Balancing Multiple Brands VS Keeping It Under One Umbrella

You probably have a number of ideas for multiple products, services and business ideas, so should you be launching them separately under a network of different brands or keeping it all consolidated to one?

The lure of having multiple brands and companies can be strong and especially play to the entrepreneurs ego. However, as with everything else that determines your business success you should look to the real numbers before you go spinning off another half dozen ventures and identities.

There are advantages to having multiple brands and companies including added protection from liability and being able to leverage more relationships and revenue streams that may be hindered by your other services in some cases. However, trying to do too much too soon can certainly mean spreading yourself too thin and restricting the impact you can have in any given niche.

Keeping everything under the umbrella of one brand means saving on staff and being able to employ a higher quality team. For example, instead of having 2 companies which require 2 different managers and each with their own sub-managers and virtual assistants you could probably afford to hire a much higher qualified and talented person if you only needed one set. This will no doubt translate into better traction, faster speed to market and a superior rate of growth, while keeping up the quality.

On top of this you will absolutely be able to make a bigger impact with your marketing if you focus it all on one brand. Between the cost of marketing, spending time on strategy and developing branding materials you are likely to see the best ROI if it is all laser targeted on one single market segment.

Also consider the difference multiple brands will have on your social media. Isn’t it better to have one brand which has 100,000 Twitter and Facebook followers and fans than several with only a few thousand each? Which is going to be worth more and build momentum faster?

On this note, perhaps building your personal brand first is the real key. With a highly visible and respected personal brand you can then lend your name to a multitude of products and services. This makes it easy to promote them, and in many cases you will find that the strength of your personal brand means being able to spin off new items without having to create them from scratch.

If you take note of some of the most successful start ups of recent years they have all begun with small products and services and worked their way up the food chain. The more followers of their brand that they have and the more trust they have built the easier it is to move high ticket items. Then if you really want to branch out and spin off new divisions you will likely find it much easier later.

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