Lessons

Everyone and everything that makes money has a brand. Your side hustle is no different.

You can sell t-shirts, be a freelance designer, or an up and coming blogger—or have any other hustle for that matter—and probably not get very far without a clear brand.

Can you think of any successful business, side hustle or not, that doesn’t have a brand?

Right.

Do I really need to build my brand if I’m not a big company?

Only if you want people to choose you over someone else. So, yes. 100% yes.

If I can let you in on one secret about big companies, it’s this: they only work on their brands to get you to buy their product over someone else’s. They want you to feel good about their products and, if you’re interested, their companies.

You will need to think like that about your side hustle. In fact, you may need to put more effort into your brand right now than you might think.

You see, those big brands already have many customers all over the world. You don’t. They’re working on maintaining and growing their brands. You’re working on building one. Building a brand requires a lot of thought.

You have a lot of room to create something special. No one knows you yet, so you really have freedom to create and define who you want to be. Larger brands don’t have a lot of room to create because customers already have expectations for how a brand will engage them. Their job is to make sure that every move they make going forward is an expression of who they want their customers to believe they are.

Your job is to build to solid foundation of who you’re going to be to your future customers. Use that to your advantage.

What happens if I don’t get my brand right?

Toil and turmoil!

Kidding.

On a serious note, your brand is the reason that people will or won’t trust you. We don’t spend money on things we don’t trust. We don’t hire people we don’t trust. We don’t answer the door for people we don’t trust.

So it really is important to start your brand on the right foot, even if you don’t get it perfect the first time around. You may make some mistakes and do some things that contradict your brand, but you won’t even know if what you’re doing is right or wrong if you don’t have some basic principles for your brand.

Lucky for you, when you’re getting started, your brand has a lot of room for growth. You’ll be able to try things out and constantly refine your brand by removing what doesn’t work and by doing more of what does work.

You’ll be several steps ahead of the game if you have a clue where to start when launch your brand.

Get Schooled

Each of Side Hustle Business School’s learning tracks (Freelancer Track, Content Creator Track, Product Seller Track) has lessons that help you build a strong, authentic brand. The “How Do I Brand It?” lesson is a perfect primer on getting your brand in order. As you work through the lessons in the Creating Your Platform section (available on each track), you pick up the tools to create a clear brand that people connect with.

Where can I find this lesson?

This lesson is available on Side Hustle Business School’s Freelancer Track, Content Creator Track, and Product Seller Track. You can get started with Side Hustle Business School here.