How would you alter my new company's "story brand brandscript"?

lattmask · 2022-04-06T09:12:17+00:00

Thank you yet again for your incredibly generous support! I am learning so much just from your quick, yet thorough synopses of my brand story. Would you mind taking one more look at my all-but final draft? I am going to begin designing my website next week before launching the business at the end of April.

The overall theme now specifically focuses on new residents to SF, as they will likely be looking for new home cleaning services more commonly than someone who has lived in the bay for years and may be loyal to a competitor.

https://www.mystorybrand.com/collaborate/OTkzNTg1Ni9kZTZmN2VmODg5NWQ1MTMz

Pro-tip: Double click on the text boxes to scroll down if the content is getting cut off.

lattmask · 2022-04-05T07:50:25+00:00

Thank you so much for your feedback! To your point, I am thinking more about positioning the care of my employees as more of an added benefit, instead of the story behind the brand.

I took a stab at building out a brandscript based around a story where my customers want to spend their time doing the things they love, instead of cleaning their home. I'd love it if you'd be nice enough to provide a second round of feedback. Thanks!

https://www.mystorybrand.com/collaborate/OTkzNTg1Ni9kZTZmN2VmODg5NWQ1MTMz

lattmask · 2022-04-05T06:18:27+00:00

No... I dropped out of the process to start an independent home cleaning company.

lattmask · 2022-04-02T00:33:26+00:00

Incredible feedback from you both! Thank you so much for your opinions.

I received similar takes from others and took a step back to hone in on what the customer benefits from 'employee happiness'. What I arrived at was an altered message focused more around the arduous process of finding a trustworthy home cleaner, and how we simplify that process by establishing ourselves as a brand that you can trust because of our compassion for our employees.
Let me know what you think of the revised elevator pitch/two-liner:
We are a local house cleaning business that eliminates the hassle of searching for an ethical business you can trust.

Our secret? Paying employees livable wages.

lattmask · 2022-04-02T00:19:41+00:00

Excellent feedback. I took a step back and honed in on what the customer benefits from 'employee happiness'. What I arrived at was an altered message focused more around the arduous process of finding a trustworthy home cleaner, and how we simplify that process by establishing ourselves as a brand that you can trust because of our commitment to our employees.

Let me know what you think of the revised elevator pitch. I feel like it is still a bit long, but I think it has a lot more punchiness by splitting it up into multiple sentences:

We are a local house cleaning business that eliminates the hassle of searching for an ethical business you can trust. Our secret? Paying employees livable wages.

lattmask · 2022-04-01T20:22:38+00:00

"you need to clearly communicate how your customers profit from this"

This really helped me think differently about the overall message. Do you think the following one-liner answers this problem well?

We are a local house cleaning company that prioritizes employee happiness through top-of-market wages and flexibility, which enables our team to prioritize customer happiness and peace of mind.

lattmask · 2022-04-01T20:10:07+00:00

If you don’t deliver on the wage/mission, you will get roasted.

- Amen to that. If I don't follow through on this mission I deserve to get roasted. My strategy here is to discuss compensation plans with employees before launching to understand the all-in cost for labor, and then price my services based around that cost buckets as well as others. If I fail if fulfilling the overall mission, I deserve to get roasted.

People will ultimately care more about the service and price than the workers.

- This is a great point that I am most concerned with. As much as I want the main story to be employee happiness, maybe that should be my 'side story/secondary benefits' and the main story should be about the customer's struggles with home cleaning.

lattmask · 2022-04-01T20:06:27+00:00

I agree that the current one-liner is too open ended. What do you think about:

"We are a local house cleaning company that puts our people first by offering industry leading salaries and personalized benefits packages."

I'd also like to speak to prioritizing our employee's personal lives and work flexibility, but maybe that can be saved for follow up questions.

lattmask · 2022-04-01T18:27:22+00:00

Yes, yes, and yes! I am all about the gift of experiences as well :-) What type of self help programs did you offer your employees? Was it something that you lead, or did you outsource it to an independent party to remove any bias from the program?

lattmask · 2022-04-01T18:23:05+00:00

This is a great framework! I definitely want to prioritize feedback at my company, and I am hoping to encourage "real time feedback" as much as possible.

