Every business problem is a brand problem

I spend the majority of my days speaking with founders about the challenges that they encounter within their organization as well as the challenges they have communicating to investors and customers.

What I have come to realize is that?every business problem is a brand problem.

“I have a hard time finding the right hire.” BRAND PROBLEM

“I don’t know who my target audience is.” BRAND PROBLEM

“My team all describes our business in different ways” BRAND PROBLEM

“I’m struggling to know how to move my business online.” BRAND PROBLEM

“I know this is a great business but investors just don’t get it.” BRAND PROBLEM

This sounds incredibly convenient for me, the founder of a brand studio, to say, but this is why I believe it to be true.

Your brand is what tells everyone why you exist, what you do and how you show up. When there is a lack of clarity or alignment on these things internally, every decision you make in your business starts to fracture your brand.

One of our clients came to us with a disconnected name and slightly fragmented message, the reason was because they believed in the problem they were solving but they were far too busy communicating the features of their product rather than aligning on the purpose of their brand and the simple commitment they were making to their customers. Once we were able to help the three founders come to an agreement on the language and meaning of these components, all of their decisions and debates were much easier to navigate.

When founders disagree it’s usually around order of operations or semantics. As the team scales and grows this problem just continues to amplify. Getting clear on those early allowed them to scale their team, culture and customer base faster than anyone could imagine.

When it comes to communicating with investors, it’s often difficult for founders to see the forest through the trees. Having a rootedness in your brand allows you to communicate your story with clarity and precision to find the right investor. One of the pitch decks we did helped our clients?raise over $1million dollars in less than two weeks.?This was more than they intended to raise, because the story was clear and they are rockstar founders!

If we are making decisions to hit a quarterly sales target, or because the latest A/B test told us that this option was slightly more effective, even though it might compromise our brand a little, it creates these little splinters in your brand that start to grow over time.

Your brand is your compass for making quick and correct decisions for longevity and sustainability.?You will inevitably get caught up in the whirlwind of running a startup, and if you don’t have a compass to reorient yourself over and over, you will continue to meander one foot in front of the other and potentially end up with a business you no longer want, or are no longer proud of.

Part two of this series will be looking at exactly how a healthier brand can help you solve these problems.

Recently, I’ve allocated the majority of my time to hop on calls with founders to help them identify and build a plan of attack towards their brand problems. If you’re a founder who thinks you might have a brand problem,?book a meeting in my calendar.