Building a successful start-up begins with a professionally built and marketed brand.

So you’ve spent months developing the concept for your business, reviewing the marketplace, identifying the competition, crafting your offer and you now feel ready to launch your new business venture and drive your business on to success.

Fantastic, we applaud you. It takes guts, ambition, no little determination and a huge leap of faith to set up your own business.

Your new business will be joining the other 5.6m small businesses in the UK. In fact 99.3% of all business in the UK are small businesses, with micro businesses employing 1-9 people making up almost 96% of all UK companies, with one new company being formed every minute in 2019.

We want your new business to be successful. However it’s a sad fact that despite all the dreams, hard work and ambition of every entrepreneur many new companies don’t make it. 20% of new businesses will fail within the first year and only 60% are still in business after 3 years.

There are a few common reasons:

1. No Market Differentiation

Start-ups don’t make their businesses, service or product standout from the competition from the beginning.

2. Failure To Scale

Start-ups fail to attract enough customers, quickly enough to grow and achieve profitability.

3. Run Out Of Money

Start-ups burn their invested capital quickly. Many run out of money as they fail to achieve a level of profitability quickly enough to deliver a sustainable business. This is mainly due to a failure to address points 1 and 2.

So how can you shorten the odds and help to ensure your business is one of the ones that thrives and prospers?

You know you have a good product or service. Unfortunately no one else does.

A new start-up is a blank slate. You have no visible identity, no positive word-of-mouth, no referrals, no testimonials, no social proof.

You’re also competing with companies and brands with all of the above in place and an already well-established customer base.

So, no matter how good your business concept is, if your target audience doesn’t know about your offering or it’s not presented in a professional way, then you’re not likely to succeed - and convincing prospects to take a chance on something new is always going to be hard work.

Build your business around a brand built with care

When people hear the word ‘brand’ they think of a logo design. In fact, it isn’t any one thing, it’s everything - your name, tone of voice, your visual vocabulary, your messages, how you behave as a company - all the external touch points of your business.

A Brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. Seth Godin (Former dot com business executive, Author and TED Speaker)

And it’s this combination of elements which generates the important connection with potential customers. Your brand helps to get people to trust you. It gives them the confidence they need to buy your product or service - or at the very least make an initial enquiry.

If your name, logo, literature or website look and feel wrong, if your messages don’t connect with your target audience or your social media outreach is misplaced, then you might as well not get out of bed in the morning.

Your brand is where true differentiation over your competitors can be achieved. It’s what you need to stand out, make an impact and, in truth, it can be the difference between success and failure.

An investment in the future of your business

When you launch a business we know money is always tight. Most often you are using your own savings or your families hard earned cash - 82% of startups in the UK are self funded with the majority having an initial investment budget of between £5-£10k.

For every £100 a business spends on design and branding, turnover increases by £225 Design Council

So you need to invest your start-up capital wisely. Building a professional brand, building the right marketing strategy around it and running effective marketing collateral to promote it, is a proven way for you to achieve your business goals - and will give your business every chance of being the success you’ve dreamed of.

At MC+Co we a have a 20 year history of helping new businesses achieve success through building engaging brands and impactful marketing, and are adept at making smaller budgets go a long way. We can help you throughout the start-up process and you can dip into our services as you wish. We offer:

The groundwork

• Marketing Strategy - research, competitor analysis,
• Marketing campaign planning - 3, 6 or 12 month plans

The foundations

• Naming & Logo design
• Stationery - letterhead, business cards, compliment slips
• Websites including e-commerce stores

The full works

• Advertising - print & digital
• Literature - corporate/product leaflets & brochures
• Email Marketing
• Video & Animations - corporate, explainer, product
• Direct Mail
• Exhibition design
• Social media campaigns
• Tracking and analysis

To find out more about MC+Co’s brand and marketing services for start-ups and new businesses call +44 (0) 1277 366898. Alternatively please fill out the form below and we’ll get back to you asap.