Lesson 1: Establishing Your Brand

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00:00 Hey everyone, this is the first official lesson of the course. Up until this point that we've been talking a little bit about what you can expect, how to use this course, how to get to know me, but now we are going to start getting into the meat and potatoes and in order to do that we need to first lay

00:18 a foundation for your accounting firm. And that means your brand. Your brand is going to be the thing that seeps into every single part of your marketing, of your copy, of your web design, of your podcasting, of your blogging.

00:32 It doesn't matter what you do. What you to get your name out there, your brand is going to touch on it.

00:36 And so I wanted to first start off this chapter by just answering some FAQs about what a brand is and, and some different things that you may be thinking about if, um, if you're trying to decide, you know, what you should do.

00:49 For your brand. So, uhm, yeah. Also, I wanted to show my logo. I just wanted to move the bubble so you can see, one, that I can move the bubble, and then, two, there's my logo.

00:58 Uhm, so let's get into it. Let's answer some FAQs. First is, what is a brand? Now, it doesn't matter, like I said, whether you are one person, a solopreneur, and plan on growing to be a big four, or maybe you already have people that work under you.

01:17 A brand is your online reputation. It is your business's reputation. So, when you think of a brand, you are thinking of the reputation of that business.

01:27 For example, if we think of Target, Target has kind of this brand of being a, uhm, fun place for millennial Gen X women to show up with a Starbucks and get away from their kids and buy way too many things.

01:44 It's kind of a nice place to do some home goods shopping and buy some skin care products that you don't need.

01:49 That's a little bit of the brand of Target. You can also get your grocery shopping done while you're there. Let's compare this with the brand of Walmart.

01:58 Walmart has a very different brand. This is not to shame Walmart. I shop at Walmart all the time, but Walmart does not have that Walmart has a brand of being the affordable option, the convenient option, uhm, a few years back there was a website called People of Walmart where Walmart attracts some characters

02:18 , uhm, some people that like to wear fun outfits at Walmart. Walmart does a very different brand than Target. Even though they are the same business, they have vastly different reputations.

02:28 What we're gonna do here is talk about how do we want to establish your reputation as a business? What do we want people to know you for?

02:35 Is it just, she's a good accountant? Like, is that it? Or do we want to be, no, she is the go-to person.

02:41 If you have questions about Xero or QuickBooks, what do we want people to know you for? Is this necessary? Um, again, if you're just planning on being like, a solopreneur and you're like, I just want to have like four or five clients.

02:56 I don't want to do anything crazy. I just want to kind of run my own little thing. That's fine. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, but a lot of this course we're going to be talking about building a business.

03:06 And so in building a business, it's going to have a different approach. It's going than if you are going more of a freelancer route.

03:13 When you're trying to build a business, we're thinking about things down the road of like, okay, I need to maybe hire some contractors to help support me in my operations.

03:22 I maybe want to have business cards where I can go to networking events and talk about what I know. Maybe I want to be a speaker at these networking events.

03:30 Even if you're just a solopreneur, that is a more of a business as opposed to a freelancer route. And so along that business route is if you're going to be a speaker at events, you need to be known for something.

03:41 And so in order to do that, we need to talk about your brand and talk about what you should be known for.

03:47 Another FAQ is, should I rebrand? Now I realize this is maybe a weird thing to be starting this section with, but like I said, a lot of you are going to be starting this course and being at different stages in your business.

03:58 Maybe you're already established and you're like, my marketing is not working. What do I do? Maybe you're thinking about a rebrand.

04:05 And so that's why I really wanted to have this FAQ in here. When it comes to a rebrand, I just want to start with, this is a very labor intensive process, a rebrand.

04:14 Especially if you are a well-established business. I did a rebrand in 20, 22, 23, 22 or 23. I forgot which one.

04:23 Um, but I rebranded my business and that was after just like two, three years of being around. It, there, for months, I was finding stuff where it's like, oh my gosh, I didn't rebrand it.

04:34 Okay, I need to change that name. Changing emails, changing all your, like, downloads and deliverables, your invoicing, your bank information.

04:42 Everything should eventually be changed and it is a giant undertaking. So, I do not take this question lightly and I really encourage you, if you are thinking about a rebrand, this is a very, very, I don't want to sugarcoat it, it's going to be a labor-intensive process.

04:57 But, if you really feel like you do need a rebrand, it will be worth it. So, I want to talk about whether you should rebrand or not.

