Importance of Your Brand Entrepreneurs are popping up everywhere.  It is a fact that the millennial generation is creating nearly twice as many new businesses as baby boomers, and it seems that working for yourself is becoming the dream.  I know it was for me!  In recognizing this trend, I then started noticing the lack of guidance in branding or lack of branding all together.  Next time you are making a purchase decision, take a step back and analyze your process.  What is making you disregard one option over another?  Did you know that people make purchase decisions from the limbic center of the brain?  (Meghan, you nerd... what in the  ham sandwich is the limbic center of the brain?!?!)  The limbic center of the brain has no capacity for details, facts, or statistics.  This part of the brain manages your feelings and emotions.  So despite how much great information you may offer about your proces...

So why am I doing this now?  Because no one wanted me... Well, not exactly.  I had a good job and got paid well, and I obviously left to explore other passions and learn new skills.  However I admit it, I have had LinkedIn and Indeed sending me daily emails about available marketing positions for years.  I'll call it research, because it helped me to develop my theory on where the marketing field is going within small to mid-sized companies.  Fewer and fewer options were available for management and director-level positions, yet I saw several hundreds of opportunities for entry-level or those with about 3-5 years of experience.  I have even seen part-time positions become a trend.  My interpretation is a tightening of the purse strings.  Companies, especially small businesses, cannot afford to hire someone full-time with my level of experience (10 years if you are wondering). O uch!! Does no one but my mom think I'm worth it?!?!...

I did it.  I quit.  I put in my notice at work to go chase a dream of helping people with my skills and passions for small business marketing.  I have always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and this is the day and age for it.  It seems like every time you turn around you hear of someone starting their own business.  In my previous position I was occasionally called upon to help disadvantaged businesses develop a brand and put some steps in place to maintaining that brand.  Something that was so easy and fun for me to be a part of made such an enormous impact for these clients.  I would run into them proudly handing out their brochures and business cards to potential clients.  The brand that I helped develop gave them confidence.  They didn't have to look like a mom and pop shop just because they were; they looked legitimate, professional, and trustworthy.  My ability to make a further impact with these clients was ...