When you’re starting a new business, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by branding. The goal isn’t to do it all at once. One thing I’ve learned working with small businesses is that when you build a solid foundation, you can gradually expand your branding as your business grows.
Your logo is the visual anchor
Your logo is the anchor for everything visual. I suggest starting with at least two layout variations to provide you with flexibility for different spaces, plus full color and single color options.
Style guide before brand guidelines
Start with a basic style guide that outlines your logo variations, brand colors, and fonts, so you can use them consistently and later expand it into full brand guidelines.
Focus on key marketing pieces
Focus on a couple of practical marketing items that can support your main business goals, like business cards, a flyer for print or digital use, or a brochure that explains what you do.
Lean into custom-built templates
Templates sometimes get a bad rap, but when they’re custom-designed for you, they help you stay on brand while letting you update and reuse them as your business grows.
Branding a business is a process that goes beyond visuals, but the set of visuals you launch with can help shape how your business is initially perceived, experienced, and remembered. A versatile logo suite, a basic style guide, and a few key marketing materials can take you a lot further than you think. They set the tone for everything that follows.