What Is Your Brand?

What is your target market's perspective of you and your business? What is your brand? Everything you do in your business and in your personal life affects your brand. Your brand includes everything from the clothes you wear and the car you drive to the words you say and the way you deliver your services. Everything in one way or another promotes or devalues your brand.

You already have a brand even if you haven't tried to create one. If you are always late for appointments, then being chronically late is part of your brand. If you always return phone calls within a 24-hour period, then responding quickly to prospects and clients is part of your brand.

There are two sides to your brand:

1. The core of your brand is your vision statement, your mission, your personality, your values, skills and abilities. Authenticity in these areas is the key to developing a great brand. Know what you stand for and make sure your target audience knows what you stand for.

2. What the public sees is the other part of your brand. This includes your website, logo, colors, product packaging, etc. This is the part that most people focus on when developing their "brand".

Make sure you have the core of your brand and the external aspects of your brand in place so you control the public's perception of you and your business before they create their own perception. It is up to you to take control of your brand and the public's perception of you, your business, your product or your service. What do you want that perception to be?