Branding Your Business

I used to love Fridays as a child. I don't know if I still love them as an adult. So much happens on a Friday. I hope you are well. I hope you had a good week. Have you done your weekly reviews? Maybe I should do one weekly review like one Friday. And we see. Without giving away too much information, what were your wins this week? Think about it. There's so much glare here. Oh my God. What went well? It take, it's, it's useful I think if you like keep like 20 minutes on a Friday to go over your week, it makes a big difference. Like you think about all the different exercises, the activities, the people you interacted with, the projects you're working on, your personal goals, you know. So what I like to do is divide all my goals into mental, emotional, physical and spiritual, right? And like I talk about all the time. I use like 18 month big goals and then I break it down into like quarters and then the quarters are broken down into months and the months are broken down into weeks. So at the beginning of each week, on Sunday night for me, when I plan my whole week, I'm like, okay, what are my priorities this week? And the easiest way to do that is I look at my priorities for the month. Because I have like a sheet for every month which has like my priorities. What's at the top? No, no, values. I put my values at the top. Then I put like the areas in my life that I want to assess myself and work on every month. Then I put like two or three inspiring quotes that are to do with like the intentions I have for that month. Then I put the priorities. So now when I look at my priorities for that month, I can break that down into each week. And then when I look at my calendar, I'm like, okay, what is important to me this week? And I put those in the calendar first. Then other things I can be like, okay, we can have a zoom on this day. Oh, we can fit a meeting here. Okay, I can catch up on that there. What I also do, I'm just going to take off these glasses. It's distracting me. What I also do is. What do I also do? Oh, I also learned instead of just putting stuff on a to do list, you can also put stuff straight into your calendar, right? So that instead of like it's this pending thing in your mind that you have to do, you have to do, you schedule time to do it so that firstly you're not just thinking about it like it's not eating you. And secondly, you actually sit and do it. So what I do is I put in, like the important meetings first. The things that require other people. Like, check, okay, my assistant checks. Check with this person, what time works for them. Check with this person. When is this team meeting? So those are in the calendar. Then I look at what's important for me to do this week and I put those in my calendar where it will fit. Like the time it will take. Is it a one hour thing? Is it a half an hour thing? Is it a two hour thing? What do I need to do? And then the rest of the space I leave it flexible for, okay, this person really needs to see me today, or I really need to run and do that thing. And that really helps me to make sure at the end of the week on a Friday, like now on a Friday. This is why my Fridays are always hectic. Because anything that you had to push during the week or you didn't get to. Now I try to squeeze on a Friday and I'm just like, it's so messy. But I saw a coach yesterday. What was it Margaret Thatcher said at the end of the day when you sit and feel satisfied, it's not because you had like a relaxing day at home. It's because you did all the things you wanted to do in that day. Doesn't that make so much sense? It's not like you feel that satisfied feeling when you have those chill days. You feel that satisfied feeling when you're like, yeah, killed it today. I did this, this, this. I feel like this handle all my business. So I like to fill that on a Friday. So at this time on a Friday, look at the day is almost over. I still have some things to do. I have, like, what did I do this week? What were the important things for me? When I woke up on Monday morning, I was like, what do I need to get done this week? What is a priority? What do I need to make sure. And the thing, the phrase that people use is what moves the needle. I don't really know why they use that phrase. I feel like a speedometer maybe. Like it goes faster, I don't know. But that's a phrase they use in business. So, like, what are the key things that make the biggest difference to your business? Because it's so easy for you to get caught up in obligations, meetings, reports, you know, like filler, filler stuff. And then the important things that actually make a difference have not been done. So you have to think about what moves the needle, like, what makes things go forward and what are those important things? Sometimes they are hard things, Sometimes they're uncomfortable, they're difficult conversations, or you have to do like a sales call, or you need to find the money for this kind of project. So sometimes I feel like those are big tasks. So firstly, there's like a discomfort. You're scared or you're nervous, or you don't really want to do it, or it's like a horrible thing, like firing someone that you're not looking forward to. So it's hard to schedule those things. But you still have to do it because at the end of the week, you're like, oh, now I didn't do that difficult thing again. It's just gonna keep lingering in your life. So that's why I think it's useful to schedule things directly into your calendar instead of to do list. What I keep in my to do list are things that I need to remember to tell someone to do, or things that, like, I have