Thinking about starting your own business this year? Or maybe you already have, and want to scale up and win big with it next year?

Here are some tips for you, to help your business business punch above its weight when it comes to branding – without having to empty out your pockets!

Here Are Five Effective Tips To Cost-Efficiently Build A Unique Brand:

Tip 1: What Is Everyone Else Doing?!

The more you obsess about what the competition is doing, the more you lose your unique identity and voice, as you might try and incorporate certain elements of other business into yours. Everyone has their own path to success, and yours might even be in doing the opposite to your competition. Unfollow them on social media, spend some time thinking about makes your business unique, and build only on that. Your raving fans will naturally follow!

Tip 2: Sorry, How Do You Spell That?

If you don’t  have a name yet for your business, or find that a lot of people find the name difficult to pronounce, now is a good time to change it, even though you may be in love with your clever business name! If people cannot pronounce it and spell it, chances are, they are not going to remember it. Who do you think they are going to call when they need your services? Your easy-to-remember competitor! There are plenty of business name generators online that you can use to get some ideas going, but remember to pick one that is easy to spell, pronounce, and remember.

Tip 3: Oh, Are You The Same Business? I Was Confused….

Consistency, consistency, consistency. In terms of visuals, make sure you are using one or two distinctive core colours. Also, limit the number of fonts you use and make sure your company’s logo is the same across all platforms, be it your social media sites, your website, or in print.

Tip 4: I Don’t Think My Logo Was Supposed To Turn Out Like This.

If you don’t have the budget to pay a pro to create branding collaterals like your logo, fret not – there are plenty of free tools you can use on your own. For example, canva.com is great for creating graphics and beautiful designs as it’s essentially ‘photoshop for dummies’, made super easy and accessible. Don’t forget: Keep it simple, stupid! It’s often when you try to do something too complex that it can look amateurish! There’s nothing wrong with a simple text-based logo in one or two colours to get you off the starting blocks.

Tip 5: Errr, I Think I Need Help!

If you think hiring a professional is expensive, try hiring an amateur! Don’t be afraid to make some key investments in your business when you need to, and also go DIY on certain elements. It’s quite simple to DIY a perfectly decent Squarespace website with a little work, which you can then upgrade as your business grows this 2017!

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