If It’s Not Working For You, It May Be Working Against You!

If It’s Not Working For You, It May Be Working Against You!

How many times have you taken on a project – branding, operational or otherwise – that is a constant uphill battle? It is frustrating, time consuming and disparaging. But unlike elementary school, it’s not just the effort that counts. If the end result is a poor representation of your brand, it’s working against you. In order to ensure your work is consistently on brand and represents the core values of your business, it’s important to routinely audit your processes. Below are tips to get started.

Assess Priorities

What are some of the biggest gaps in your current efforts? A generic look and feel to your branding materials? A weak or unorganized sales team? The first step in making a positive change is determining what’s not working for you. Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to identify the culprits – Ampersand, a great mentor or even a good, honest friend can bring objectivity to the assessment process. To better direct your time and financial resources, assess your priorities and adhere to a plan to address them.

Create a “Stop Doing List”

More often than not, we spin our wheels on things that are working against us. Do you have five rounds of revisions on that most recent brochure and feel it’s still not quite right? Or maybe you are obsessive about copywriting, constantly tweaking and re-tweaking. While it is important to commit time to these efforts, make sure you are devoting the right amount of time to each project. If you are spinning your wheels, it’s ok to set something aside for a few days – when you come back, you’ll approach it with a clear mind and new energy. Also, by creating a “stop-doing” list, you’ll minimize distraction and start focusing on those things that give us the greatest return on our efforts.

Find the Right Tools and Resources

Just like our home repair/remodeling contractor would say, “its all about having the right tools for the job.” Resources come in many forms: people, technology, time, and money. Don’t start a job if you can’t commit the right resources to it . You’ll be back to wheel spinning in no time. And cutting corners can result in poor design, bad branding efforts and misdirected or wasted resources.

A bad website or business card is just that – a bad reflection on your brand. Remember, if isn’t working for you, it can actually work against you.

Take Action

Don’t be thwarted by inaction. Chipping away at a project little by little still gets the job done and is a great way to create sustainability over time. Plus, setting incremental goals helps you to celebrate early wins and avoid “next best thing” thinking. If you aren’t sure where to start, partner with someone who can help.

We’d love to help you discover what’s NOT working for you business and help you get it back on track. Contact us today to find out how you can reach your full brand potential.

Heather Noel

Heather Noel

I love to think big thoughts and set big goals. But more than that, it’s been so rewarding to build a great team to help accomplish them.
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