Steps to start your own business III

Corporate Image

I would have used the word “branding”, but that word has been abused by business owners and all types of “branding practitioners”. Most people don’t know what the term means.

Just because you have registered a business, have an office and deployed a logo doesn’t mean you have a brand. A brand elicits an emotional response from the customers or clients. What you have is a new product or service. In order for your product or service to become a brand, what needs to be done is subliminal and quite intangible.

That being said, let’s go back to the title of the article – Corporate image. Coming about a corporate image for your business nowadays goes without saying. Many potential business owners are so passionate and emotional about their idea, that the logo is dreamed about and created even before the business is registered or the product/service offering is agreed upon.

This is a fundamental mistake. Your corporate image has its place, but really isn’t that important in the hierarchy of things on your start up check list. The most important of these being; defining what it is you want to offer in exchange for money and how exactly you want to go about offering it.

What does Coca-Cola mean? How about Google and how can you name a tech brand after a fruit? Never the less, these brands are world famous. On the other hand, some not so attractive names like Odogbolu and Sons Transport Ltd etc, might score low on corporate image but they make bank every day.

As a business consultant, I have witnessed partners break up over “what the color of the logo should be”, and potential business owners loose hope and drop out of the race because the business name they so badly wanted had been registered to another company. It sounds trivial, but it does happen, and quite often I might add.

Another challenge is spending so much on your corporate image. Your corporate image includes the following;

• Company logo

• Call card design

• I.D card design

• Business signage

• Website

• Staff uniforms etc.

As a startup, prudence is very important and it will be very beneficial for you to articulate what exactly you want or have a good idea before approaching a graphic artist or web developer. You do not have to approach the most established ones.

Right there under your nose, there most likely is a student or startup company that is willing to pour themselves into your brief for a fraction of the price. Yes, they will give you options, but if you have no idea of what you want, the more options you are given, the more confused you will be.

Perhaps my favourite slogan of all time is from Nike…Just do it. Once you are convinced you have a solid business idea that fulfills a need in your own signature way, all you need to do is begin.

The name doesn’t matter that much, your colors don’t matter that much. The logo doesn’t have to be a work of art out of this world. The simpler, the better. The less, the more memorable. In the near future, once customers are being satisfied and money is being made consistently, you will have all the time and resources in the world to “re-brand” your business.