to go there, like, to the bank. I hate going to the bank or doing bank things. Stuff that I can't just schedule immediately. I have to ask someone something or I have to research it, or I'm waiting for an email back, but I write it down so that it doesn't disappear. Because for me, if it's not written, it doesn't exist. If it's not on the list, it's not my responsibility. And I feel like I'm a structured, organized person. But my to do list every month has, like, a mix of my personal things and my work things. It's all just, like, jumbled. Like, call back this person. Buy this for your house. Remember this one's birthday. Make sure you sign this account. Like, different things are mixed, but I write them down because those are the things. And I check. So I check the to do list maybe three times in a day just to check. Like, if I have five minutes here, is there something I can do there? Like, sometimes it's just send an email to this person. It's use. A lot of things are phone calls. The truth is, I'm so bad with phone calls. I just write down I have to call this person about this. And I really try to avoid that because I feel like phone calls just delay everything. If you can text or WhatsApp or voice notes, every life moves so much faster because I can deal with things when I have time to do them. Phone calls means, like, I have to sit and give my time and energy. It's like this. It's such a restrictive, difficult block for me. That's why every week it's hard for me to be live at 4 on Friday. I'm in a different place. I'm stressed. I'm thinking about the Internet. I was here, I was there, I was late, I was. You know, there's too many things. So I feel like you have to find a system that works for you. This is what my. There's a point to all this. So I feel like that is the system that I have built over the last few years because I've experimented with different to do list apps or calendars or systems or doing everything of these kinds on a one day and batching and chunking and like there's so many productivity things out there. You have to. I feel like the most effective way to get results for yourself is to experiment. Try each one that you come across or try what someone has suggested. Do it for a few weeks. See if it makes your life easier, better, clearer, simpler, smoother. If not, you try it. It's okay. Go back to your other system. Some people write things down physically. Some people write it in their phones. Some people don't need to write things down. They just remember everything. Some people file stuff in different ways. Like, some people need morning times to be clear. Some people are not productive, like at a certain time of the day. So you have to learn yourself to make sure your week is optimized for you. Yes. No man is an island. We all have bosses. We have responsibilities, we have obligations. You have to do certain things at certain times, but. But mostly our lives. There's a lot that is in our control and matters doesn't feel like that sometimes. But the way you write your to do list, no one can do that for you. No boss can force you to do it a certain way. You know, the way you organize your own life is up to you. You also can't just leave it up in the air. I feel like if you're not proactive, you like things, you. Some people think they're getting things done. But I feel like when you put in effort, attention, you know, wherever you put your focus, that's something in your life that you can grow and improve on. And you'll be shocked at how productive you can be. The same hours that we have in the day, it's wild when some people are just coasting like, oh, yeah, I did one thing today. Okay, you know, sure. If you put in some effort, you could do certain things. Which means there's a point to this. If you are more productive and efficient every day, it means you get way more done in a year. That's the truth. So something that would take you four years to do, you can bang it out in one year. If you're focused, you learn how to say no to other things. You learn how to organize your time. You prioritize. You're efficient, you focus. There are so many small things, and if you make these small changes, you become so much more efficient. And I feel like that's the first stage, because people are really not efficient in this Uganda that I live in. Oh, my God. It would really help us all if everyone wanted to be more efficient. Sometimes I'm walking behind people, even people who work for me in the office, and they walk so slow, like they have nowhere they're going. You know, like, we're just chilling. We're just walking. I'm like a work day. Make haste. Let's go, let's move. You know, I always feel like I'm. I'm going, going, going, which, you know, I'm always under pressure because I always have way too many things to do. But, you know, that is the recipe for success. I swear, I saw a quote about this. The best way to get something done is when you have what you need to get done. And not enough resources, you know, it puts that pressure on you. You never have enough time, you never have enough budget, but you know the goal and the vision. So my life is like that. There is never enough time and there is never enough budget. That's just the system that I was. I found myself in. There's no structure for where the money is going to come from for this thing or who is going to pay for that, or how much is this going to cost. And it's always like, we need it yesterday. So I don't have the luxury of like, okay, this is my project for six months. The budget has been approved. These are all the team members. This is what we're going to do. Here is the vision. I