Inside a 5-Figure Rebrand & How It Changed My Business

Have you been wondering if it’s time to invest in a custom brand for your design firm, or a custom rebrand?

I’ll tell it to you straight — it’s not for the faint of heart. Branding your business with a professional means diving in deep to your mission and values. It means a significant monetary investment. It means time spent waiting for your brand designer to work their creative magic, no matter how excited and impatient you are.

In fact, this process should sound familiar to you… this is exactly what your clients experience when you design a home for them! It’s such a special, creative, meaningful, and rewarding process. In case you’re considering a custom brand, I want to share my experience with you to show you what’s possible.

This will be my personal experience, but I can also tell you that I’ve seen several of our clients undergo rebrands over the last 3 years, and their results are equally impressive. I’m talking about doubled revenue, solid bookings several months out, and massive, jaw-dropping growth.

So, let’s talk about the specifics:

• What does custom branding typically include?
• Why did I decide to invest in a rebrand for O&B? Why now?
• What results did I see in the numbers?
• What results did our clients see?
• How did I personally grow or change from this experience?

What does a custom brand typically include?

For O&B’s rebrand, I worked with Ariel Garcia of The Blog Stop. We met each other through a mutual client, and I was immediately impressed by her creativity and ingenuity. When our mutual client told me that she was the perfect blend of “creative artist and savvy business woman,” I knew I had found my match. I know I’m a writer, but I am also an artist at heart (and so are our clients). I wanted something that felt personal, unique, and experiential.

Ariel and her team helped me with:

• Brand strategy — so how O&B is positioned in the market
• A branded client experience
• Logo design
• Website design
• Collateral design (i.e. all marketing materials, lead magnets, etc.)
• Incorporating photos from my new brand photoshoot (which I did with Lovisa Photo in Orange, CA)

In other words, the works. 

Why did I decide it was the right time to invest in a rebrand?

Between you and me, rebranding my business was a terrifying decision to make. At the time, I had never invested a five-figure dollar amount in anything. (My husband joked that I could have bought a car with that money! You’re also probably laughing because that could be… a single, high-quality sofa.)

The other side of my fear was the fact that I was already running a successful, growing business. I had no guarantee that a custom brand would elevate this growth beyond what I was already seeing.

So why did I do it? How did I decide it was right and that I’d make back my investment? Here’s a look inside my brain at the time. Maybe you’ve had these thoughts at some point, too?

1. I felt like I was on the verge of massive business growth, but that I was the one holding it back.

2. I had almost reached O&B’s 3-year mark, and my DIY brand felt too juvenile for the quality of work we were (are) providing and the direction I wanted my business to go.

3. My business’s previous brand experience did not feel cohesive — it changed based on whatever resonated with me that month. (Maybe you can relate to designing your own home? So much harder and more indecisive than when doing it for a client!)

4. I felt like I was too close to my business to see it clearly, and I was ready for a professional to do the stand-up job I couldn’t. 

5. Last but not least, I wanted something different and personal. I wanted an aesthetic that felt so uniquely me that it might evolve with me over the years, but it would never go out of style. (Like a forever home, I wanted this to be the bedrock of my forever website!)

What results did I see in the numbers and business growth?

I recently did an interview with The Blog Stop, and to be truly helpful (ladies helping ladies!), I started digging up the statistics. I almost fell off my chair when I realized what had been achieved!

Here are the stats, and these are not at all massaged:

Investment: 5 figures

Project Start: April 1st, 2020

Project Launch: September 1st, 2020

Case Study: March 1st, 2021 (6 months later)

Results:

• Raised service prices by 25%-50% with zero negative impact
• Nearly doubled my client roster within 6 months
• Monthly revenue increased 50% within 3 months
• Recouped my total investment within 3 months, and…
• Reinvested the profit into growing our team from 2 to 5 members in 5 months

What results did our clients see?

As I quickly realized when working with Ariel, a great custom brand is not just about attracting new clients into your business. It’s also about the experience your clients have with you. Together, we looked at how O&B was serving interior designers and what we could do to make that process even better for them. We…

• Expanded our service offerings
• Created a much clearer and more streamlined onboarding process
• Refined and upleveled our internal processes for content creation, which meant producing even higher quality content

With the resulting growth in our team, we’re also able to provide:

• Systematized workflows and better/faster service
• More creative minds to collaborate on their projects
• Not to mention all of the wisdom that I’ve gained from this experience and can impart to clients when discussing content strategy (which is aligned closely with business strategy)

Not to mention the personal growth…

What results did I personally experience?

Hands down, the most unexpected result of this whole process was what I personally experienced. It absolutely transformed my self-perception and confidence. I thought I was a fairly confident person before, but the difference is night and day. 

WITH CLIENTS

The same can be said for my relationships with clients. I feel that I’ve finally taken a seat at the table. The chair was there all the time, but with many of our clients running 7-figure design firms (all of which have a killer brand, by the way), my previous DIY site made me feel like I didn’t belong. Now, with an improved client experience, higher-end product, and a custom brand founded on my personal values, I LOVE showing up for our clients even more and feel secure in the impact we’re having on their businesses!

WITH MY TEAM

I’ve also evolved as the leader of my business. I now have time and make time to develop leadership skills, get creative, and step up as a thought leader in our industry. I love having a diverse, all-women team that works together for our clients and supports each other’s dreams. Some are parents, some are fellow entrepreneurs, and all are chasing their passions, their way. That is so important and meaningful to me.

AT HOME

I have more respect for myself, and I feel like a greater contributor to our household income — even though my personal salary hasn’t increased. I feel more grounded in my relationships, even in my relationship with my husband. That sounds so weird to say, but when positive change happens from within, it affects everything for the better. We have both been through a lot in the past year, and every experience, including this rebrand experience that scared me to the marrow of my bones and totally panned out, has made us stronger.

Who knew a custom brand could lead to all this? 

So, have I finally achieved the freedom in my business that I’m always talking about? In some ways, yes. In some ways, no. It’s a moving target and always will be as my life and business changes.

For now, I am so happy to revel in the projects our amazing clients keep sending our way and work as a team to support our fellow female entrepreneurs. Someday, if I start a family of my own, my role might change a bit. And that’s okay. That’s the beauty of running your own business. That’s the beauty of a brand steeped in your personal values.

It grows with you, for you, and beyond just you.

Xoxo,
Jaquilyn