You can build your business, but your brand is ultimately determined by how your consumers perceive it. The distinction between your brand and your business lies in this: your business encompasses the services you offer, while your brand embodies the image or feeling your business reflects. However, this doesn’t mean that as a small business owner, you can’t grow your brand while expanding your business, especially if you don’t have billions of advertising Rands.

Growing your Business and your Brand

Again, it’s important to understand that customers control the narrative surrounding your brand; you do not. While growing your company may include broadening your offerings and streams of revenue, building your brand may provide far bigger benefits. Think about this: when your brand has a strong narrative, consumers will connect your product to quality.

Take, for instance, a soft drink—when individuals think of a soda, Coca-Cola often comes to mind first. Because of its century-long branding efforts, people associate refreshing and high-quality sodas with the Coca-Cola name.
We’re not suggesting that’s what defines strong branding; it doesn’t necessarily take a century to establish your business as associated with quality. You may create a good brand by serving a higher cause than your services and infusing the business with understanding. Consider what the local community is saying about your company and its offerings.

To help shape the narrative, become involved in the community, and build a reputation, a good one. But first, consider what is most essential to your business. The last thing you want is for your brand story to deviate from your initial goals; even if successful, it can lead to a burn out on your part.

How do we balance both?

You do not need to focus on growing your brand in order to grow your business. Although it is feasible to run a successful, reputable business with a strong brand name, the two are not mutually exclusive. Having a strong, easily recognizable brand name does not happen by chance; it needs a focused effort to build your brand alongside your business, which takes time and will most likely entail sacrifices. Some businesses fixate on one while ignoring the other, resulting in either a lack of profitability or a dilution of the brand name they attempted to develop.

As previously noted, the business may grow in terms of income, but the value of the brand may fall. Effectively building your business will yield the desired outcomes, but without a brand to hang it on, success will be short-lived. While creating your brand might bring you consumer loyalty and support, it will be limited if you allow your business to suffer. This is why learning to balance both is critical. Your primary focus should also be on growing your business in the short term while keeping your brand identity in mind for the long run.

The road to starting a successful business is more than simply offering services or products; it’s also about creating a brand narrative that connects with your target audience. As previously noted, the distinction between a business and a brand is critical. Your business is the actual component of providing services and products, but your brand is the intangible essence that represents how your customers view you.