wish. I love people whose lives are like that. I see them and I'm like, hey, mama, that's not my life. But it has made me very efficient because I'm always under pressure and I'm always stressed. So I'm always rushing and I'm always trying to make things go as far as they can. Gotta stretch this. You gotta push this. You gotta hurry up. We have to open by this day, you know? And because of that pressure, I had to become proactive about being efficient. So that's how I learned all these different things. So now when people are like, how do you do so many things? In a day, I'm like, let me tell you some things. There are like seven different things that I do and all these different systems and writing things down and goals and prioritizing and this, this, this, this. You know, it helps. But you have to build those things around yourself. You have to take control of your time. And it's important to be efficient first, I think. And then you start to see where you can be more effective. Because I feel like the first step is to get things done. Once you know how to get things done, then you can now go back and say, how do I get things done better? Because a big thing we all struggle with, well, I think most people, is perfectionism. There's so much procrastination. There's so much fear. You want to wait till you're ready. It's not yet ready. We need another two weeks. We need another meeting. We need another me. I'm like, let's just do it. It doesn't need to be perfect first. Let's get it done. Then we can see how to improve. And once I learned how to do that, it really changed things for me. Because you're not scared and you're not, like, worried about things being perfect. You manage people's expectations, and then you keep improving because you learn so much in the process. The process of action and something done. You learn what needs to be improved. If you stay planning, planning, maybe this, it could be this, it could be that, it could be a bajillion different ways, but you will never know what actually works until you actually do it. And there's nothing like real ground feedback, a customer telling you, this color is terrible, or like, this food is amazing. There is no alternative for that. There's no book, there's no class. There's nothing that will teach you that. So the sooner you act, the sooner you get feedback, the sooner you're going to improve. So first you be efficient, then you'll be effective. That's my recipe, my theory. So I'm saying this is something you need to build in your life so that on a Friday you feel like I was efficient one. I did all the different things that I needed to do. And was I effective? Did the things get done well? Did it get done properly? Did it get done to the best of your ability? Something that I've recently been reflecting on is because I'm always in a rush and pushing people, I don't explain things properly. I don't give them a chance to understand. Well, I don't give context. Last night I realized One of my team members, I hired a person, added them to the team, and I never explained how, why. I just started sending her work talk to this person, do this. And I was like, oops. In my mind, I'm trying to think of, like, where we need to go, what the vision is, what needs to get done. This is the most efficient way to do this. Hi, this person, let's just go. And I forgot to explain why. So I feel like that was my bad. I apologize. I explained. But these are the small things I learned. But I still think it's better to be efficient first, just because it has really helped me. Maybe I have too many things spinning all at once, all the time, but you know, they work somehow. You know, they say there's no such thing as a broken system. Every system works the way it was designed. If it's not having the outcome you want, it's because you need to change something in the system. The system is working. Whether you think it's working for you, that's up to you to change. But it helps. That's why I think these weekly reflections are something I learned a few years ago. And it really helps because the sooner you get the feedback, the sooner you measure and assess, the sooner you can improve. So if I am assessing myself every week, how effective was I? How efficient was I? Did I get this done? Was I polite? Did I handle this project well? Did I go to the gym? Did I drink enough water? Was I kind to my mother? Was I kind to my child? You ask the things that are important to you in your life every week and you will see the difference. You will see how you start to change as a person and you start to become the person who you are and your goals. Because the version of you that has achieved those goals is not the same version of you that it is today. But the only way you can become that person is if you start working on those things and then you start to improve iterate. You get better with every cycle. So for me, there's 52 cycles in the year. Those are 52 opportunities to be better and be who I want to be. And you start to see the improvement. So if I do the weekly reflections, it feeds into my end of month assessment. So I can see on the big things, the priorities, the intentions, the goals. Am I making progress? Am I moving the needle? Do I keep saying this is my goal? But the whole month I didn't do anything to help that goal. So many months I would say, I'm gonna go to the gym. I did not even own gym clothes. I like, you know, when you, you are so far and so zero and every month you put it there. Yeah, I'm gonna go to the gym. That shows you're not being efficient, you're not being effective. You're not achieving your goal. You're not even