05:06 Now, if you're debating on rebranding, we need to first ask a few questions. What do there are any major changes in your business?

05:12 Now I had a major rebrand partly because I had business partners and we went separate ways. We, my old business name, my old business was brand, had a lot to do with another business that they owned and it felt more appropriate that we should just separate the brands more clearly and more clean, cleanly

05:31 , more, have a more clean cut to the brands. And so that was a major change. Another major change is made- maybe you are changing your niche.

05:40 It is very clear that I work with accountants. No one is confused about that. If I were to suddenly start working with photographers, yeah, I would need a rebrand.

05:50 My name doesn't make sense. It's reference accountants. My vision, mission values don't make sense. It references accountants. My website, my services.

05:58 Nothing I do in my business is really tailored to photographers. It's tailored to accountants. And so that is another reason I would need to rebrand.

06:06 So you kind of get where I'm going. It would need to be a major change. Do you just know? Like your brand, or are you feeling restless?

06:13 Umm, like I said, I mean, I've been in business for five years. I understand the feeling of something needs to change.

06:20 Not like, oh, this isn't working out, but just like, I'm just not as as excited about it as I once was.

06:26 It feels like it's like a day in, day out grind. It's starting to feel more like a job rather than like that exciting, you know, new business feeling that you had.

06:35 Um, and you want to just shake things up. And so maybe you're like, maybe I need a new, That's not a good reason.

06:42 And that's not a good reason because of how much work this rebrand is going to take. Um, if you're feeling restless, come out with a new service offering.

06:50 It is going to be a lot less work. And that's just a hard, really kind of dig in and try to figure out why do you feel like you need a rebrand?

06:59 Is it because you are just feeling restless or is it something else? Third question, are you struggling with your audience brand reputation or marketing?

07:08 This is actually something where it may be a good idea to rebrand. So, for example, let's say you have a business name that is, like, ABC bookkeeping.

07:18 And there are a million other ABC bookkeeping's out there to the point that you are having a difficult time getting people to actually find you online.

07:27 And, to stand out, not just amongst other bookkeepers, but amongst all the other businesses that are called ABC bookkeeping. You chose a super common name.

07:36 You're not going to be able to trademark it. The web domain is already taken. You've been operating for a couple years, but you thought it'd be fine.

07:42 Turns out it isn't. And so, So now you're just struggling with your marketing. That may be a good, good reason to rebrand.

07:48 Um, another good reason to rebrand it is let's say, okay you're, you're struggling to get seen in a crowd. Um, you know, you're doing all the things, you think you're doing all the marketing right?

07:59 I'm sorry. This is actually maybe not a good reason to rebrand. Um, you're doing all the things, you think you're doing all the marketing right?

08:04 And then, you're just like, maybe something's off. Like, I feel like I'm posting, I feel like I'm doing what all the marketers tell me to do.

08:11 Maybe it's my brand. It may be your brand, but you- your brand is not going to be the thing, the single factor that makes or breaks your entire marketing strategy.

08:21 If you didn't redo your entire re- if you do a complete rebrand, but everything else stays the same, you still post the same content, you still post just as frequently.

08:31 Um, you still have the same engagement, you're still, you know, just doing the same blog post or whatever, it's not going to change anything.

08:38 The rebrand is not going to, not going to suddenly make all these other pieces work and come together. So really, what is the rebrand?

08:47 A rebrand should- be if there's been a major change in your business, or if there is a factual reason why the marketing is not working specifically related to the brand, like there is another business out there that has the exact same name as you.

09:00 So, here's the thing. Throughout this course, I've taken a few courses myself, and I have always appreciated the courses where I can actually participate in them, um, where it's not just here's a course memorized.

09:12 The content, or here I'm going to show you how to do this thing. I actually like it where I can get in there and, like, do it with you.

09:19 Umm, and this is- It's not as close as we can get to us doing this together. Meet Polly. Polly is going to be our case study throughout this course and I'm going to be kind of referring back to her as if I was referring to you or if I would- as in the room with a client.

09:34 I'd be talking to Polly and be saying, this is what we're going to do. Polly has been working in accounting for the last 25 years, but is ready to transition into starting her own business.

09:43 This is a common- Sorry, this is a lot of the clients that we work with. So many of you have, you know, all this great corporate experience, but you're wanting to transition into your business to own your own business.

09:55 So that's kind of the, the, um, inspiration here. Um, we're going to fall. I'm going to build her brand and I'm going to also show you how it could be done.

10:04 So let's go on to the next video.