you a sense of the best markets for your services, either as an employee or as a consultant. If available, a business research tool, such as Hoover’s, can provide additional insight.

Would You Really Rather Be an Employee?
During your research, as is sometimes the case, you may find the perfect job. Pursuing one direction — consulting — can lead to full-time opportunities you might otherwise have missed or roles that you didn’t know existed. For example, you might start a career in marketing and then research the possibility of consulting, which then leads to an opportunity you really want, a full-time job in a larger company, working in corporate social responsibility.

However you resolve your curiosity or drive toward consulting, do your research first. A lot of questions will be answered in that process, which will help you decide whether or not to move further down the consulting career path.

By: Jan Richards