As an entrepreneur, you’re bound to make lots of mistakes, but making this one critical oversight might spell doom for your startup tech company.
Startup tech companies require attention to many different areas, and careful strategizing in order to avoid crucial errors. No matter how much you prepare or how experienced you are as an entrepreneur, you’re bound to make some mistakes from time to time. It’s in the very nature of entrepreneurship—if you aren’t making mistakes, you probably aren’t trying hard enough.
But even though mistakes are common and, in many cases, necessary, there is one mistake that startup tech companies cannot afford to make: failing to create a brand.
Let’s take a step back here. Branding seems like an obvious step of the company creation process—after all, you need a name and a logo before you can really begin marketing or selling anything. But a brand takes more effort and covers more ground than just a logo design or a company name. Branding is immersive and multifaceted, and unless you give it your utmost attention, it will end up working against you.
Running a company without a fully fleshed out brand is just as deadly as running a company with no stream of revenue. Without a brand, your company will have no real identity; your old customers will have no reason to keep coming back to you, and potential new customers will have no reason to come to you in the first place.
So what do you need as part of a thorough company brand identity?
·        A name that is unique and catchy, that also conveys what your company is about
·        A logo and a color set that fits your industry and your brand personality
·        Fonts and typesets that you’ll use in all applications
·        A distinguishable brand voice that is recognizable across multiple mediums
These are just the bare minimum, and they all need to be thoroughly considered and thought out before being implemented. Branding is not a process to rush through; it is one of the most important factors for your eventual success as a company.
Remember, failing to establish a brand for your company is practically a death sentence. Don’t make the mistake of glossing over it.
photo credit: bill barber via photopin cc