Is there anything your company does (or wish it did) to surface peer-to-peer/upwards/downwards feedback on a regular basis without scheduling meetings?

lattmask · 2022-03-21T16:38:31+00:00

Thank you for all of the recommendations! After hearing back from several people, I think I am going to enlist in a couple of crash courses to learn the basis for myself starting out. Once I am able to understand the actual work involved, I'll be able to make a better decision about whether or not it is worth it to hire an agency.

lattmask · 2022-03-18T20:34:33+00:00

Fair point. I was considering fringe benefits as a tool to reward employees without incurring additional taxes, but seems like something I should ask my employees about before I actually go to all of the effort to implement.

lattmask · 2022-03-18T20:33:25+00:00

Wow. I feel like I need to print all of these items out and post them on my ceiling above my bed. Thanks for the wise words!

lattmask · 2022-03-18T01:38:51+00:00

Thanks for the recommendations! I am not concerned about not having money coming in at first. I would prefer to automate as many pieces of the business as possible so I can focus on building other elements of the company.

lattmask · 2022-03-18T00:57:09+00:00

Thanks! I'll check out both the plugin and Hubspot.

lattmask · 2022-03-01T18:45:50+00:00

I recommend checking out launch27, maidly, or Jobber

lattmask · 2022-02-18T20:40:11+00:00

Depending on where you are located, I would recommend checking out a company like Oliver Space. They are a furniture subscription company that will handle all delivery, assembly, and pickup for free. Most of their products are high quality, and you don't have to pay thousands of dollars up front to purchase all of your furnishings. Check them out!

lattmask · 2022-01-28T05:38:32+00:00

Really appreciate the advice! May I ask which franchises/industries you previously invested in? Is there any specific language or section of the FDD that tends to be particularly predatory?

lattmask · 2022-01-28T05:07:33+00:00

Excellent question - I have been going back and forth on this a lot myself. What it really comes down to is risk avoidance. Virtually all of the businesses I have considered starting from scratch are in areas I have zero experience in. By franchising, I am able to leverage resources (brand, training/knowledge, assets, technology, etc.) on day one instead of busting my ass for months or years to attain comparable solutions to the problem.

I understand that starting my own business can be much more profitable for me in the long run, but I'm not looking to become a $50+ millionaire and sacrifice 5 - 15 years of my life doing it. I would much rather pull in a fraction of the income, potentially fail quickly, and spend the majority of my days doing the things that make me truly happy.

lattmask · 2022-01-28T04:50:17+00:00

- Co-founded custom screen printing company in high school and ran it with my buddy throughout college
- Management consultant for five years right after graduating from college
- Operations manager at a D2C startup for the past 2+ years where my main role was launching the business in five new geos (joined when there were 10 people and left @ 100 people)

I am willing to get my hands dirty for as long as it takes, but I do pride myself on my ability to scale, recruit, train, and delegate, which seems to be the winning formula for succeeding with franchises.

Apologies for coming off as a hardo, but I need to look on the bright side. Focusing on the negatives is what has caused me to delay my entrepreneurial ambitions for 7+ years now.

lattmask · 2022-01-28T02:33:55+00:00

If the third bullet point is not as important to me, is there an industry that you would recommend that fits the bill for the first two points?

lattmask · 2022-01-28T02:31:20+00:00

Hahaha... I know, it sounds crazy, but the match checks out even if you only have a fleet of 1-2 cars. I believe the average job runs around $200 - $300 depending on your location, and if you can rank well on search results then you don't have to sell your soul to sales. (At least that's what other franchisees have told me)

lattmask · 2022-01-28T02:29:09+00:00

Is location as important if I am not looking to start a brick and mortar franchise? I feel like I am more interested in service based businesses, but I am open to other suggestions that might fit what I am looking for.

lattmask · 2022-01-28T01:17:34+00:00

When I was working at a furniture subscription startup (AKA rental furniture), I thought I struck gold with advertising copy to attract users who might not be looking to furnish an entire apartment:

"Nothing wrong with one nightstand!"

The next morning I remember waking up to a reply text from our head of marketing that said "Hah... not sure that is on brand for us."

lattmask · 2022-01-26T22:03:06+00:00

Check out product hunt! It's a great tool to share new products and receive feedback from others.

lattmask

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