All of us have a million-dollar idea at some point in our lives.
The trick is knowing how to take that idea out of your head and develop it into a business. Because the process can be a daunting one, sometimes we just need that extra little push to get our idea off the ground and watch it come to life.
That time is now.
In this post, I’m going to show you how one entrepreneur turned their idea into a business over a single weekend, and how easy it is to do the same with Tailor Brands – simply by creating a logo and building your brand.
No, it doesn’t cost thousands of dollars, and no, it doesn’t take any specific expertise in design or coding. It just boils down to this: Create a cohesive brand identity and then launch it into the world and watch it thrive.
That’s it.
Meet: Secret Soba
At Tailor Brands, we come across a lot of small businesses and one of them recently caught our attention: Secret Soba.
In just one weekend, Secret Soba went from being an idea in someone’s head to a fully booked restaurant! And it only took them a couple of hours to get started.
I’m going to share Secret Soba’s journey with you so you can follow in their footsteps. (They only agreed to be interviewed on condition that I don’t use their name; apologies for the suspense around our mystery entrepreneur!)
Having learned the art of making soba in Tokyo, this would-be entrepreneur wanted to bring their soba skills back to their hometown of Tel Aviv, but they didn’t have any experience running a restaurant.
In fact, they had never opened a business before. So they kept pushing it off. And pushing it off. They convinced themselves that they weren’t ready and didn’t have enough time to plan. And of course, they were afraid that the restaurant wouldn’t be perfect and that they would fail.
Until one day, they just did it.
The idea practically formed itself. A pop-up soba restaurant whose location would only be disclosed once a customer made a reservation. This way, if no one was interested in snacking on soba, our culinary expert could quickly pack it up and pretend the whole thing never happened.
But guess what?
Secret Soba blew up the very weekend it was created – getting piles of inquiries, 60 reservations, 2 requests for interviews and multiple offers for restaurant reviews.
Now, let’s break down how Secret Soba became a success in 3 simple steps with Tailor Brands.
Note: These are steps anyone can follow, whether or not they use an AI-powered branding platform like Tailor Brands!
3 Steps for turning your idea into a business
Step 1: Create a logo
The first thing our soba master did was to create a logo with Tailor Brands.
Why was this such a crucial step?
Because logos are more than, well, just a logo. A logo is the first impression your business will make on new customers, so you want to make sure you create one straight off the bat.
A logo will help you:
- Communicate trust: A logo helps a business look established and professional, which generates trust among customers.
- Communicate who you are: When you see a business’s logo, you immediately get a sense of the business – the feeling and vibe of the place itself – and use this information to decide whether or not you want to purchase from them.
Logos also help to build brand recognition, in that the more your customers see your logo, the more likely they are to remember your products and services.
Anyway – back to soba.
As I said, our entrepreneur didn’t have any prior design experience; instead, they made a logo with Tailor Brands’ AI-driven logo maker.
All they had to do was enter the name Secret Soba and put “Tel-Aviv” as the tagline, write a sentence about their idea, choose fonts they liked, and let the algorithm do the rest.
They made a few tweaks to the logo, and voila – Secret Soba Tel-Aviv had a face to show the world.
Total time: 5 minutes
Step 2: Establish a brand identity
Like I said above, a logo is really important in building the foundation of your brand, but it’s only the first step in your branding efforts.
You also need to decide on consistent brand elements such as:
- Imagery
- Fonts
- Colors
- Tone
Once you come up with these guidelines for your brand, you must stick with them.
To create a strong brand identity, you have to brand consistently – i.e. constantly reinforce your brand message, whether on the web, social media or even inside your brick-and-mortar store. Consistently presenting your brand across platforms can increase your revenue by 23%, so this isn’t something to take lightly.
Our entrepreneur had brand guidelines that were automatically created when they made their logo – a Brand Book that came with their Tailor Brands subscription – so the next leg of this journey was to establish an online presence.
Create a website
Right after making a logo, the Secret Soba owner bought a domain – www.secret-soba.com – and set up a website through Tailor Brands.
They didn’t even change the template of the website; they stuck to the original landing page design and just filled in basic information – the name of the restaurant, their logo, and how to book a reservation – making sure to use fonts, colors, and images that were in accordance with their logo and Brand Book.
It may sound like a lot, but the whole process took less than an hour. (With a good website builder, it’s easy to get your site up and running without any design or coding experience.)
