As a business owner, the end of a year is a common time to reflect on business goals. If you’re not hitting all your goals this year, you may be questioning if your branding is at fault.
As a brand you want to stand out and be noticed for what your company stands for. You may think, “If only my business or personal brand had a new look!”
But how do you know if your business could benefit from a rebrand or brand refresh?
Rebranding and a brand refresh are the two most effective ways to give your business a new look. Both are effective, but if you don’t know what to do or when to do it, you can waste a lot of time and money.
Let’s not do that, okay? Your time and energy is precious. So, first let’s understand the difference between a rebrand and a brand refresh.
What is a Brand Refresh?
Think of a brand refresh as a makeover to upgrade the visual design, but the brand remains mostly the same in terms of messaging, values, and overall brand personality. A refresh can introduce new shades to your brand colors, graphic elements or a new set of branded social media templates.
A brand refresh is similar to the new scarf and boots added to your wardrobe to spice up the many outfits you already have.
You might seek a brand refresh if your business has matured. Maybe your visuals don’t align with your brand messaging or speak to your brand personality. A new set of branded templates could be just what you need to breathe life back into your biz.
What is a Rebrand?
A rebrand is a complete overhaul of your brand identity. It involves re-examining your brand strategy including market research, goals, and purpose. Some brands choose to undergo a complete brand transformation, which could include a new name, logo, fonts, brand colors, and even a new business model.
A rebrand is similar to donating all the items in your wardrobe that no longer bring you joy and updating it with items that do. You build a closet filled with clothes and accessories that give you confidence because they represent who you are.
You might seek a rebrand if your business has changed direction or you desire to pivot your original brand. Or perhaps you pivoted your niche and your ideal clientand services have changed.
If you’ve been in business a couple of years, more than likely your business has matured and you’ve outgrown your best DIY efforts. To prepare for rebranding, you will need to consider an overhaul on brand strategy, brand guidelines, and marketing collateral.
Questions to Ask Before a Rebrand
Get down to the root of your desire.
Why are you looking to update your brand?
Are you bored?
Are you finding it hard to show up for your audience?
Are you no longer finding joy in your business?
Rebranding needs to be done consciously. And being bored of your current branding can’t be the only reason!
Please resist changing your whole brand identity just because you’re bored or because you think, “I got zero clients in the last six months, my account is not growing. I think it’s my branding.”
It’s going to take your brand at least a year to make an impact. Don’t rebrand unless your core values shift or you’re changing business models, industry brand equity takes years to build and shouldn’t be discarded.
I’m not saying don’t rebrand because if done right it can set you on a blazing path to success. But do so consciously and thoughtfully. Take people on a journey with you as you explore new brand ideas. Test your ideas out in stories and see if people are engaging with them.
If you feel your business has matured and you’ve outgrown your DIYed branding maybe it’s time to invest in a professional approach to brand and content strategy.
Do I Need a Brand Refresh?
If you are just bored of your branding or feel disconnected maybe there are other things going on in your life influencing this feeling. Maybe all you need is a refresh!
Get inspired by creating a vision board. Follow competitors in your industry and take note of what you like and what you don’t like. Add customizable branded templates to your marketing collateral.
Take The First Step Towards a Brand You Love
A brand refresh and rebrand are often confused and used interchangeably. But when done correctly at the right times, they yield different results.
If you feel you need a change, don’t be afraid to take the first step. As an entrepreneur, having a brand that is fresh brings personal joy and business success. As you grow, it’s expected that your business will too.
If you find yourself dreaming about what your brand should look like. Start by asking yourself, why?
Take the time to define your joy, ideal lifestyle, and purpose. When your soul is in alignment with your business, you will know if it’s the season for a refresh or a rebrand.
If things are feeling stale or unclear, go back to the drawing board & see where the disconnect is between you & your brand.
If you’re an entrepreneur ready to bring your big brand vision to life, the Social Media Branding Package may be just what you need. This is a one-stop shop service for building a cohesive, stand-out brand AND content strategy that work hand in hand.
If a brand refresh could bring your brand back to life, these customizable branded Canva templates can get your business soaring high into the new year.
If you want to find your authentic brand strategy, check out this brand strategy quiz I created to help you understand how to show up in your business in alignment with your unique energy, personality & Human Design.
