The number one thing I hear from my clients when we first meet is something along the lines of… “I love what I do, but I’m just not sure about this, or how to do this thing, or if my brand is working…”

And therefore, the number one thing I work with clients on is not visuals. 

It’s confidence.

Nine times out of ten, the reason they lack confidence is because some part of their business is held together with gum and a shoelace. Sometimes it’s the visuals (i.e. the DIY logo, the color palette from Pinterest), sometimes it’s the website they built with a WordPress template even though they have no idea how to make changes, sometimes it’s a marketing strategy that involves every single platform known to man (or no platform because they don’t know which one to pick).

The simplest solution for building confidence in your business is to create a system. Any kind of system. Just one that’s a little more robust than gum and a shoelace, preferably.

What is a system?

It’s a term that you probably hear a lot these days. In my book, a system is nothing more than a step-by-step process for an area of your business that helps move the business forward. Systems don’t have to be complicated. They don’t have to involve technology if that’s not your jam (though it can be super helpful). And the only rule for keeping and maintaining a system is that it works for you, not against you.

But it’s easy to overcomplicate systems or give up on them altogether because we either don’t know how, or what to pick, or at the most basic level we simply don’t know what we need.

Systems that don’t work stall your business and frustrate the hell out of you.

Systems that do work move your business forward and make your life easier.

So here’s our focus for today: what do you need?

What do you need to do your job well? What do you need in terms of technology support to make the business run well? What do you need to make your life easier?

From a branding perspective, it’s your systems that allow the brand to do its job, which is to share your message and show up for your people. So, without any systems to support the visual identity (which yes, is a system within itself) like a marketing plan, templated Instagram posts, etc., having a visual identity doesn’t really mean much. You can put your logo on stuff all day long, like Entertainment 720 in Parks and Rec, but look how that turned out, lol.

Take a look at your life and business here at the start of a new year. What do you need in order for your business to run smoothly, for your visual brand to do its job, for you to feel confident in sharing your work? 

There’s a lot to think about here, and we’ll keep talking about this. For more of a deep dive into this, check out this week’s podcast episode linked below.