Some businesses are purely financial ventures. The people who run them are concerned, first and foremost, with turning a profit, and the actual technicalities of the business are all but meaningless — calculated only for their capacity to be potentially profitable. If one business venture fails, the aspiring entrepreneurial icon will move on to the next, often in a completely different industry.

Then again, some businesses are first and foremost passion projects — business ventures which reflect a deep and genuine passion on the part of the person who sets up the business. Yoga businesses a great example of this sort of business model. With passion projects, those who run them obviously want to make a profit, but the primary reason for developing the particular business in question is that it is believed to be genuinely meaningful.

For the people running these businesses, the idea often develops that the purity and greatness of the underlying concept should shine through and stand on its own merit, and there is sometimes a reluctance to spend money on developing your professional brand image.

Sometimes, however, you do need to invest in brand development, and this doesn’t have to be seen as a corruption of the purity of your vision.

Here are some questions to ask yourself, to work out whether it’s time to spend more money developing your brand image or not

Does the “cheap” option significantly interfere with client communication or the quality of the client’s experience?

No matter how receptive a client may initially be to the basic idea underlying your business, you can be sure that if you make things too difficult and uncomfortable for them, they will either decide not to use your services after all, or else will only use them once and then keep a good distance in future.

So, just what kinds of things can significantly interfere with the quality of a client’s experience, or their ability to communicate with you?

Well, a website that lags aggressively and is all but unusable is one example, and also one of the more common problems with a cheap web host. Having a contact number that you never answer would be another example of the kind of roadblock which could easily lose you the respect of your customers.

Try to put yourself in the shoes of one of your target customers, and then review your website and services ruthlessly. Where are the stumbling blocks that should be avoided?

Are you giving off a distinctly “amateurish” vibe?

Now and then a new entrepreneur, taken over by a sudden burst of passion and inspiration, will cobble together a website for a new business within minutes, using a free hosting platform and template, a cell-phone selfie, and landing page copy that reads like a love letter.

The problem is, that this approach is always detrimental when it comes to nurturing any aura of professionalism whatsoever.

This approach rarely ever comes off as “authentic” in any meaningful way, and far more often comes off as a sign that the person running the business doesn’t really know what they’re doing, doesn’t have a good professional demeanour or track record, and is essentially trying their luck.

If, upon honest reflection, you have reason to suspect that you’re giving off an amateurish vibe, it’s usually a sign that you need to invest some money in optimizing your image, whether that means hiring a professional web designer, photographer, copywriter, or all of the above.

Are there popular avenues of conversation and marketing that you’re missing out on?

This point varies somewhat from industry to industry, but ask yourself the simple question — is there a popular avenue of conversation or marketing, which is becoming increasingly dominant in your industry, and which you’re missing out on, primarily for the reason that you’re unwilling to make the necessary financial investments to get on board?

It might be that all of the most successful people in your industry have started to include a series of vlogs or instructional videos on their sites, and you’re holding back and not getting involved, because of the initial costs of buying yourself a decent camera and the other required tools for the job.

Or, maybe, there’s strong evidence that running a regular podcast could make all the difference, but you’re opting instead to hold off on this, too, once again because of your reservations about spending the money required to obtain a suitable microphone?

These are just two examples, but there are many ways in which you might find yourself left behind industry norms and best practices due to an unwillingness to spend money.

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