Income inequality in the U.S. has grown, with inequality showing up along race lines. Statistics on income inequality from the Pew Research Center show that as of 2018 the median income in black households is 61% of the median income in white households.
This disparity is the result of years of wealth generation by white people in the U.S. at the expense of POC. Fortunately, the digital space has created opportunities for POC to make money with our skills, be an entrepreneur, and start closing the wealth gap.
During our talk, Jakiya shared her experience quitting corporate twice, but entrepreneurship was not her goal. As a black woman, Jakiya dealt with microaggressions and was overworked, which led to burnout.
Her decision: quit and rest.
When she returned to corporate a second time, it was at a time when the killings of Black people at the hands of the police and protests headlined the news. This was around 2014 during the murders of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice among others.
Hearing the protests while working and hearing her co-workers ask what was happening made her realize she was not where she wanted to be.
All these factors led her to think she could not be herself in corporate. While she knows better now, having her own business has given her the freedom to be herself.
In a world where professionalism is dictated by elitist ideals of whiteness this type of freedom is a form of rest for POC. It is resting from having to talk or act a certain way.
Entrepreneurship, then, becomes a form of self-care for many POC like Jakiya and myself.
To maintain this lifestyle, however, it is crucial to monetize your skills in a sustainable way.
Leverage Your Skills to Make Money
Like Manu’s advice on how to build a successful business, Jakiya says to start with skills you already have. What do you know to do that you can start doing right now? From here, you can package your skills into offers by doing the following:
1. Have a Clear Solution and Offer
Having a skill alone is not enough. You need to be clear about what you want to do. Like Jakiya says, you do not have to get everything perfect, but you do need to have clarity.
Do you know your industry, your avatar (i.e. your ideal client), have a clear message, and offer a solution?
Even if you are great at doing what you do, if you are not solving someone’s problem, people will not buy from you. Having a clear vision, voice, and solution transforms your skills into offers you can sell.
If you do not have these, it does not mean you cannot make money using your skills. Use your abilities doing freelance work. This will pay off in the end since you will gain experience, which translates to charging more.
2. Master Your Skill
If you are going to sell something, master it!
Mastery of your skill is not only about honing your craft. It is about creating the right processes to replicate results.
Jakiya mentions how she did not create products and services around traveling even though people asked her how she did it. Why?
Because it was not “a proven concept that [she could] copy, paste, and replicate”.
To sell your skills, you need to “make sure the processes can be replicated and proven”, and then you can sell. To do this, you need to try it out with different people. [Read: test out your skills].
You can do this by offering something for free or for a lower cost, so you can gain the experience and testimonials.
Entrepreneurship as a Practice of Liberation
One aspect of monetization few talk about is that monetization is more than just hitting some ideal number [Read: 100K should not be your goal].
You will often hear people say they hit 100k or have a six figure income as a sign of success. These claims ignore that these numbers are arbitrary.
As Jakiya notes, the six-figure goal is simply “a figure that was made up by corporate America to keep us in a construct of working towards that”.
Jakiya makes an insightful point in saying that “it is a ceiling . . . [and your goals should be] about your lifestyle” as well as the impact you want to make.
During our discussion we talked about how you may not even need 100k to live the lifestyle you want. For some, 200k may be enough if they get to live a life that makes them feel wealthy in other ways like spending time with family, traveling, or just having a slow morning. So why is the focus money?
Focus on increasing your quality of life instead.
Monetization is also about making an impact. Jakiya uses entrepreneurship as a tool for activism to uplift her community and close the wealth gap.
I had to ask myself these questions in my own journey. While at first I wanted to share my story simply to share it, I eventually had to sit with the questions of: “How does sharing my lifestyle help other people get there? How can I help take people with me there too?”
Like Jakiya says, “If I’m winning, and they’re winning, and, like, we all are out here winning”.
An entrepreneurial journey rooted in activism means having a real conversation with yourself about the impact you want to make in the world and the legacy you want to leave.
For me, it is a legacy that centers freedom for women. I want other women to know the freedom I know because of my personal brand.
Owning my freedom and showing others how they can attain theirs is the motivation behind my brand development program: to help women develop brands that are profitable and true-to-self.
If you want to find your authentic brand strategy, check out this brand strategy quiz I created to help you understand how to show up in your business in alignment with your unique energy, personality & Human Design.
