How Branding Can Affect Your Business Startup Capital
“Spend money to make money.” If you’re a startup, the old adage certainly applies to development and hiring. But what about using capital for branding? Working with startups, we hear a lot about the ongoing tensions between branding and capital that go on during the early phase of starting a company. Most startups are focused on product and service development, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, it can become a little bit of a problem if you ignore branding entirely at the early stages. To be a success, you’re going to need to invest some of your business startup capital in branding, even if you don’t think you have the money in the budget. What you’ll discover, however, is that good branding can help you raise more money and expand that budget.
Managing Your Startup Budget for Branding
Branding service is not a luxury purchase. It is a necessary investment. No matter how great your product or service is, there is inevitably going to be someone else working in similar market territory. Differentiation and communicating what makes your version of this idea so much better and more useful to your desired audience than that other guy’s–that starts at the beginning of development, not at the end. It starts at the ground level: everything from your company name to your web design needs to communicate a personality and get across your particular message, because even before you’ve launched, people will talk about your brand. It’s a lot easier to build a brand into your startup’s DNA from the beginning than it is to graft it on later. As soon as you have enough business startup capital to start actualizing your vision, invest in branding.
Raising Business Startup Capital with Branding
Like spending on development or hiring, branding is an investment. You’ll retain more users and attract more enthusiasts with a better brand. In addition to upping your startup’s chances of future success in the marketplace, good early branding can get you more investment during the development phase. If you have a brand that represents what you do, conveys stability, and shows that you understand your target market, that means something to potential investors. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and if you’re a company, your branding is that chance. We usually talk about this in terms of potential customers, but making a good impression on investors and even banks is just as important when you are starting out. Successful branding sends the signal that you know what you’re doing already and are likely to deliver a great return on investment.
It’s never too early to start building your brand. Articulating your vision to others, whether they are customers or investors, is just as important as realizing it. If you have a great product but nobody notices, you might need a better brand. If you need help developing a strong brand for your company, the branding and naming experts at A Hundred Monkeys can help. Contact us today to find more about our branding consultant services and our human approach to branding.
