The 5 most common limiting beliefs holding your brand back

Do you remember when you started your business? It might have been a personal thought along the lines of, I’m so sick of having to do work for someone else! Or maybe it was sparked by a moment of inspiration, seeing other products in the market that set you thinking, I could provide a better solution than what’s out there!

I was there, too. Between my own personal health and the frustration that I felt from working a corporate job, I started Author Brand Studio. While the first few years were certainly a struggle at times, five years later I’m living a life the older version of myself could have only dreamed of, creating brands for other women-owned businesses and successfully managing larger clientele. Even so, I still have nagging thoughts in my head about not being successful or fears about where I’m going in the next steps of my business.

These are known as limiting beliefs: and I bet you have them about your business, too. Between my own limiting beliefs about my business—and my own branding—and from countless discussions with other entrepreneurs, I’ve come to recognize several that seem to be most common. Many small business owners that I speak with, whether they know it or not, hold on to limiting beliefs that prevent them from giving fully to their branding, which ultimately prevents them from giving fully to their business. By bringing some of these to light, I hope we can see how common these thoughts are—and how simple they can be to overcome.

Let’s dive into the 5 most common limiting beliefs holding your brand back from being all it can be.

Are you ready?

"I'm not a real business, so branding isn't important."

One of the most common limiting beliefs that small business owners have is that branding is not important because they feel they aren’t running a "real" business.

I can relate. Even after I signed my LLC, it still took me about a year to finally call myself a “business owner” and not just a freelancer.

I feel that we as women are especially vulnerable to this limiting belief, because it’s a form of imposter syndrome. We feel obligated to play it small, minimize our accomplishments, and keep the back door open just in case this “little business” doesn’t work out.

Yet I’ve seen so many women (and men!) start side hustles or full-time gigs like housekeeping, lawn care, photography…and I could just keep going! Early-stage entrepreneurs, especially those side-hustling, often think that because they’re not a “real business” they don’t need any kind of branding. That statement couldn’t be further from the truth! 

Every business, regardless of its size, can benefit from clear branding. Your brand gives your business a unique identity that not only separates you from others, it makes your budding business easier to recognize and remember—and in these early days of trying to make it, you need as much brand recognition as you can get.

Especially when you’re starting off small, branding doesn’t have to break the bank. Just a simple design that’s created with thought and intention can take your new venture a long way.

If you’re earning money by providing a product or a service, you’re running a business. Full stop. It’s time to ditch this limiting belief and recognize that a small business, no matter how small, is still a worthwhile endeavor. You deserve to be taken seriously by others, and that begins with taking yourself seriously first. 

"I’m not going to be able to earn back the investment."

Another limiting belief that some business owners have is that investing in branding may not yield a return on investment (ROI). I get it: investing time and money into something that isn’t directly tied to generating income is hard, especially for small business owners who have limited resources. This is the biggest fear that holds everyone back from being able to grow their business and their brand.

While this limiting belief sounds like a math problem (the market isn’t doing too hot right now, have you seen the price of eggs recently?), it’s ultimately a belief about our ability to earn.

Our fears about our earning potential aren’t based on our concerns about the stock market. They’re about our own confidence to be successful, no matter the odds.

I don’t know about you, but this one hits home for me. However, once we realize that our fear of investing in our brands is ultimately a fear of investing in ourselves as confident, capable business owners, we can swap this limiting belief for a better one.

The truth is that branding is not an overnight process; it may take some time before you start seeing the results. However, a meaningfully-created brand that echoes your heart and soul actually sparks the confidence you need to believe you can be successful—confidence which, in turn, helps you show up as all you can be and leads to the ROI that you were hoping for when you entered into a rebrand.

"I don’t have enough time to focus on my branding"

If you’re like me, you probably are responsible for not just one aspect of your business, but a multitude of things. From my actual job (brand designer and strategist) to running a team, working on marketing efforts, to fielding client calls, even down to managing the finances… there’s just so much that you have to do to run a business. This may cause you to feel that branding is not a priority. However, branding is an essential aspect of your business that you can’t afford to overlook.

