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Small Business Branding - It’s Not “We”, It’s “Me”

December 19, 2005 on 11:31 pm | In Marketing, Business & Entrepreneurship |

I came through business school with a very “corporatized” feeling of how business works. Most of the textbooks at university are written with big business as case studies and examples to demonstrate the theories. I felt that in order to run a business, even a small business, you should project the attitude of a big business. If you are planning on being big one day, a faceless corporation with hundreds of employees and a brand as a personality, then you should act like that from day one.

When I started my first business a switch in my head was flicked to “corporate” whenever I interacted with customers, suppliers and other people. I felt I needed to project that I was the face of something made up of lots of people, with hierarchies, departments and slow bureaucracies. I was of course quite aware that the reality was far from it, it was just me behind a computer doing all the tasks, but I needed to express “bigness” in order to convince people that my business was the real deal. I was quite misguided.

Attitude Adjustment

I partially blame university for the poor attitude. Business school, at least what I went through, teaches students to be corporate drones in a company made up of lots of people. You learn how everything works - the big picture of how all the bits come together to operate a large corporate business - but you don’t really get taught how to be an individual. Of course this wouldn’t have been a problem for most graduates since they went on to take positions at large companies where it would be appropriate for them to use words like “we” and “us” and “you need to speak to someone in HR“, but as a solopreneur these are not good words.

Whenever I received a business related email I’d respond with phrases like “We’d be happy to help” or “Our business operates on weekends“. My responses weren’t bad, they answered the questions and sold the service, but they also projected the corporate “We don’t really care about you, you’re insignificant” and worse, didn’t help to develop a human relationship with myRemain loyal even when offered a cheaper alternative clients.

As I matured as a solopreneur I slowly realized the importance of relationship building, especially with customers and how powerful it can be as a competitive advantage. Customers that form relationships with your business, or in truth, you as a solopreneur, will remain loyal even when offered a cheaper alternative. Familiarity, reliability and comfort all come from a good customer relationship and the more you can do to foster this attitude with each and every interaction in your business, the better.

Blog Personality Proof

As I’ve become a blogger I’ve further realised the power of personal communication. Blogs work, especially for small business, because they humanize the website. Before blogs most websites were just as corporate as the businesses that built them - dry, unemotional and faceless. Blogs are the reverse - colourful, full of personality and clearly identifiable with their owner. Because the weblog evolved from the online diary the blogging format of writing has always been more personal - it’s as if the author is sitting next to you talking.

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