Fellow creative, if you have your sights set on rebranding in the coming season, then I encourage you to do these five things before you move forward. 

Rebranding is an exciting experience for any established service-based business or creative entrepreneur. As a designer and strategist with over a decade of experience, it’s my hope that this experience meets your expectations and even exceeds them. What I mean by that is, when done thoughtfully and strategically, your rebrand has the potential to help you generate more revenue than ever before, consistently connect with your incredible ideal clients and position you as the go-to expert that you are in your niche or industry. 

Do These 5 Things Before Rebranding

So with that being said, it’s important to make sure that you’re entering into this investment with the right mindset and some handy tools that will serve you well. Keep reading for the five steps to take before rebranding your service-based business to ensure that you set your project up for success!

Examine Your Mindset

Before you hop on discovery calls with your shortlist of dream designers or strategists, or before you put down the deposit to reserve your project, it’s important to ensure that your mindset is where it needs to be so that your expectations are met every step of the way. 

When you are starting the process of rebranding, it’s important to think about how you want this experience to go and how this investment should look for you. In the decade plus that I have worked with creative entrepreneurs like you to craft elevated visual identities and strategic brands, I’ve seen over and over again the power that we can have when we are branding our businesses with intention. That kind of transformation may not be realistic on a DIY budget. It’s important to look at this like an investment! Yes, you are putting your money, time, and energy into this process, but we do so with the intention of you not only making that money back, but making more than ever before!

For example, look at my former client, Cori! When she first came to me, she was living with a brand that no longer felt like a good fit for her. One that was not reflective of her expertise, nor did it empower her to charge the premium prices that were on par with the level of work that she was doing. As a talented floral designer, it was important for her to be booking clients who valued her expertise and who were in that high-end price point. 

So as we worked together, we focused on positioning her brand as the go-to experience for luxury and high end clients in her area. After launching, within a week she was contacted by a celebrity client! She was booking projects at prices that she had only dreamed of before. And so she made her investment back in mere days plus interest. That’s the kind of growth that I want to see for you too, friend!

Assess The Cost

While investing in a rebrand may look like a big investment upfront, it’s important to ask yourself what the cost of staying exactly where you are might be. For example, if we look back on my former client Cori, and her experience of doing business with an outdated brand that was no longer serving her, that was actually costing her business. So staying in that familiar space was not empowering her to raise her rates, connect with a premium ideal client or land press and publications at the level that she wanted to reach. 

When you’re looking at your own business, here are some simple questions that you can ask to make sure that your brand is still doing that heavy lifting for you! 

• Is my current brand costing me clients? 
• Are my inquiries starting to taper off?
• Are the quality of inquiries that I am receiving aren’t in alignment with my ideal client profile?
• Am I missing out on opportunities because my brand isn’t positioning me as the pro that I am? 
• Is my current brand keeping me from generating the kind of income that I need or that I want? 

Yes, investing in professional branding, especially if this is your first time doing so, might seem like a lot of money. But remember, when you’re partnering with a professional, their goal is to not only help you make that investment back, but to be generating consistent revenue through that brand for years to come. The ROI on that is limitless.

With that being said, staying where you are might be comfortable, but if it’s not in alignment with your long-term goals and it’s actually keeping you from experiencing the kind of growth you want to, it may be time to consider rebranding and partnering with a professional. 

Identify Your Goals

Now it’s time to look at what you want to accomplish when you are rebranding or even branding for the first time. Knowing what you want to achieve and the outcome that you want to experience is going to be crucial in not only helping you find a designer and strategist who will be the best fit for you, but also those goals will help to give your branding project direction. 

You don’t need to know every little detail that needs to change. You don’t need to already have an in-depth Pinterest board laid out or logo sketches doodled out on a napkin from your favorite coffee shop. But you do need to know big picture, long-term where you want your business to go and how your brand might be able to support you in that journey. 

For example, if you are wanting to pivot your services to reach a premium client and charge high-end rates for your services, it’s important to make that a goal to figure out what that price increase might look like and what your client experience might need to include in order to be aligned with that level of service. Thinking about how you want your brand to be perceived in the future can also help you make the most of your rebrand. 

When I am working with my custom branding clients, I focus on creating a brand that has longevity designed into its core, so that it is a brand that will grow with them for years to come. I focus on taking the time to get to know my client’s business goals in the short term and the long term so that the brand that I’m creating is an alignment with that vision. And don’t worry, an experienced designer and strategist will be able to help you create even more clarity around these goals. But having a short list ready when you go into those initial conversations will be helpful. And both you and your potential designer will appreciate it!

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff

Like I mentioned earlier, you don’t need to know every single little detail that needs to change. You don’t need to have logo sketches already in the works or know exactly the kind of color palette that you want to utilize. That’s your designer’s job. Unless you have experience in the branding industry or you have a background in marketing, this might not be your area of expertise and so you’re actually unintentionally creating more work for yourself by doing this planning. I get it, it’s fun and exciting to be able to take a look at what catches your eye and what brands resonate with you. But remember, your designer is here to take that off of your plate and to take the lead in creating a visual identity, website, and any print pieces or other digital assets that you need to reflect who you are, what you do, and the transformation that your work provides to your dreamy ideal client. 

Partner With Someone You Trust

Rebranding or branding for the first time is a two-way street. Not only are you investing in a designer who is going to guide you through this process and create that wow-worthy brand that generates the revenue you’re dreaming of, but it’s important that you also feel the freedom to communicate when you have questions to ask when something is unclear or to speak up when you want to see a change or explore a different direction. And likewise, be prepared that your designer is going to be communicating with you every step of the way.

In my experience, most of my clients that I’m working with have this when we work together. This is their first time investing in their brand or their website at this level. And rightfully so, they don’t fully understand every little step of my process. So as the designer, it is my responsibility to guide my clients through my signature brand strategy process, then through the design process, and then through the website development process so that they never have any questions and they feel seen, heard, and valued every single step of the way. 

With that being said, it’s important to partner with the designer that you trust. Someone who you feel has the ability to bring your vision to life. Someone who makes you feel like a priority and who listens to your ideas and responds to your questions in a way that works for you. If you have the opportunity to hop on a discovery call or a sales call with a designer who you’re interested in hiring, this is a great opportunity to essentially get a little bit of a “vibe chat” going and see how the two of you communicate and get a feel for what it’s like to chat with this person. Because trust me, if you end up working together, y’all are going be doing a lot of communicating back and forth over the weeks or months of your project. And there’s nothing that I love more than when I partner with my incredible clients and our professional relationship starts to turn into more of a business friendship because we are connecting on that kind of level. We are aligning with shared values and we are creating absolute magic together. And if that’s the kind of relationship that you want to have with your designer too, definitely focus on getting to know them a little bit and not just talking about the ins and outs of your project so that you too have that opportunity to create that kind of relationship. 

Are You Ready To Have An Intentional Rebranding Experience?

Friend, I hope that these five steps help set you up for long-term success with your rebrand so that you are able to enter into this next season with clarity, confidence, and with consistent conversion. If after working through these five action steps, you are ready to start the conversation about rebranding your creative business and taking it to the next level, I would be so thrilled to connect with you. I’m currently accepting new branding and Showit website design clients and it would be such a joy to craft the elevated visual brand that helps you consistently connect with your ideal clients, generate revenue, and position you as the expert that you are. You can click here to get in touch and I already can’t wait to connect with you! 

GET IN TOUCH TO TAKE YOUR BRAND TO THE NEXT LEVEL!