How to Brand Your Solo Business

While starting your own business may be your dream, it has to stand out from the competition to be truly successful. Just like a large organization invests a sizable sum into branding efforts, a solo business should consider developing a unique identity to promote long-term growth. The following strategies can help your business appeal to potential customers.

Establish an Identity

Branding encompasses how you define yourself, what you stand for, and how you use your voice. How do you wish to be known? What do you offer? Focus on a small market you can thrive within, or clearly interlink related services if you have multiple talents. A writing service, for example, could go hand in hand with editing or transcription work. Regardless of what you do, establish an identity that customers easily recognize.

Visualize it

Visualization strengthens your business identity and overall presence. Simplicity usually works best here, especially if your graphics clearly depict your focus. An educational website or service, for example, may opt for a brightly-lit bulb and yellow color scheme. Whether your business needs an eye-catching logo or a compelling business card, proper visualization can help you increase brand awareness and reach new audiences.

Add Character

Have some fun with your brand by adapting a certain pattern or characteristic. Implement light humor into your solo business through relatable quotes and puns, or give away a small souvenir that represents your business with every purchase that meets a certain criterion. Using a consistent color scheme can solidify brand identity. For example, Facebook is known for its blue and white logo. Keep in mind that different colors evoke different feelings and emotions.

Make it Memorable

Brands are often remembered for something they do and not just who they are. Use your products and services in creative ways to establish a stronger relationship with your customers. For example, have you considered holding weekly, monthly, or yearly contests? Use names or labels to establish such events, such as "Freebie Fridays," where you give away random perks to one lucky newsletter subscriber.

Expand and Diversify

Maintaining various social media channels isn't enough if you only post the occasional company update. Go the extra mile by creating regular YouTube videos that deliver a message about your brand, or release a regular podcast discussing the latest trends and issues surrounding your industry. Likewise, diversify offline through the use of business cards or even sponsoring a charitable organization.

Be Predictable

Certain annual events are highly anticipated by customers, most notably Black Friday sales. Imagine if your solo business had a similar strategy that incorporated predictable deals during certain dates and seasons. For example, you could be known for reducing the costs of your products and services by 10 percent during every national holiday. From an administrative standpoint, ensure that you find the best times to send out communication emails, new social media announcements and website posts if your business relies heavily on the web.

Assess the Competition

What are your competitors doing that your business currently lacks? How have they achieved their status and overall presence? Perhaps a local business speaks to their demographics more effectively or implements the latest trends a bit faster. Draw inspiration from your rival's branding strategy to correct potential mistakes. Study not only what they do, but how they inject themselves into the masses and analyze any missing link between your brand and your target audience.

While your products and services may help resolve a problem for the consumer, it is your branding that gains their attention and attracts them to your offerings.

Five Lessons to Learn from Your Competition

It goes without saying that competition drives innovation. While your goal is to ultimately be the best, you simply cannot build a sustainable business without competitors consistently improving the landscape. Therefore, learning from your competitors is crucial when it comes to driving your business forward. Let's look at the various ways in which business rivals can actually help you beat them at their own game.

1. Know where they stand

As a small business owner, you may already be familiar with your audience's main necessities, but so is your competition. Knowing what the other guys are offering is a great way to deliver higher value. What are your rivals doing differently and how are they going about it? Perhaps they offer similar services but have more attractive incentives or rewards programs.

Competition analysis will help you stay ahead because it enables you to develop a more valuable strategy for both consumers and your business infrastructure. You do not need to reinvent the wheel here; just rise above your competitors with a new angle.

2. Assess their weaknesses

In contrast to the above, analyzing your competitor's weaknesses is a surefire way to stand out. Thankfully, businesses tend to leave various clues about their intricate operation methods—even in subtle ways. For example, what is their social media strategy? How often do they engage with their target audience? Are they choosing the best possible times to do so? How do they communicate or come across?

Whether your competitor lacks a hassle-free refund policy or has a disorganized in-store experience or website setup, there is always a way to find their weaknesses and use that to your advantage.

3. Customers are your highest priority

Successful businesses do not focus primarily on their competitors, but rather on their customers. While competitive analysis helps you stay ahead, customer satisfaction ultimately helps you stay afloat.

