Building Blocks: The Beginning

Where to Begin?
Once you’ve made the decision for your business that you are going to build your brand from the ground up, you may find yourself a bit overwhelmed. I certainly did. In this post, I reflect on the beginning of my journey as I learned to focus on branding even while in survival mode.

What’s in a Name?
This piece examines some of the considerations in selecting the right name for a well-branded operation. 

Design Your Own Logo
This tutorial provides a very hands-on approach to building your logo.   Whether you are considering a totally new design or simply looking to adjust, adapt, and tweak an existing one, these tips (including where to find needed tools) should prove useful.

Know Your Audience
A very basic but essential part of any branding exercise should be to make sure you know your audience and choose branding elements that properly reflect their characteristics.  This article reviews some of the basics for you to consider.

How to Create a Mission Statement
Need a little inspiration for crafting that ever-so-important message? This post includes a couple dozen great examples along with an exercise that breaks down the components of a good mission statement to help you develop yours.

The Role of a Brand Style Guide
Once you have completed each of the above activities BUT BEFORE YOU BEGIN BUILDING BASIC TOOLS LIKE BUSINESS CARDS OR LETTERHEAD OR INCORPORATING THE ELEMENTS INTO MARKETING OR ADVERTISING EFFORTS, take the time to create a style guide that puts into writing the most basic rules that must be observed to properly build the visual element of your new brand.

How to Set Up Simple Print-and-Cut Business Cards
Start with a blank Word document and develop business cards that are print-ready in only ten steps . . . this “how to” guides the way for you. A Corel Draw tutorial is available as well.

How to Easily Create Business Letterhead
As integral as business cards and even easier to develop, letterhead created in Microsoft Word is presented as Instructions with Template Included and a Video Tutorial. Instructions and a template are available for Corel Draw as well.

Note:  Many helpful downloadable tools/templates are provided to add extra value to the pieces described above.