The other day I got my sewing machine out. The first time in YEARS (due to the foot going missing and it taking me that long to buy a new one..) I had decided to make some reusable hankies – a nice easy task. Turns out you can get 6 good size hankies out of a shirt with plenty left over, so I made a dress for my daughters bear out of one of the cuffs and a matching pair of pyjamas too! I’m still feeling chuffed with myself 🙂
Another thing that my husband and I made recently was a planter made from some pallets. We had to break the pallets up first (which actually snapped a spade, thankfully it was a spare!) and pull out the nails (my job) before we could put it together. That was fun to do and now the tomato plants have a lovely place to live.
These involved rescuing things. A shirt and a pallet. Things that might have just been chucked away.
I like rescuing things. Taking things we already have and using them differently. Repurposing them. I wrote a whole post about repurposing content recently – which I’m going to repurpose again now by including a link for you to follow so you can go and find out that. Click here 😉
Repurposing isn’t just for content. It’s great for all the parts of your brand. What do you already have that you’re not using? What could you rescue from the things you’ve been using/ posting/ doing that will help to grow your brand? How can you make more from something you are already doing?
Revisit
Right now, go and take a look at what you have. Go back in time. Take a look at the files you saved a few years ago. Scroll through your social feeds and see what you USED to post. Especially at times when you know your business was doing particularly well or you were doing something really exciting – maybe something that you’d like to redo. What sort of things were you sharing? Could you share them again? Did you have things going on with your visuals that you’re not doing now but maybe you should? For example, I’ve known for a long time that I wanted to bring illustration back as a part of my brand image, and it’s taken me up until last week to finally reintroduce it – and I love how it looks! I really enjoyed drawing all of those plants, and I’ve had some lovely comments from people to say that they love it too. Hurray! It’s not the same as it used to be – I’ve gone with hand drawn sketches where in the past I had computer created illustrations -I’ve rescued something that makes me different to other designers and brought it back into my visuals.
Rescue
Maybe in the past you used a certain colour that you’ve ditched but now is the time to bring it back again.
Maybe you used a certain font that you stopped using, perhaps you don’t want to use exactly the same one but you like the style of it so you could go and find a similar font that does a little bit more for you.
Perhaps you were using a pattern or a series of icons and you’ve stopped using them. You might not even have done this on purpose. Using them just dropped off, so now you could bring them back in. Maybe you stopped using them because the didn’t look right, but if you start using them in a slightly different way then you can see that they would work for you again.
Maybe you used to be really consistent in how your imagery looked but you got lazy and now you realise that you can take aspects of what you did before and develop a new consistent style which fits where you are in your business now.
It’s easy to get lazy (or maybe too busy to do things properly) – and sometimes we need to go and check in at where we were to remind us to get back on track. At the beginning of this post I said the foot of my sewing machine had gone missing and it had taken me a long time to buy a new one. Sometimes we lose what we should be doing and we just need a bit of time to evaluate everything and get it sorted out.
Don’t forget to pay attention to the things that you’re NOT doing too. This is a wonderful opportunity so see how your brand has grown and evolved!
Realise
It may also be that you’ve been doing something already but hadn’t given it much thought so it’s been a bit sporadic and now you realise that you’ve been doing that thing and you want to keep doing it, you can start being more intentional about it. You might have added a new colour or started using a different style of photograph. Perhaps you’ve been printing on recycled paper and not considered that you could use this as part of your brand message. Perhaps you send a thank you card to people when they recommend you but you realise that you could still do this but make more of it! There is always room for improvement, so take a look at the great things that you are doing in your business – visual and non-visual – and see if there’s any places where you can be communicating your brand better, being more consistent or adding to your message in some way.
This is a chance to look at what you do for your brand, see how it measures up against your values and your purpose and make it better, perhaps rescuing something that you’ve forgotten about as you go.
What can you do?
Amy Purdie is the founder of Whiteacres (where you are now) she can help your business become irresistible to your ideal clients so that they can’t wait to work with you.
Amy has been enjoying designing logos, brand identities, illustration, print work and websites – since 2007 fuelled mainly by tea and chocolate.