making progress. So that's why I had to move to the weekly system. And you schedule it all there and it's there in your phone and the alarm goes off or the calendar or the notification. Find a system that works for, for you with what's important. And that's why, firstly, I was saying break it down to mental, emotional, physical and spiritual because you want all these different parts of you to be like, in harmony. And those things cover across your personal and professional lives. If your personal life is a mess, your professional life will not thrive and vice versa. So what are we talking about today? Do your reflections, please. Branding. Branding your business. This is such a fun topic. I love the branding part of business. This is like the fun part for me because I feel like it's the creative, interesting part. It's not the hard, difficult ops or finance, you know, things. So with branding, you know what I think is the most useful thing in branding? I feel like I learned this and after I was like, duh, like, of course you know, but before you know it, you don't know it. You don't do it. You have to have your audience in mind. And I think maybe my first two companies. Can't really remember when I learned this, but I think my first two companies, I feel like I was like the typical young entrepreneur. Oh, my God. I have this idea. This is going to be so great. This is the color I want it to be. Oh, my God, it was so much fun. I painted the office that color. We had like stickers on the cars logos, brochures. Like, it was the most fun I've ever had with branding. I went over the top, but I had fun and I learned. I didn't learn along the way, but I think that's the problem. You think of something for you. This is a fight I have with my parents all the time. I'm just like, yes, I understand that this is what you like, but you are not the target customer for this business. I'm so sorry. So we're not gonna put the tiles you like mother. These are the fights that I have with them. The thing is, you have to think of your audience. You have to think of what your target audience wants, not what you want. As an entrepreneur, the solution you're providing the business you've created is to help other people. You are not your own customer. You're not going to be using your business. You need to be thinking about what do the people want? Who are the people? And when I say the people, I mean be super specific. The kind of person I'm targeting for branding and advertising for Skies is not the same person. I'm advertising for her or for Mosana cards or for Simba Telecom. Those are four completely different target audiences. And that means. And when I say target audience, I'm happy. Because Facebook ads have made people understand that as a phrase. Because when you're making your Facebook ad, you have to click man, woman, age, which district, what are their interests, things like that, so that you make this ideal character. But I think especially with first time business owners, you're so excited about your business idea, you see this gap in the market. You're like, yes, I'm going to make juice, I'm going to have a show, going to sell kids this. And you're not even thinking about your customers. You think about you, what you like and what's interesting to you and the colors you like. And your shop is decorated by you. I know, it's fun. I see. I fell for it the first time too. The temptation took me. It was fun to design it all for me, but I am not the customer. The company I'm talking about was Tateru. I didn't need a property. I was not looking to rent or buy a house, but I worked in property and I thought it would be fun and I had so much fun with my branding. So I think that's the most important thing. Start with your audience in mind. Who is your target customer? That is your typical ideal customer. Is it Fred? Is it Mary? Is it Sarah? Is it six little children? Who is your target audience? How are you going to appeal to them? What is interesting to them? What colors do they like? Where do they find information? Are they on Facebook? Are they on Instagram? Are they sitting in traffic looking at billboards? Do they read the newspaper? Do they listen to radio? Do they? These are all the different marketing channels. But you also have to know what's important to them. Are they family oriented? Do they need bright colors or they need serious colors? If you are appearing to like sell banking insurance products, you're not going to have pink and blue and yellow and orange. And that's what your marketing looks like. Because the kind of typical customers who are paying for those serious banking products unfortunately are like older men. I Say unfortunately, because there's not that many women who are buying like those typical things. I think that's why all banks have like dark blue is like one of their logo colors. Because also there's like a color wheel. Every color has like the emotions and things it's associated with. Like purple is exciting and eccentric and like navy blue is about seriousness and sincerity, stuff like that. There's like a reasoning behind each color, the emotion it evokes. So it's important that you have these things thinking of your target customer. If you make everything black and white and your thing is appealing to children, you're trying to sell something for kids. It's a kids shop. No child is gonna walk past it and be like, oh mommy, let's go to the black and white shop. No. So you have to think about who you're trying to appeal to. And this is such a big part of your branding. The name of your company, the logo, the colors, the way you're going to brand. What do