There’s no time like the present! And for the aspiring entrepreneur, what a time it is to be alive! With the inventions of Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Twitter, it’s never been easier to put out your content and attract potential clients. Today’s world craves rapid tweets, instant story updates and global information. This world actually and truly wants to know what you are up to! Now, that’s exciting! There’s just one teeny tiny problem though. Shorter attention spans. If you can’t efficiently communicate what you want to say, it’s onto the next company or the latest trending item. And all your hard work, a matter of the past.
‘A stunning first impression is not the same thing as love at first sight but surely it is an invitation to consider the matter.’
– Lois McMaster Bujold
Choices! Choices! Choices! Something that we’re confident you’re already quite familiar with. Right from the time you were young, you’ve had to make choices. Arts, Science or Commerce? BBA, BA, BMM or BSc? A stable job or your own legacy? As confusing as these choices might have been, the point has always been simple. Understand, study and execute only what you like and want. Make your own niche and be known for it. There’s always someone who can better do the rest. While this might be a tough truth to take, it’s also one that can definitely be used to your advantage.
“Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself- and thus make yourself indispensable.”
― André Gide
Have you heard of James Gunn, the director of ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy’?The one famously fired for tweets from over a decade ago? He provides a valuable case study of the nature of the world around us.Just as in his case, the market is often cruel and unforgiving of mistakes and errors. It’s common knowledge that no matter how many things you do right, it is the one you do wrong that people talk most about. As entrepreneurs, we tend to jump straight into the fire. Without holistic knowledge, we try to accomplish everything.While that’s fine, the learning curve and multiple areas of lesser competence create a lack of directed focus. With this lack of focus, mistakes are often right around the corner. Even if you somehow fully steer clear of mistakes, the lack of focus will often lead to an overall drop in quality. As humans, we’re born imperfect. Born to need each other. It’s on this very bedrock that entire empires have been built.So, why try to fix what’s not broken?
“An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping that he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.”
– Roy Ash
With all this in mind, today, you are compelled to make an important choice. The choice to struggle on your own, taking months, maybe even years to truly understand and speak to your target audience in their language. Or to be a wise emperor and obtain a competent general to better advise you on how to achieve your vision in a more time-efficient and cost-efficient way.Hold on though.Before you make that choice, we just want to leave you with a few additional sweeteners regarding what you get when you partner with a branding agency.
The Know how
Because of the nature of their work, branding agencies often research, study and analyse people on ground. This allows them to develop the freshest of perspectives, opinions and strategies to better communicate your unique business to the relevant audience and increase your success rate.The odds of success are so high that even established brands like Amul, Marico and 3M feel the need to communicate through a branding agency. For you, that basically means a lot less stress, fewer late nights and many more celebrations.
A crisp plan
As a start-up, you’ll often be face-to-face with many situations where you won’t know if you’re on the right path. You won’t understand how the general public perceives your product or service. With the solutions to life not coming in the form of a guide or in multiple choices, you might not even realise the next ten things for you to do.Sounds stressful? We’re sure the seasoned entrepreneurs reading this are grinning and nodding vigorously. Branding agencies have so much experience that they can very easily draw up a customised road map just for you. Like a true friend, they’ll tell you where you’ve gone wrong and help you improve. Remember, every good start-up specialised branding agency wants to play a key part in a start-up success story and they’ll be doing everything in their power to take you to the top.
The ability to stand apart
As a budding business you might often find yourself in a red ocean. No matter how well youtry to communicate what you do,you often end up sounding similar to someone else.That’s downright frustrating. It takes a lot of time, energy and competence to consistently communicate what makes you different in a way that sticks. And if you think that’s the difficult part, then try doing it on a start-up marketing budget. Talk about cutting it close. Be it through an event, a sponsorship or just an influencer partnership, your branding partner will have the highest performing personalized solution ready just for you.
The keys to faster growth
Your communications might be great. But, are they Durex great? Campaigns like that of Durex and Spotify come from a thorough understanding of themselves and their audiences. As an entrepreneur on the amateur level, you might not have the answers to all the questions about your audience or even yourself. But, you know who would? Yup, that’s right, your branding partner; and they’ll be most excited to share that information with you. So go ahead, speak with them. Ask them questions. Know what your people are looking for. Understand your audience and yourself. And then make money off of it. After all, we just want you to succeed.
Better ROI
You want to convert an audience of several lakhs to your brand and service offerings. Unfortunately, your budget to do so is just a few ten thousands. Trying to figure out the most optimum use of that budget can be daunting,especially if you don’t even know the options available to you.By the time you have a concrete idea, the market has already evolved and you have to figure it out all over again. This cycle repeats as if it’s your favourite song. Except one costing you time, money and business. Don’t break your head on these matters! Leave it to the experts. Not only will branding agencies give you the highest ROI on your marketing budget, but they’ll also give you realistic expectations from each action you might take. No more uncertainty, no more stress.Just smiles, happiness and success.
Peace of mind
Sometimes you don’t want to do everything and handle everyone. Sometimes you want to just be a creator. A problem solver. Someone who can help the world in some way. With a branding agency on board, you can go back to doing just that. No more stress about building and marketing your brand. No more stress about what to say to clients and how to better understand them. That information will not just be served to you right on a platter, but also executed in the best possible way. You can relax and focus on doing what you do best; making a difference.
It’s tough being an entrepreneur. We weren’t trained or educated for this journey. We just woke up one morning and realised that we were different. That we didn’t fit in the pre-existing moulds. That we just wanted to make a difference, help people and leave a lasting impression. That’s exactly why we need to stick together. To help each other. To figure this entire thing out together. At Almond Branding, we believe strongly in the impact entrepreneurs and start-ups can make.We work tirelessly to better understand you and your struggles. To back you up in any way we can. Thankfully, just like us, there are tons of agencies working round the clock to help entrepreneurs just like you create the kind of impact that helps millions. Our doors are always open to you. All you have to do is step in and say hi.
Authored by By Shashwat Das, Founder, Almond Branding
