One of the aspects of owning a business is to continuously strive and take action to achieve what you desire. Along with a solid foundation that a business needs, it is really important to take aligned actions to make the business successful. Taking aligned actions means making a choice or a decision that is in agreement with what the business stands for and what is expected. However, with so many choices and decisions being made every minute it becomes easier if you lay the foundation with these steps to align the thoughts and feelings when starting a business.
Laying a strong foundation means you understand the business you are in and its reason for existence. This includes defining the ‘What’, ‘How’ and ‘Why’ of the business that helps you take aligned actions and serves as a guiding light in the times of uncertainty. Branding is a great way to discover the ‘What’, ‘How’ and ‘Why’ and bring clarity in the business to help fulfil your purpose.
Here are 6 aligned action steps that you must consider when starting a business;
Action Step 1: Create a right mindset
A Mind-set plays a significant role in our day-to-day lives and the things we do every day. Mind-set primarily consists of our thoughts and feelings. This means the way we think and the way we feel about something. By creating a right mind-set we are able to align our thoughts, feelings and the actions we take. Hence, it also allows you to achieve the goals effortlessly.
The right mind-set allows one to live up to their full potential that creates growth personally and professionally making a difference in the society we all live-in. The whole idea behind creating a mindset is because it makes people comfortable with the change. Research, Research and Research about branding and how it can help you grow your business. Don’t forget to talk to experts who can help you gain more insight about branding your business like us.
Action Step 2: Discover your niche
A niche is an area you want to specialise in; rather than serving the broader market. By discovering your niche you can establish yourself as an expert and a thought leader in that particular field than just a business who sells products or provides a service. Becoming an expert will help you stand out and distinguish yourself from the competition that’s out there.
Each and every market place or industry has several niches to choose from. If there is a particular market or industry that interests you; you can start by analysing its target audience and identifying the gaps in the market place. If you think of a product or a service that you are going to provide is new, solving a problem or closing a gap of a particular target segment, you can create your niche.
Action Step 3: Build a brand identity
Just like your personality, your business also needs a unique identification that is powerful, recognisable and scalable. One part of building a Brand identity includes all the visible elements of a brand, such as a logo, an icon, colour, fonts and other graphical elements. However, before that it is really important to differentiate your brand from the competition, define your target audience and create your brand position.
A brand identity is designed keeping your consumers in mind that help them identify and distinguish your brand from others. It also defines your brand’s personality and sets a tone of voice for your brand. Building a strong brand identity is the next step to stand out from your competitors and bring your business into physical existence.
“A strong identity is the foundation to building a great brand.”
– Haarshit Gala
Action Step 4: Define your brand strategy
A brand strategy is your long-term plan for the development of your brand and is a part of your business plan. It outlines the reasons why you exist beyond money and how you can add value to your customers. This creates an impactful experience for your customers making your business memorable, recognizable and scalable.
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In short, a brand strategy is a set of guidelines to use by the business to achieve specific goals by defining how what, where and when should the brand communicate, keeping in mind your target audience.
A well-defined and executed brand strategy works in alignment with your business goals and helps you connect directly with your audience.
Action Step 5: Establish a plan of action
Managing and executing everything together at once can become overwhelming while planning helps you focus on the task at hand. A brand strategy will help you understand the how, what, where and when and with the right mind-set it’s time to give your idea a plan of action. Establishing a plan of action means to bring consistency to building your brand; a key factor to become sustainable.
Define every process. For example, if you’re calling an old client, plan your calls; if you are writing a blog, know what you’re going to write about; or if you’re posting on social media, decide what your posts are going to be keeping in mind when and where your audiences are available. Thanks to the technology, everything can be automated with so much ease.
Action Step 6: Execute the Plan
Initially, it may take some time to define processes and put them on a plan. However, once you have built a strategy and established a plan of action you can delegate each tasks and schedule your calendar.
This will save you a lot of time in the long run for you to focus on your customers and keep creating impactful experiences. Revisit your plan of action once in a while; monitor how your brand is performing and if, needed, tweak along the way to enhance the performance and evolve.
To summarise this post, here are the 6 aligned action steps that you need to consider when starting a business;
Action Step 1: Create a right mindset
Action Step 2: Discover your niche
Action Step 3: Build a brand identity
Action Step 4: Define your brand strategy
Action Step 5: Establish a plan of action
Action Step 6: Execute the plan
A well-defined brand delivers memorable and recognisable experiences for its customers because they are able to take actions that are aligned with the purpose of the business. With the competition growing every day, businesses need to start thinking way beyond selling products and/or providing services. It needs to understand the value it can create for its customers to be able to thrive.
Taking aligned actions and creating impactful experiences for your customers improves your recognition, builds reputation and trust, keep your employees engaged, retain customers and maximise profitability allowing you to build a sustainable business.
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