people associate with your brand? That's what we're talking about this week. When they see your brand, what do they think, what do they feel? Because remember you're advertising to human beings. That's another thing people forget. You're not advertising to a machine. It's not. You choose what looks nice to you and just put it everywhere. You have to think about a human being. That's why effective adverts, if you watch like news at 9pm, right, every single advert is going to have a family. I feel like that's such a Uganda thing because we're such a, one of the fastest growing populations in the world. Everybody got seven children, man. So it's like whether you're selling cooking oil, you're selling paint, you're selling hotels, you're selling a restaurant, it's a family. They're all there having dinner or they've gone to the park or they've gone to school, or you're selling soap or whatever it is, the family is doing it. And that makes sense because the marketing teams of these companies have assessed the market in Uganda and who they are looking for are family oriented people. That's why religion is such a big thing in our country. Anything to do with kids, such a big thing in our country because we are family oriented. There's families everywhere. It's a cultural thing, it's a Africa thing, but it's also a very Ugandan thing. When you go to different countries, I'm trying to think of where like in Japan. So Japan has one of the oldest populations in the world. In Japan, the billboards, the adverts all have old people because that's the biggest consumer market. The old people outnumber the young people. So they're not selling young, fun, exciting things. It's not bars and clubs and skydiving and motorbikes. It's like retirement packages and sweaters, you know, that's what appeals to the market. So you have to think about your target audience. It's very important. It's what sells your brand. And when you think of your target audience, what do they want to see? Do they want to see? What are they aspiring to be? So, like, for example, with her, we're targeting working women. So everything we do has to have a feminine touch, but a serious touch. That's why our logo is pink and black. And the women we use in our photos and outfits look serious. They're not in small cloth outfits. They're not having a good time. They're on computers, they're reading books. Because when we look at our target audience, that's their aspiration. They want to be taken seriously in the workplace. That's the kind of woman they're trying to be. Whether you are or not is the ideal. Even me, that's what I'm trying to be every day. Right? So you're not trying to look super fun. You're not trying to look super fancy. It's not about, like, fancy cars. I know with men when you're advertising stuff. One of my Forbes friends, it's so funny. He's on the same Forbes list as me. I saw his personal website and, like, his YouTube channel. I was just like, oh, my God. It's like a music video, but with men. They want to see, like, fancy cars, big watches. He's in a suit, he's in sunglasses. He's getting out of the car. Then he gets into, like, his fancy office. I was just laughing hysterically. He's like, why are you laughing? I'm like, seriously, this is how you promote yourself as a business person? He's like, yeah, but 90% of his audience was young. Like men who all want to make it big. You know how the attitude of young men is, like, make money, flash the money. Women are not like that. So that's not how us, we advertise. But I found it so amusing because he knows his target audience and it really works for him. He's very successful, and it's very aspirational. So you have to think about what your target audience is looking for. What do you want to hear what is important to them. Do they need to see the price first or first they need the story? Do they need to know where to? Is it about? Come and contact us. How do you make it easy for them so that when they see it, they're like, yes, this is what I want. This resonates with me. I connect with this thing. You know, that's the idea with the brand. That's. I'm saying when you see a brand, you have to think, what do you think about? Do you think that's too fancy? I'll never afford that. Because that means you're not the target audience. Where did I see that? Ferrari doesn't advertise on tv. I think there's a quote about that. Ferrari doesn't have TV adverts because the kind of people who buy Ferraris don't sit around watching tv. You gotta know your target audience. If you look at different magazines, different newspapers, different social media groups, you can see what kind of people they're targeting. All of us get social media adverts now. Don't your adverts reflect what you like as a person? That's why I just have to say, oh, Instagram, I'm really looking for black shoes. And the next day I'll have so many adverts for black shoes. That's how social media is these days. It follows and tracks everything. And the software is looking at your eyes. It's so creepy. There's a way that the software can see how many seconds you are looking at something. So when you're scrolling through Instagram, it's counting how many seconds you spent on this kind of a post. That post was about, let's say, from my page. It's inspirational, it's empowerment, it's about women, it's about business. So now it knows I spent five seconds on that kind of a post. But if it's a post about, like, food or a house or shoes or a book, I'll only spend three seconds. Not that I do, but, you know, as an example. So now Instagram knows I'm more attracted to those kinds of posts rather than the one