Small-business owners make a number of common foolish assumptions about branding, including:
- SMMEs do not have brand recognition.
- My business is too small in order to be a brand.
- There are a lot of different competitors in our industry which means that striving for individuality is pointless.
- Having the lowest possible price is the only thing which matters to my customers.
Do you recognise any of these assumptions in your own brand mindset? If so, your thought process could be a bit misguided. It took a number of different years in business for us to start to recognise these limiting mindsets.
Business growth, in our experience, includes a number of different factors:
- Systems and processes,
- Delegation and having the correct team,
- Consistent marketing and visibility, and
- A clear brand message and communication strategy.
Without those, a business can easily stall and plateau. What most business owners don’t realise, however, is how much brand mindset plays a part to help increase your business growth.
Avoid Damage By Monitoring Your Brand
The main two ways of gauging your online reputation is by examining at the search engine results pages (SERP) and by utilising Google Autocomplete. By remaining ahead of any negative stories, you are able to take a proactive approach of safeguarding your reputation. If you are seeing an issue arise, you can go into Google Analytics and look for spikes in your site traffic which will point out key events as well as possible red flags.
Review Your Brand Position
Gaining greater clarity around where you are at right now is essential to planning your leadership pathway forward! By Identifying what’s holding you back, what your biggest frustrations are, your what’s working and what’s not personally, financially and professionally will offer insights on how to improve and maximise your brand value and leadership skills.
