Phase 3 of 3: Create (Steps 9-12)
Before we get started, swing on back to Part 1 and Part 2 if you haven’t or need a recap.
Ready? Alrightly, let’s get to work mumma.
Step 9. Get Registered
In Step 8 you were checking if your Business Name, Trademark, URL etc we’re available. If they are all available, you’ve checked in with friends (they often think of things you don’t, like dodgy acronyms ..), and you’re sure you’re committed, jump on it!
When we were starting our agency, the name we wanted was taken the night we decided to sleep on it. As you’d know if you made it this far into the guide, it’s a long journey to get to this point. It’s gut wrenching to miss out on the name you had your heart set on.
This includes your ABN or ACN (in Australian, or your International equivalent) if you don’t already have one.
SO you did it?? Woop woop! Celebrate time – oh yeh!!!
Now’s it’s time for the really, actually, super dooper, really cool fun stuff! At least I think so 😉
Step 10. Branding
Wow. What to say about Branding.
Firstly, make sure you take the time to do this properly. Allocate a whole day to dedicate to trial and error.
That said, in my experience I find it’s best to make decisions fast, instinctively. Otherwise I get stuck in indecision. I then let it sit for a day or so without looking at it. Then when I do relook over everything with fresh eyes I know what I love and don’t love pretty much straight away.
OK now lets get into it.
You need to know that branding is not a logo. Yes, it’s part of the story, but it’s just a minor part. Branding is the way you display and deliver your value.
Think of your brand like a person. It has a personality and unique offerings. Everything about your brand (your look, voice and interactions) all need to consistently reflect your promise to your audience. By being clear and consistent, you establish trust. When you establish trust and provide value, you’ll get sales.
So how do you define your brand?
What’s your promise?
Is your promise to make your clients look and feel beautiful? Your brand is probably feminine and beautiful too.
Is your promise to turn your clients into clean, lean, exercising machines? Your brand is probably punchy, rather than flowery.
These are just examples. There are no rules except consistency. So, you do you my friend!!
Some fun exercises to do to get really clear on your brand.
In terms of positioning, is your brand:
- Affordable / Luxury
- Personable / Formal
- Light / Dark
- Masculine / Feminine
- Light hearted / Serious etc.
Choose some descriptive words from below. Remember, these are not words to describe yourself, but words that describe your brand promise and personality.
- Active
- Adventurous
- Ambitious
- Artistic
- Athletic
- Bold
- Beautiful
- Bright
- Calm
- Caring
- Casual
- Cheerful
- Chic
- Classic
- Confident
- Conservative
- Creative
- Delicate
- Direct
- Dramatic
- Daring
- Dynamic
- Earthy
- Efficient
- Elegant
- Energetic
- Exciting
- Fabulous
- Flirty
- Formal
- Friendly
- Fun
- Graceful
- Glamorous
- Historic
- Hip
- Impactful
- Industrial
- Informal
- Informative
- Innovative
- Inspiring
- Intense
- Intentional
- Inviting
- Joyful
- Lively
- Lush
- Mature
- Majestic
- Modern
- Mature
- Natural
- Noisy
- Nostalgic
- Organic
- Plain
- Playful
- Powerful
- Professional
- Proud
- Quaint
- Quirky
- Radient
- Relaxing
- Romantic
- Retro
- Rustic
- Scholarly
- Secure
- Sensitive
- Serious
- Silly
- Sincere
- Sleek
- Smart
- Soothing
- Sophisticated
- Stable
- Stimulaing
- Striking
- Strong
- Stunning
- Sustainable
- Swanky
- Timeless
- Tranquil
- Trustworthy
- Unconventional
- Urban
- Versatile
- Vintage
- Whimsical
- Wild
- Witty
- Wistful
- Youthful
*List above adapted from eliseeppdesign.com
How do you want your clients to feel when they interact with your brand?
Happy? Carefree? Relaxed? Ready? Pampered?
What types of colours are these words? Warm, cool, bright, pastel? You can use a tools like coolors.co to create a custom colour palette.
What types fonts are these words and colours? Straight? Swirly? Bold? Whimsical? Professional?
Now you should have a good base to use as a foundation for refinement, or for handing over to a branding agency, consultant or graphic designer.
If you feel like you’re not quite there, just Google ‘Branding exercises’ and you’ll come across a plethora of resources and super fun exercises.
Enjoy!
Step 11. Operations
Alright, now it’s back to getting more serious and practical.
You’ve figured out who your business is, but how does it operate?
What are the policies and procedures, inventory systems, software, website system, email provider etc that you need to put in place in order for your business to run.
I know too well that when first starting a business, it’s likely just you. You’re the founder, creator, marketer, administrator, customer service rep, fulfilment officer, finance manager and more.
You may be running off canva templates, excel spreadsheets and trello board checklists and that totally fine. Document everything anyway. Rather than try and remember what you did last time, write down what you need to do, when and in what order.
This doesn’t mean it’s set in stone. At all. But it does mean that you’ll be quicker, and identify areas that aren’t optimised.
If you have no idea where to start here, start thinking through what you’d do at each stage.
What do you do to get an order?
What would you do when you get an order?
What do you do to deliver an order?
Go through the process and write down any tools, paid or otherwise that are going to help you.
Still not sure? Join a relevant Facebook Group (like ours) and ask for help. Women supporting women is a beautiful thing.
This is also the stage where you officially become mumma digital and build your website or online presence. We’re not going to go into detail about that here, but look out for a future post on this.
Happy planning, automating and optimising mummas.
Step 12. Go Time.
AHHH!!! YESSS! YOU MADE IT!!!
If you’ve worked your way through this list and ended up here, sincerely, Well. Done.
You’ve done something that the majority of the world never will. You’ve taken a dream and turned it into reality. Yes, you still have a business to grow, but your seed has officially sprouted. Go you business mumma!
It’s time to put everything you’ve worked so hard on out into the world now and … Go. Live.
Then it’s time to party!
So get those bubbles on ice mumma and raise a glass to YOU. Then post a celebratory selfie and tag me so I can congratulate you in real time and give your biz some love.
Congratulations my dear. You did it.
Now strap yourself in tight, and get ready for the ride.
A xx
p.s. If you want the full simplified checklist, click here.