I spend three seconds to. So it now starts to recommend to me more empowering, aspirational. I swear, every day I add to a new page that I follow. It's ridiculous, it's so accurate, but it's super creepy because it knows me. And that's why their Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and these companies have such good social media marketing, because they know their target audience and their target audience is not women or men or 24 year olds, it's you. As specific as possible. That's where all of us get slightly different adverts from each other because our phones know exactly what type of target audience we are and then they sell our data to the companies that are looking for us. So when you're on Facebook choosing your ad of I want 24 to 40 year old men in Uganda who work in the sports sector. Now the system goes and looks for all the men that age bracket who live in Uganda who spend seven seconds looking at sports feeds or who are always googling the score of this match or who are checking where the sports bar is or what this comp, this team did. That's how they are building and that's why their adverts are so worth it. They make so much money. That's their whole revenue, their whole business model. I think the sun has come because they know you specifically. It's about targeting. That's the most important thing about branding. So when you're branding your business, the worst thing you can say is it's for everyone. Anyone can come. Okay, good luck. Anyone in. In marketing is the same as no one. You just have no data, you have no direction. Yes, sure. I'm not saying if you have a restaurant, you're not going to advertise to only children because if an old person comes, you're not going to say no if. I'm sorry, I keep saying old people. I mean it with love. I also feel like I don't mean it in an offensive way but like you have to think about the targeting. It's just demographically, I mean, and when I'm not even going to go into details of what I mean by old, but you get what I mean. So think about your target audience. That is the most important thing. Don't say anyone and everyone. Yes, you will. Welcome all business. The other day we had a man who bought one of the women's courses. I was like, well, we can't stop him. He'll find the information useful. Good luck. But I'm not gonna make adverts designed for the one man who bought the course. And I'm not gonna change what I'm doing because someone might do that. You need to be specific about who, who you are targeting and design your brand around what they will resonate with, what they will relate with, what they will trust, what they will want. Then that builds their understanding and their connection to your brand. And then there's word of mouth. The other day I was reading about this. What was I reading? An article about something. And this guy who works for Hay House and publishes so many books every year, he's like, with books, the biggest thing is still word of mouth. You will get more book sales if your book has good word of mouth, rather than how much money you're spending in marketing. I was like, what? Even in today's age with social media? But totally, word of mouth makes a difference because people recommend it. Think about all the books you read. Do you go online and Google this book? Sometimes. But most of the books we read, someone has told us, this is such a good book. This is a book I suggest you read, whether it's your mentor, your colleague, your friend, someone, your family. We get it from recommendations. Recommendations are word of mouth. And what is that? Word of mouth. Based on their relationship with the book. They read it, they connected with it, they understood it, they think it's great. So they've now told someone else. So try and be like that with your brand. Find your niche market. Who are the people specifically, who are your perfect customers? The customers who you know you can satisfy, you can serve them. They need your business in their lives because you're doing a great job, you trust your quality. You know, if they just give you a chance, you will deliver. Look for those customers and then duplicate them. How did you find this one mother who wanted school bags for children of 7 years old who have to carry textbooks? You know she's the specific person you want because you make those specific school bugs. Yes, those school bugs could be for older children or younger children. Yes, you could use that school bag for shopping or you could use it for a weekend away, but you found that these mothers really love these books. I'm just giving a weird example, this bag, because it's perfect for their kids. Now, now that you have this ideal customer, where are the rest of them? Because there's no such thing as one. Where are the other mothers? Do we need to advertise at the school? Is it in the pta? Do they all take their kids swimming on this place on Saturday? Do they use social media? Are they watching TV in the mornings when the kids are to school? You start to put yourself in your shoes of your target customer, and then you see how the marketing can reach them and what type of marketing will touch them, will make them say, oh, that's great. Oh, I want that. I need to call and buy that now. Oh, let me text that number on WhatsApp. Let me follow this Instagram page. That's what you're trying to achieve. I talked for so long. My God. So think about that when you are branding your business. I'm going to check if we have any questions. Oh, okay. How can I best handle my small projects alongside studies that is about prioritization and organization. You need to look into productivity