God!  Business is confusing sometimes.  Perhaps it’s the drugs* but it’s been one of those weeks when everyone and everything seems to contradict each other. 

Skimming the video clips from rich schefren’s conference in Disneyworld, I was struck by Gary Vaynerchuck’s assertion that “you are the brand” which is on message for Rich’s coaching programmes and reports, and all part of becoming a “maven in your marketplace” but pretty much the opposite of what we are taught, when building a business. 

We have all known for a while, post “e-myth Revisited” that, if you want to build a business that you can sell, you can’t be the business or it lessens the value of that business.  Nobody will want to buy a business that depends on you being there for it to work.  But is the business depending on you, different from you being the brand?

Gary goes on to say that by positioning yourself alongside higher placed experts - like I’m doing here in a way, with Rich and Gary - you are building their brand not yours.  You need to start building yourself as the expert - and this is something I’ve been hearing from Alan Forrest Smith recently too.  We’ve been working with Alan quite a bit on our marketing and it drives him mad when I’m too generous in crediting my mentors.

Well, I hear what Gary says - and he certainly has done that with his video wine blog - but Rich certainly positioned himself alongside some internet marketing greats initially, and he credits Jay Abrahams all the time.

Confused?  You will be.

Hmmm, going back to the selling of the business aspect here…..

…… if one can build a business that runs itself (under the leadership of trusted key players, with your input) then why would you want to sell the whole business? 

You wouldn’t, but perhaps you might want to sell part of it.  And surely it would make you more powerful in negotiations, and less likely to be booted out, as happens sometimes, if you want to sell part of that business, but that your strong brand being involved somehow, is more valuable to the ongoing success of that business, than not? 

So I think what we are talking about here is branding yourself, not branding your business around you.  That way, you can take your brand with you, and leave a trail of successful businesses behind you (ideally with some kind of residual income / royalty arrangement) as you move from idea to idea.

So looking at The Money Gym, we need to brand The Money Gym for itself and also, I need to brand myself as “Europe’s Leading Wealth Coach” because if I don’t, someone else will, as one of my marketing mentors pointed out a while ago.  But I can associate my brand with that of The Money Gym. 

Judith does this anyway, she builds her own brand, JudithMorgan.com , but when appropriate, she points people at The Money Gym, with which her brand is heavily associated.  Steve has just redone his blog SteveWatsonOnline.com to build his brand online, but his brand will also always be associated with The Money Gym.

Alan has also been recommending that we look at the corporate branding of The Money Gym, because as he correctly asserts, all the “big boys” have very slick branding and the more professional they look, the more home-made we look, the more people will judge our offering by our appearance. 

I bloomin’ hate this part of building a business.   As I said in a recent email to my partners ….

“”All the really successful sites in our arena are very professional looking but equally there is a fine line between professional and corporate / anonymous.  Alan has suggested we talk to X who might be able to create a simple template for our pages so that generally speaking, they all look the same and not the mish-mash they are at the moment, having grown up organically.  Just look at these pages in quick succession to see what he means:

http://www.themoneygym.com
http://www.themoneygym.com/book
http://www.themoneygym.com/mgpresents
http://www.themoneygymclub.com

I agree to a point……equally you know my thoughts about wasting time and money on graphic design that costs a fortune, doesn’t add anything, and that we ultimately don’t like.  As has happened in the past.  Several people have offered to try in the past and I have pointed them at sites I like but nothing yet.  I was hoping X would work miracles and we spent quite a bit of time talking about what I like and don’t like, I showed him some sites, and he’s come up with four templates in a colour I specifically said I didn’t like.   Life it too short at the moment…So I was going to leave it for a while.  Branding can wait, unless you both think it can’t?”

Decisive huh?  I’ve just watched Chris Barrow go through the same process but on a much larger scale as he transitions from a one-man business The Business Coaching Co to a national, and perhaps global, brand Breath Business and he described the pain of it on his blog but obviously thought better of it, as the posting is gone again!  The posting ended up quite positive as I recall and they used Absolute Design whose site looks fantastic.  

(Not being able to secure the .com and .co.uk would have been a deal breaker for me, however.  They’ve done well, in spite of that, with a clever twist on the name for the URL)

Perhaps we had better wait till we can afford this Absolute lot?  Wonder if they are anything to do with Oliver Payton who grew up in Brighton, brought in Absolute Vodka then opened the Atlantic bar among others……then married someone very high up in hotels….intriguing. 

Watch the branding story unfold!

* Painkillers only, due to recent operation, hahaha, but it got your attention!

** Join us on our forthcoming Money Gym Business One Day Workshop - ideal for those who want to start a part time business with a view to leaving their job one day.  Discover the secrets of turn-key business, how to follow a successful system, and how to profit from information publishing, even if you have never run a business before.  ”Early Bird” booking seats still available but going fast now.  More info here >>>>  **