Set up social media
In addition to your website, it’s also important to have at least one social media page showcasing your brand. Not only does social media have the power to attract billions of people to your business, but it also provides you a free forum through which to connect with your customers.
But – just ask our Secret Soba owner, who created a Facebook page and made sure to include their logo, acceptable imagery (featuring noodles – lots of them), and website address.
In one day, our entrepreneur created an entire brand identity for Secret Soba – and now they were ready to introduce their business to the world.
Total time: 1 hour
Step 3: Engage with your audience
Once your website and social media pages are set up, it’s time to start reaching out to your audience.
The way to connect with them? Create engaging, quality content, and start posting!
Come up with content
A look at the Secret Soba Facebook feed shows a mix of educational and inspirational content – with fun, random facts, quote posts, and images and updates from the restaurant itself.
All of the images on the feed have a similar look and feel, and every one of them is branded with the Secret Soba logo.
Again, our entrepreneur didn’t have any prior design skills; they used their Tailor Brands design studio to create all of their original posts, which is important for maintaining the brand consistency that we talked about earlier.
If you’re not sure what kind of content to create, picture your brand as a living being. How would it sound if it talked to another person? That’s the voice and personality that should be coming through in your posts.
Secret Soba went for a cheeky, upbeat vibe; maybe your brand needs a compassionate or calming voice as its spokesperson.
Try to meet your potential customers where they are, by answering questions you think they may have or even posting links to articles dealing with topics in your niche that they’ll find interesting.
And, most importantly, make sure your posts are full of images that are on-brand and have the same type of aesthetic so that you’re constantly reinforcing the message of your brand.
Use a social media scheduler
Creating content alone isn’t enough to engage with your audience; you also have to post consistently, so that over time, your audience can come to rely on your page for quality content and you’ll, therefore, gain loyal followers.
However, contrary to what it sounds like, this doesn’t have to be a big-time commitment; you can use a social post scheduler and schedule all of your content in advance.
Guess what? Our entrepreneur did just that. The day after they set up their website and Facebook page, they used their Tailor Brands social post scheduler to schedule a month’s worth of social media content.
Then, they flew to Japan and forgot all about Secret Soba.
(If, like me, you’re wondering why someone would choose to leave the country right after launching their business, the answer I got was that they didn’t really believe anyone would reach out to make a reservation. Little did they know…)
Rather than managing their Facebook page while they were abroad, they had every piece of content lined up in advance – alternating the type of content for each post by showcasing something from the restaurant one day and throwing out a food fact the next.
Total time: 45 minutes
Promote your business page
The last thing our entrepreneur did was spend $25 (that’s 6-10 cups of coffee, depending on where you live) to promote the Secret Soba Facebook page.
The idea was just to get a little blood flowing through the page, so they set their budget at $5 per day and created an automated message response on Facebook, in case anyone reached out for the location of the restaurant while they were abroad. Then, they were off to Japan.
Here’s what happened while our entrepreneur was gone:
- 60 people made reservations, and Secret Soba was filled to capacity
- The Facebook page got 150 new likes
- New followers commented all over their posts
- Secret Soba’s inbox was flooded with messages
- 2 reporters requested to interview our entrepreneur
In other words, in a single weekend, the Secret Soba venture went from a pipe dream to a successful pop-up restaurant. It only took a couple of hours to create an entire brand identity for the business – including a logo, a complete website and branded social media content – with the Tailor Brands platform, and that’s what made all the difference.
So, whether you’re thinking about opening your own brick-and-mortar or have an idea for a killer new product, it’s time to stop putting it off. You are three steps away from living your dream.
Total time: 15 minutes
Wrapping up
The secret is out: There’s nothing stopping you from turning your idea into a successful business.
Like Secret Soba, the only thing standing between you and your business is a kickass brand identity – and we’ve got that part covered.
Ready to finally take the first step toward making your idea a reality? Create your logo now and start building your brand!
Guest author: Kira Goldring is the writer for Tailor Brands, the world’s first AI-powered logo design and branding platform. She’s passionate about technology and digital marketing, and she currently covers all things branding, design, and small business.
The post How to Stop Procrastinating and Turn Your Idea Into a Business [3 Simple Steps] appeared first on Jeffbullas's Blog.
source https://www.jeffbullas.com/turn-your-idea-into-a-business/
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