because it is very possible. You have many hours in the day. You have energy and time. You need to be more organized. You can read the four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. I suggest that you have to find a way to balance that. You don't lose out on both. Okay, branding questions. Are you an entrepreneur? Share your branding questions here. What is branding like with little money and creation of more awareness in this modern world? You know, it's not about the budgets. I think, like even with the book example, even with social media, there's so much that grows. I don't think we've had paid adverts for her since 2020. I think we tried a few times and then we stopped. But you still grow because you're doing stuff every day that is pulling in your customers. Like I was saying on my Instagram this week, a customer doesn't just get converted the first time they see your brand. They're not going to be like, oh, this is lucky shoes. Let me go buy shoes. You know, how do I trust lucky shoes? Are they going to be real shoes? Will they fit? What's the quality? What about the colors? Like, they need to interact with your brand first. Because think about it, when spend money, you don't just spend money anyhow. You spend money on things you know you trust you can count on, right? So if your challenge is a small budget, you need to build trust with your customers. So you need to have good word of mouth. You need to have good quality. Good customer service makes a huge difference. You'll be shocked. People will go back to a place because of the customer service, not because of the place was the nicest or the food was the best or it was the fanciest. But they were treated well, they were respected. Things happened on time, people greeted them with a smile. Small things like that make a big difference. And also when people recommend you, they know that their name is on the line with it. So make sure that your customers are your best marketers. They have such good things to say about you and your brand that they're going to bring in other people to your business because they are proud of you and they trust what you're going to deliver. Content is mostly free. You just need to have Internet. You need to Go on Canva or app like that. Make a clear poster. Something that has all the information, your contact details, what you're selling, the price. I don't know why people don't put prices on things in Uganda. Drives me crazy. But anyway, put that stuff there and make it easy for people to share. You see how people love WhatsApp. Take screenshots, share with your friend. Oh, Suzy, you are looking for shoes. I saw Lucky shoes today and they send it for you. You need to do things like that that don't cost you money but can really get awareness out there and start to build the trust in your brand. When someone. When should someone think of rebranding a business? What factors should be considered? Oh, rebranding is tricky. I had to do that a couple of times. One I think, of course, is like when there's a legal situation, like you didn't register the company and now there's another company that is legally registered and is running around with your brand name. I think it also makes sense to rebrand when there's too many similar ones. Remember when Java's and Java House were like in a lawsuit because their name was too similar? And then I think one became Cafe Java's and then came Java House. Like, they allowed that. You don't need problems like that because what if the other person has bigger marketing budget than you? No one is ever going to be able to find you. You just drown in there. I don't think it's unethical. I think also when something goes wrong in your business, you might have to rebrand, you know, you know, build the brand in a new way. The one time I had to rebrand, we changed the function of the company. So now our target audience changed, the business model changed, things became different. We had to change the branding because it was too confusing. So you want it to be easy for your customers. So always keep the customers in mind. Why are you thinking of rebranding and how easy or hard will it be for your customers to find you? You know, will they understand the new brand? And you have to explain. I think it was one of these paint companies. We used to have Sadolene and now it's Plascon. I never knew why. I just assumed Plascon bought Sadolin. I've never actually found out why, but I remember the rebrand and that was an expensive rebrand. Those guys went and repainted everything in Uganda that said saddleing. And some of those sudden things have been there since I was a kid. I was like, okay plus con we all gonna learn your name. So rebranding is a lot of effort, and it can be expensive, and it's difficult because you don't want to lose customers who are like, oh, no, there's no more saddle in. Let me go find a new paint company. You know, I think that one is Bosco or something like that. Basco, you know, so you. You don't want to make life hard for your customers. So I try to avoid rebranding if you can. Transparency is a big thing these days, and authenticity. So you'd rather explain to your customers and show, okay, we're moving to this website or this company name or this because of this, you know, helps you exude confidence in yourself. Is it wrong to have a picture of you as my brand? Yeah. I also think that's illegal. You can't have a picture of me for your brand. That's also weird. Who is your target audience? Why would they want me? They want your brand. Your brand also has to represent you. Right? So it has to represent what service or product you're