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"Brand" can seem like one of those "nice-to-haves" that gets pushed to the back burner when you're trying to do the day-to-day firefighting in your small business. But brand is important, whether you're running a construction firm or a direct-to-consumer business, a small company or a large organization. 

First, what even is brand?

The word gets thrown around a lot. And if you have six people in a conversation about brand, they're probably using it in six (or more!) different ways. Some people think of it as a logo or a saying or a slogan. Those details are part of your brand, but there's a more foundational way to think about it.  

"Brand" sets expectations. It's the distribution of likely outcomes you can expect from a company or person. It's predictability – of behaviors, of processes, and of outcomes. That predictability of brand lets a company communicate to all stakeholders (customers, vendors, and employees) what they should expect from you and the company. 

In practice, that also means that brand sets the tone for your culture. It's important to attract the right people and repel the wrong people. Nailing down your brand, and making sure it's a true reflection of your wants, needs, aspirations, and expectations, is critical. If the brand you put out into the world doesn't fit reality, expect disconnects. 

Every time somebody comes in contact with your brand, they're testing what they think they know about your company (their predictions and expectations) against the experience they're having on the ground. When expectations and reality match, the brand is strengthened and reinforced in their mind. But when they don't, your customer or employee or whoever may start to be wary not just of your brand but of your company and the product or service you provide. 

To establish a great brand, you need to align reality with what the brand stands for. In other words, if you call yourself "technology-first" or "people-forward," you better be able to back it up. 

Start with these questions to get a handle on what your brand is:

1. What is the reality of what your company does and what it values?

2. What is the reality that you most want to put forward in public?

3. Where are the disconnects between the reality that you want for your brand and the reality that exists now? 

At the end of the day, brand is not about design or logos or slogans. It's about establishing a clear set of guidelines around and ways of communicating what people should expect from your company.

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