Most entrepreneurs are so focused on checking off all the boxes of what needs to be done to get their business off the ground that they don’t take the time to lay a solid foundation. They are busy working full-time jobs or supplementing their income with side projects or their business is running them because they need to make money in order to survive. So they take any and all projects that come their way which is a recipe for disaster when the goal is to “grow” a business. They skip this crucial step of planting the seeds of their brand and setting themselves up for steady organized growth. Your business will evolve over time, this step insures it’s evolution is in line with your goals and values. PLANT + PRUNE™ is your work smarker, not harder, FAST ACTION PLAN.

 

 

We’ve seen it over and over again with entrepreneurs. They come to us with a haphazard brand needing marketing help. They ask “how do we get the word out there?” and our answer is always the same: “What’s the word? Does your brand stand for something? Or even more importantly what does your brand stand against?”

At some point, they created a logo, website, business cards… They got it all done DIY style, or if they were lucky they were able to convince an artistic friend to step in and help… or they hired a low budget (or even worse, an expensive) graphic designer to do the job.

Of all these scenarios none is better than the other. Even if they did hire a professional designer the results were ineffective because most designers and web developers are not branding and marketing experts. They are designers and they know how to make things look pretty. But you need a branding and marketing system that sells AND looks good. 

Although your logo is important, it is only one tiny aspect of the big picture. In order to achieve success in your business instead of spinning your wheels with one marketing idea after another, your brand personality should be well thought out and rooted in clarity and purpose.

Over the past 14+ years, we have seen business after business struggle to grow because they skipped this step. We realized we were doing our clients a disservice by taking on projects that lacked substance. We would create whatever they were asking… a pretty logo, website, marketing collateral, signage, packaging… you name it, we could do it and we were passionate and excited about every project we were grateful to be a part of. At the end of each one-off project we were proud of our accomplishments and our clients were happy with our work. We’d move on to the next project and wait for them to get in touch next time they had another idea they needed executed. They were managing us. The cycle continued and we were extremely busy with repeat and new business from referrals.

But deep down we weren’t really satisfied. We began to notice a common theme in our client’s businesses. Most of them were struggling. They were overwhelmed with wearing too many hats. They didn’t have enough time. They weren’t making enough money. They wanted to thrive and enjoy their life and business journey. After all, they got into business because they had big dreams of making an impact, and having success and time and money freedom.

Their struggle had nothing to do with their work ethic or their products and services. In fact, our clients were driven, passionate, and good at what they did.  Their struggle had everything to do with their ability to reach their ideal customer and communicate effectively with them. We were able to nail it down and get to the root of the problem they all had in common. It was unbelievably simple.

But that was just the beginning of our discovery. We dug deeper. We needed to figure out WHY so many entrepreneurs struggled with the same exact problem. It didn’t matter what industry they were in, from artists to designers, contractors, restaurant owners, winemakers, florists, wellness coaches, consultants, the list goes on. The struggle was real and we were determined to help them solve their problem.

We analyzed dozens of clients we had been serving since 2006 and what we found was that most of them had skipped the planning stage of building their brand. They didn’t have a well thought out plan that was set up for effective marketing. As you know you can’t build a house on shaky ground, just like you can’t expect an abundant HARVEST without planting seeds in rich, nutrient soil. There’s a process with universal laws and when you skip a step in a proven process, there are consequences.

In most cases, the consequence of skipping this step was ineffective marketing which resulted in mediocre sales and the stress that comes along with lack of money. Larry King said it perfectly:

This is true in life and business. We figured out what our clients truly needed and we set out to help them. Instead of waiting for them to get in touch with projects they needed implemented we needed to change our process for how we helped our struggling clients and future clients. It was time for us to follow our own process and then get in the driver’s seat. And thus the ROOT SYSTEM™ was born!