UPS' competitive advantage lies heavily on outstanding customer service. This is something that most competitors naturally integrate, but few actually go above and beyond to ensure unquestionable satisfaction. Even if your competitor is proficient in this area, analyzing their inner workings (and aforementioned weaknesses) allows you to gain the upper hand with your target audience.

4. Analyze their company culture

Employees are often dissatisfied with their company culture, whether a business has unnecessarily strict regulations or their methods feel robotic and bland. What can you learn from other businesses to improve employee satisfaction?

While figuring out your competitors' internal culture may prove difficult, you can still assess the situation through various means. For example, become a regular customer for a limited time and take a look around from a professional's perspective. Be curious, and study employee behavior and communication. In addition, survey your own employees, as well as your customers, to improve upon your strengths and deliver greater value. Diligent homework combined with genuine feedback can help you establish the right company culture and stand apart from any and all competitors.

5. Study their brand and persona

A small business's brand plays a substantial role in the way customers interact. Your brand has the power to represent your business's personality, which naturally leads to higher customer engagement and sales. However, what if your client base relates better to your competitor's image? Perhaps they have adapted a sense of humor that your company lacks, or have a welcoming aura that reassures customers that they will have a great time while shopping. Maybe your store lacks background music or a greater level of customer-friendly interaction.

Sweat the small details to inject more personality into your brand, regardless of how your competitors are doing. Entertain customers who are waiting in a long line or surprise loyal customers with a free gift, especially if your business is kid-friendly.

5 Ways to Balance Your Day Job and Side Business

Whether you own a side business for supplemental income or plan to turn it into a full-time endeavor, your day job still takes priority until your side business is fully dependable. It is critical to find a way to make both businesses successful without burning yourself out. Here is a look at some effective ways to balance your time and energy while simultaneously managing your day job and your up-and-coming business.

1. Develop a long-term plan

A side business can be long-term and even blossom into full-time work. Like any other venture, it requires planning to ensure that it meets and exceeds your expectations over time. Depending on your goals, creating a business plan might be the best way to envision the long-term success of your side business. This enables you to better balance it with your day job because every step of the way is mapped out.

In addition, set financial goals and detail potential expenses, such as the acquisition of tools, inventory management, and additional assistance required to make it successful. Compile a list of goals to help envision the amount of time and resources required to manage both your job and your side business more effectively.

2. Plan ahead for tax season

Whether your side business is small or large, prepare ahead for tax season in order to better assess potential write-offs. Keep careful records of all income and expenses. This can be achieved with software or by creating a simple spreadsheet. Once tax season arrives, managing all financial details will be easier to balance because everything is neatly organized.

3. Operate both businesses separately

In order to avoid potential conflict, resist the urge to focus on your side business during regular work hours. While it may not cause legal repercussions with your main source of income, some employers may frown upon your focus on other opportunities outside of your day job. If management feels like you lack focus, they may assume that you will eventually leave and not consider you for promotional opportunities. At worst, they may even start looking for a replacement.

Refrain from talking about your side work—even with close friends and trusted colleagues. In addition, create separate social media accounts for personal use and for your side business.

4. Manage your time efficiently

With a day job and a side business, you most likely work over 40 hours per week. This makes proper time management critical to avoiding potential burnout. Managing your time well will also help you stay focused at your day job and make your side business more successful.

Though there will be days where both your side and day jobs require extra attention, focus on getting all tasks done properly and efficiently. Do not allow for unneeded interruptions, and focus solely on your side business when time allows. Self-discipline is crucial when managing your own ventures or striving for self-employment.

5. Take a break

Allow yourself to take a break from both your day job and side business. While you may take a vacation from your day job and dedicate additional time to your side business, consider stepping away from everything as a way to replenish your focus. Even if it is only for a few days, plan a vacation each year and refrain from working during this time. This will help you reduce fatigue from working extensive hours and will get you ready to tackle priorities with renewed interest.

With proper planning and preparation, balancing your time between two jobs can be done efficiently and effectively. The key is to find the right combination of proper timing, adequate focus, and the ability to step away when time allows.