Many businesses are in what I would call a brand crisis. They don’t have an effective brand story, brand position, and brand journey. Have you ever heard of these terms before? It’s okay if you haven’t. If you’re a business owner or an entrepreneur, you’re probably so focused on running your business that your last thought is related to your brand story, brand position, and brand journey.

However, I would argue, if you ever want your brand to stand apart from the rest, which I would hope you do, then these three areas are of utmost importance to prevent your business from failing. These are three key areas that gives clarity to your business by sharing with people who you are, what you do, how you do it, why you do it, and how you help make the lives of people better. If these areas aren’t clear to current and potential customers, it gives rise to many of the common challenges businesses face, and if they aren’t properly addressed, it will result in the failure of the business.

A successful company takes the time to discover who they are, craft what they do and why they do it, and shares that information effectively with their target demographic. This can be accomplished by implementing your brand story, brand position, and brand journey. Every successful company throughout history has used this process of moving a customer from first interaction to becoming a raving fan. For the sake of reference, think of brands like Apple, Google, Beats, Tesla, etc. Every one of these recognizable brands has an easily definable brand story, brand position, and brand journey.

What’s yours?

In this article we are going to share some of the most common reasons why businesses fail and how you can prevent them and move forward towards accomplishing success in your business. However, before you attain success, you’ve got to have the brand story, brand position, and brand journey empowering your growth.

Yes, It’s True: 8 Out of 10 Businesses Do Fail

The last time I checked Forbes, they said that 8 out of 10 businesses fail! That’s a tough statistic to swallow. According to the article, the failure of a business is caused by one or more of five particular reasons.

And these reasons are:

1. Not really in touch with customers through deep dialogue.
2. No real differentiation in the market (Lack of true value proposition)
3. Failure to communicate value proposition in a clear, concise, and compelling fashion
4. Leadership breakdown at the top (otherwise known as founder dysfunction)
5. Inability to nail a profitable business model with proven revenue streams.

Do you recognize any trends at all in these five reasons?

Every one of these five reasons can fit into the areas of brand story, brand position, and brand journey.

These Are Symptoms Not the Underlying Disease

These five reasons for business failure provide some insights into why businesses fail. However, they are only symptoms of the underlying disease that plagues many brands. This disease is caused by the misalignment of brand story, brand position, and brand journey. In other words, it’s a misalignment of who is behind the business (the leaders and teams), what and how the business does what it does, and how it interacts with and delivers value to its customers.

A misalignment in one or more of these areas creates the presentable symptoms that can snowball into causing the death of the business. Think about the three areas of brand story, brand position, and brand journey as spokes within the wheel of a bicycle. If one or two of your spokes are out of alignment it’s a bumpy ride. If three or more of your spokes are out of alignment you can’t move the wheel forward. Your business is like the wheel of that bicycle, the brand wheel, and the spokes of the wheel are your brand story, brand position, and brand journey. Now ask yourself, what’s the condition of your brand wheel?

So, You May Be Wondering, What’s This Mean for My Business?

The good news is that each of these five reasons of failure mentioned from Forbes can not only be solved, but you can use this as a springboard for propelling your business towards another level of growth.

So what can you do?

Begin by going through a brand discovery process that allows you to create and grow your story.

This means answering questions like:

• Who am I?
• Why do I do what I do?
• How am I different from other people in my space?
• Why does my product, service, or idea matter?

The next step is your brand position. You can start by answering questions like:

• What niche is most of my success coming from?
• How can I focus more on that particular niche?
• Why is my solution better than anything out there?
• How can I improve my product, service, or idea even more?

The final step is your brand journey. You can start by answering questions like:

• How do I effectively communicate my story with my customers?
• Where and how will my target customer connect with me and my business?
• What is the experience or the journey that I want to move my customers through when interacting with my business from first interaction to becoming a raving fan?

So what do you do after answering these questions?

You implement them into your organizational strategy. You use the answers of these questions to create your Brand Script, a document that serves as the guidestone of the past, present, and future for guiding your entire business.

Will change happen overnight? Probably not, but how do you learn or improve at anything? You take strategic steps from where you are to where you want to go. You most likely seek out a trusted guide and mentor who’s in a similar position, or been in a similar position, to guide you from where you are to where you want to go. If you want success for you and your business, you want to go from brand discovery to brand notoriety.

And trust me, you can do it.

You can be one of the two out of ten businesses who not only survives but thrives.

I love working with incredible leaders and businesses to help them move from brand discovery to brand notoriety. Do you want your business to stick out from the crowd and be more successful? Then I would love to work with you and help you along your journey.

As a consultant, digital marketer, and growth strategist, I’ve had the privilege of working with and empowering brands like the John Maxwell Company, Ziglar Inc., Ziglar Family, The Congressional Prayer Caucus, The America Conservancy, a Shark from Shark Tank, and many other individuals and organizations.

I love coming alongside amazing businesses and people just like you. My team’s goal is to breathe life into your brand through our proprietary method of creating, developing, and communicating who you are, what you do, how you do it, why you do it, and how you can positively impact people.

My focus is on serving others with a foundation of trust, relationships, and integrity. I’m also focused on helping individuals and brands like you prosper by creating and delivering innovative solutions with excellence, care, and the utmost respect.

Have any questions, comments, or concerns? Feel free to let me know in the comment section below, and I’ll do my best to respond to you in a timely fashion.

Feel free to reach out to me and get a free consultation by emailing me at jason@jasonfleagle.com or submitting my contact form here. I look forward to getting to know you, hearing your story, and helping your business prevent failure and empowering you for growth.

What’s some ways you believe businesses succeed?

Tell me in the comment section below!

Jason Fleagle

Jason Fleagle, is a business success consultant, digital marketer, content creator, and an energetic speaker. Jason helps you stand out from the crowd, make more money, and deliver more value to the people you serve. Jason is the Founder of the international blogging platform Converge, the brand consulting company Catalyst Growth Group, and the Co-Host of the entrepreneur and business focused Grow Like a Pro Show. Jason has worked with for-profit and non-profit brands at all levels like America Conservancy, American Association of Evangelicals, Christians for a Sustainable Economy, The Congressional Prayer Caucus, The John Maxwell Company, Ziglar Inc., Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank, and many others. You can connect with Jason at TheJasonFleagle.com