offering. It's also illegal to use people's pictures without their consent. And I would not suggest using a picture of a person for a brand. Once we did a photo shoot with some of our workers, I remember, in Handyman, and we then paid and put them on a billboard, and then this guy ended up stealing money from the company. We had to fire him. It was such a messy, difficult solution situation, and I was so upset because I just spent all that money putting him on a billboard. Man, it sucks. I really would not suggest doing that. Use models. If you want to use people in adverts, but your brand should have, like, a logo and a color. You know what I mean? Something that's easy. Something that you can put on a T shirt and then your brand. If you want to use me, you have to use me as an influencer. That's different. Influencer marketing is a strategy. It's not a brand. Right. You know how you can use different influencers and you pay them and they represent your brand? Like, you can see, I think, Crystal at Sheraton, or you see Lucy on Emirates. You see they're associated with the brand, and that helps to bring in a different audience, to bring in their audience. That's influencer marketing. So it's a strategy in the marketing, but it's not your brand. You want to. You don't want your brand to be associated with that person. That's problematic because human beings are not perfect. And also, you want the brand to Live on beyond the person, you know. Blend personal branding to business branding. Okay? So personal branding is useful for everyone, even people who work in, like, offices. I'm always talking about personal branding branding because that's your reputation and that's how you get jobs, promotions, clients, different things with your business branding, I'm talking about how you're making money for the business to grow it as a company. Now, sometimes there is overlap. For example, my personal brand gets me speaking events where I am paid to come and speak at an event, for example. So now that my business, it's like consulting, you know what I mean? Because my personal brand is associated with certain business topics, I get invited to speak about those topics and I get paid for that. So that's where I think the blend in personal branding and business branding happens. Now, the challenge is when you cross over, that everything crosses over. And that's why I'm saying we are all human beings. Everyone has a flow. So sometimes I have to think about it. Am I going to go and present in a bank and speak about innovation? When I have a nose ring in and my hair is currently purple doesn't really work. You know, I find, like, I get away more with the gray because you can't really see. Gray is a wild color because, you know, it's a natural color for hair. So it's easier. This nose ring I can take out if I have to for an event. So I'm just saying, when it's a personal brand, it's a bit messier. That's why it's easier to be an influencer where your personal brand is your business and people now know you. But like I was explaining to a young lady the other day, it's also hard work. People think influencers are just sitting on beaches, taking photos, drinking cocktails. It's not fun when you have to take those photos. Do you know how many photos they have to take? They can't relax. They have to look a certain way, they have to be a certain pose. You have to dress a certain way. You probably don't eat because you have to fit in those nice clothes. You know what I mean? It's hard work. And when you're building a business brand associated with your person, it's so much content, you lose all your privacy. You're constantly working, you're constantly seen as a brand. This is something I struggle with now. Anywhere I go and someone comes up to me and says, oh, I want to take a picture of you, or give me business advice, okay, you know, I'm at lunch with my family. But okay, so you lose a lot in that because now you're a business that is in a person and it's always on the move. So you never separate the two. I think that's the challenge. When you mix business and personal, it's very hard to have a different distinction. You can't say, it's after 5pm I'm not a business anymore. Sometimes I'll be in a bar. You guys, like, it's 2:00am why try and take a picture with me? I look bad. Like it's a weird setting, it's loud. I want a picture. Okay, this is my fault. I'm not mixing my personal brand with my business. And you can't say no and you can't be rude and you can't refuse because now that's poor customer service. So I think you have to be careful when you mix your personal brand and your business brand. The good thing is there's so many examples today of people who do it well here and abroad. So you can learn, there's things you can read about it to make the transition easier and also ways to manage it. Because when you are a personal brand and a business, it affects you. Like now if I employ people who make money because I make money, like in speaking events, what if I do something scandalous and terrible and now I can't get hired for anything. Now all their jobs are also in jeopardy, you know, so there's. You can't really differentiate and make a clear distinction when you mix the two. But it impersonal branding is important on its own in a professional space in general. And like I said, we're human beings. No one is perfect. So there'll always be challenges. But if it's something you want to do, just do your research and make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. Okay, those are all the questions. Have a great weekend, everybody. Thank you for joining. I'll see you next week.