Behind the belief that we “don’t have time” to focus on an aspect of our business is the belief that we have to be doing it ourselves. 

The root of this limiting belief is the need to control—to do things our way, to have the ultimate say, to ensure things are done just so. Don’t worry, you’re definitely not alone in this. Letting go of the things I “don’t have time for” has been a real learning curve for me, too.

So when you truly don’t have time to focus on branding, the solution is to let go of the root need for control (for doing it yourself) and to find outside help. Just like payroll or taxes, branding is an essential part of your business that you need to have looked at. If you don’t have enough time, you may want to think about outsourcing that effort either by hiring someone to join your team internally, or by hiring a brand design agency to take that burden off your shoulders. I regularly outsource a portion of my work out to others on my team so that I’m able to focus on what I do best, and let me tell you, letting others help instead of trying to “do it myself” is a hard lesson in letting go of control! As a business owner, you deserve to spend time doing what you are most passionate about: making and selling your product or service and growing the business of your dreams.

"I’m too overwhelmed by branding"

Let’s be honest, branding can be an overwhelming process, especially if you have no prior experience with it. From market research, persona creation, brand identity design, to graphic design, the whole process requires a mix of marketing and design disciplines that you feel like you might not have. However, you don't need to be an expert in branding to create a successful brand. Instead, I would change the narrative of branding being too intimidating to an opportunity to learn.

A better way to reframe this belief is to see it as an opportunity to improve all areas of your business. That’s right, your brand really encompasses your entire business—the way you train your employees to interact with customers, how your business shows up on social media, and even how much you charge for your products or services are all impacted by your brand. I like to think of branding as a unique mixture of business acumen and psychology.

Branding can be intimidating to tackle yourself, so start by learning the signs it's time for a rebrand (plus six tips to help you through the branding process). But just like the previous limiting belief we discussed above, being able to ask for help is critical. In fact, hiring someone who will walk you through the process and take on the role of creative partner and educator will be more beneficial than just finding someone to execute on your vision. This way, you can outsource the process to someone else while still playing a part in what’s going on, arriving at the end product with an understanding of how and why your designer made the choices that they did. Ask questions, be a part of the journey of learning what branding is and how it impacts your business specifically. You’ll realize that branding isn’t as intimidating as you might think.

"I'm not creative enough to work on my branding."

I’ve heard many times over from business owners that they feel they’re not creative enough to work on their branding. However, their definition of “creative” seems to mean just being able to design a logo or choose color palettes. I would say that’s quite to the contrary!

The idea that you have to be gifted at visual design is not the point of being creative. After all, you created your business model upon a creative idea that you had. Sure, it’s okay to admit that you might not be someone who is great at picking color schemes or designing logos, but the important thing is that you are able to communicate the vision of your brand. As long as you can do that, you can hand the creativity off to someone else who can make your dream a reality.

As long as you can communicate the vision of your brand, you can hand the creativity off to someone else who can make your dream a reality.

As with others, the core of this limiting belief is that you have to do it all yourself or that you’re not [fill in the blank] enough to be successful. You are creative; but you can still be successful without being the most creative. Nobody can run your business like you can, and any ideas you bring to the table regarding the creativity of your brand are still valuable and insightful.

As we’ve seen through this article, these limiting beliefs are huge hurdles that can cause you to stumble along the way to creating your business. However, I’m here to remind you that you’ve been able to do it just by selling your product or service. So give yourself a pat on the back! Don’t be afraid of branding; just know that if you aren’t sure where to go, surround yourself with people who are passionate about branding, ask questions about what it is or what it isn’t. 

If you’re ready to take your brand to the next level and need some help, I’d love to get to know you better and learn more about your business. Schedule a free consultation and let’s see if we can work together on creating your brand’s story.