How to turn your small business into a big brand

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]t a time when SMEs are a dime a dozen, and your big corporation competitors have a huge marketing budget, do you fight for the market share with that constrained budget? I know you are concerned about how to make your business stand out.

It is normal for any business person to make the business big. Truth be told, if you don’t work hard, your startup won’t shine. The only way is to build a superb brand for your enterprise.

Initial impressions are significant and crucial in an era where most clients are visually-minded. First impressions can mar a sprouting new business.

A bold and professional brand is the difference between getting across your customers and getting drowned out. Once you have a strong established brand, customers begin to look for you rather than hustle it out all through .This is how you can stand out

Register your business: It is now much easier, cheaper and quicker to register any business enterprise. Other than being professional, this will help you to do business with the government and other relevant institutions.

Registration of a company in Kenya has been simplified. E-citizen is a government site where you can register your business  in less than 45 minutes. The cost of registering a business in Kenya ranges from slightly over Ksh1,000 for business name to about ksh10,000 for limited companies.

Create an attractive website: What is that first thing people do when they want to learn more about something in this tech savvy era? Your website is the easiest link to these people. Thus, you need to create a standard, attractive, user-friendly website. In a normal business practice environment, 70% of clients make judgment of a business credibility based on the layout of the website.

Other than advertising, great brands devote their time to providing quality goods and services that people trust.

When potential customers want to find out more about you, chances are they will have a look of your website. To make it more attractive the website must have complete tacky colours,carefully chosen fonts, catchy images and well organized content. If you want to appear bigger, this is the time, improve your website to create an attractive corporate image.

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Develop a streamlined visual brand: The key to a streamlined visual brand is consistency. You might not have the money to hire a professional graphic designer when you’re just starting out, but by maintaining consistency with your logo,  fonts and colours,you will appear a thousand times more professional. Keep your logo simple, scalable and legible.

Produce high quality products/services: One of the best ways to grow your company brand is to bring value to your client. When customers recognise the merit of your product /services, your brand credibility can be established through word of mouth. Other than advertising, great brands devote their time to providing quality goods and services that people trust and willing to create a buzz for it.

Bring value to your clients: The best way to improve your company or start up’s image is to build an enterprise that aims to solve challenges people face in a certain scope. Bringing value to your clients and society is the best way for a brand to remain sustainable and marketable.

Always understand your audience’s needs, wants and how you can add value.

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