First, get your story straight.

I’m frequently asked my opinion on communications, marketing and advertising. I’m usually loathe to give advice for free. (Like you, I prefer to be paid for my expertise.) When it’s friends or family or colleagues I’ve worked with closely, I tend to be a bit freer with it than my bank account would prefer.

Lately, there has been a trend in the questions. Whether from start-ups or established companies looking to grow, the questions have basically centered around, “Where do I start?”

Sure, they’re phrased a bit more specifically e.g.:

·         I’ve got a business plan. When do I need to think about marketing and advertising?

·         We’ve done well for years, but business is slowing down. How do we turn that around?

The simple answers are:

Start thinking about your story when you start thinking about your business.

AND

Advertising to capture new customers is the only consistent way to grow a business.

If you’re just starting, communications must be part of the business plan. If you’ve been in business for years, communications must be constant and consistent. I’ve often argued that the three most important conversations you have when starting a business are with an attorney, an accountant and a communications pro.

You need to be sure you’re doing everything according to the law. You need to be sure you’re ready to take on the financial needs ahead. And you need to be sure you have the right story to tell the right people to actually have revenue.

So what’s the story you need to tell? Answer one simple question: Why are you in business?

Answering that question will be the seed of your brand voice. It will be the ur-statement that grows into everything else you do. It will shape the language you use. It will define how you describe the benefits to your customers. It will determine whether others will care about your company enough to give you money.

More than that, it will help you focus your decisions as you grow. Because it will be the defining piece of how you talk about and share your company.

I can point to companies that only had a good story and became huge (Theranos comes to mind). I can also point to companies with superior products that no longer exist because they had no story or changed it so frequently that no one knew what they hell they represented other than making money (looking at you Yahoo! and Blockbuster).

If you’re thinking about where to start, it’s with your story. It’s with why you’re in business.

If you’re not thinking about it, why the hell not? It’s more important to your short-term and long-term success than you can possibly imagine.