How to Brand Your Tiny Business (on a budget)

There is no doubt that we humans are creative peeps. And like it or not, often people buy from small brands that have an artistic brand (logos, business cards, web banners). But you don’t have to pay a fortune for pretty designs.

Many fellow small businesses offer pre-made branding, you just adjust the text to receive a cohesive brand design, often for just a few pounds. If you don’t have skills or software to amend the titles or colours, usually the designers can do this for you, at a small added cost.

Anouska Rood offers pretty CANVA templates for e-books and brochures that you can amend yourself, or have her do it for you. Just pop your info on the pre-designed table of contents and covers, drop photos into layouts, and find pre-designed copyright, planners, worksheets and checklists.

The slide deck templates let you build your own courses, with space for success stories and testimonials. Anouska also offers quick techy design fixes, with top-notch customer service, from over the pond in The Netherlands.

The Design Pixie is a small business run by a young Aussie creator, who offers gorgeous colourful pre-made designs from logos to web templates to price list templates. Everything is super-affordable, and you can create a consistent brand, to fit your particular style.

Know Why You’re In Business. It’s known that people are prepared to pay a little more, for small independent brands that have good ethics. So rather than focus just on ‘making money’, do a little work on yourself to discover why you are in business, and what you wish to do to help society.

Be Consistent. Take the time to come up with a good brand design that you like, and try to keep it for at least a few years, so people get to feel comfortable and cosy with your brand and message.

Know Your Audience. Who buys your products or services? Where do they live, what are their values? Never think of your brand as ‘What can I sell to them?’, but more ‘How can I help them?’ This helps to build trust, so that you should end up with less customers or clients, but ones who remain loyal for years.

Learn a Software (or don’t!) Free programs like CANVA are useful to build your own brand from affordable templates. But if you find this difficult, it’s often easier to just hand this part over to those who have the skills, so you can save time, and focus on your business (and your life!)

You Don’t Need All the Designs! If you run a small shop with a website, you likely only need a pre-made logo, perhaps an image for your cloth bags (so customers can advertise around town) and a web banner.

Choose a Talented Affordable Designer! Just because someone offers budget pre-made design, does not always mean that he or she has much talent! Spend a few pounds more on designers who have lots of talent and good reviews, then you won’t regret your purchase.