The Founder’s Brand—and Why You Should Promote Yours

The following is adapted from Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief.

In the early stages of a business, during what I call the Founder phase, the entrepreneur is her own brand.

She might call her café “The Soultown Grill,” but her first customers will come to Mary’s place because they want to eat Mary’s food and talk to Mary while she serves them.

The founder’s largest challenge is usually awareness: people probably don’t know The Soultown Grill exists. But who does know? Mary’s friends and family. They’ll be her first clients. They’ll want to help her because they care about her.

Understanding Your Brand

The founder’s personal brand and business brand are synonymous at this stage. This will change later, but for now, the entrepreneur’s friends and family should be her first clients. Even if Mary’s a lousy cook, they should support her (and they should pay full price and tip very well too.)

We’ll discuss marketing strategy shortly, but the key to remember here is that the founder’s first clients will have a personal connection. Advertising won’t attract them. They’ll be drawn in because of their relationship to you. And you should use those relationships to build your business and brand awareness.

Many entrepreneurs are too modest about their goals. Maybe they’re embarrassed to take the leap in front of their friends. Maybe they don’t want to “impose” on their relationships. So they downplay their new business in conversation. They fail to overtly invite their friends and neighbors. They don’t bring their venture up at the dinner table. Maybe they’ve been taught it’s impolite to ask for money and feel as if inviting those they care about is the same thing. It’s not.

We all opened our businesses to serve others, to solve their problems. We can probably solve their problems better than anyone else. Why don’t we want to solve our family’s problems first?

Why wouldn’t your mother be your first nutrition client?

Why wouldn’t you want your dad to buy his suit from you?

Why wouldn’t you offer to do your pastor’s taxes?

Why wouldn’t your best friend come to you to have her teeth cleaned?

No one will care for them like you will. No one will give them better value for their money, and yes, you’ll charge them the same rate as everyone else.

Charging What You’re Worth

One of my first business mentors was a mechanic named Nick. We were friends, and I used to sit in his dining room in the late evening and complain about my business.

He told me, “You need to raise your prices.”

I would always counter with, “Nick, all these people are my friends! I can’t do that to my friends!”

And he’d always say, “If they’re your friends, they’ll pay anything you ask them to.”

One night, he forced the issue. He wrote me a check for his gym membership that was 10 percent higher than what he currently paid. It was 10 percent higher than my highest rate.

“There,” he said. “That’s your new price. If you charge anyone less than what I just paid, you’re screwing me—your friend. Now go raise your rates to this new amount.”

I did. Some people quit. To them, ten bucks per month was more important than our imaginary “friendship.” But the people who really cared stayed. And as I started talking about my gym business to people at family parties, they all wanted to join. They knew I’d take better care of them than anyone because I cared. And none of them ever complained about price or expected a special deal.

As a new entrepreneur, you don’t have much to build your brand. But you have your reputation and your relationships. Use them.

For more advice on business ownership, you can find Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief on Amazon.

When his first business almost went bankrupt in 2008, Chris Cooper sought a mentor and began chronicling his turnaround on a blog called DontBuyAds.com. After 400 blog posts, Chris self-published his first book, Two-Brain Business, which has now sold more than 20,000 copies worldwide. Chris now shares his lessons learned from the trenches of mentoring over 2,000 business owners worldwide in Founder, Farmer, Tinker, Thief.