If there is one thing that can cause great problems in the entrepreneurial world is not having a clear road to follow. As an entrepreneur with a consulting and design business many times I have clients coming to me asking for help with their branding, but they are also asking for help from other people, and then sometimes have a business coach as well that they are listening to. With information coming from all different sources who are you listening to? Many times these people are not working together and don’t understand the context on the information coming from their client. This cannot only cause you problems when developing the project, but causes problems in your branding all together and will cause you to spend more money.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a business advisor, or various designers but you must have at least a clear vision for yourself. If you don’t you will not know whether a decision is right for you. Advisors are there to offer advice and give you options to improve your branding, designers know what is effective and what needs to be done to make sure items work properly together for the audience of the client. If you are just listening to anyone that comes along or many people at once without knowing what you want for your business then you are not ready to start the branding part of your business. It would be like having one commercial for all the United States. With so many different environments one commercial would miss some of the best parts of what makes the United States a great country.

The first part of building a business plan is defining your target market, if you know who this is it gets easier to build a brand around them. When someone doesn’t know their target market is when they start listening to others and ideas get confused. Building that business plan for your business is really the first step to creating a checklist for your business. Many folks think that a business plan is for borrowing money but really it should be done for every product, service, or new business. Even an informal one that is. A one page checklist is better than no plan at all. Don’t waste your money by throwing it around thinking you have to have all the wheels spinning at the same time, more important is to make sure you have a clear defined path and then start hiring the people you need to make your brand come to life.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a consultant, author, and designer. He is the author of books How to Start an Artistic Business in 12 Easy Steps, Running by the Mile, and Driven to Drive. For more information please visit his website at www.outridge.ca