How To Send Your Brand to College

Your startup is your baby, we know, but what happens when you, the parent, smothers it, tells it how to look and think and speak? What if you homeschooled your baby until 22? It happens. It’s ugly. Your brand needs a variety of influences to grow into its best self. It has to go to college. And that college is a branding agency.

We say college because you’ve already gotten it through its early years. It’s been informed for better and worse by your intentions for it, but now it’s time for the brand to discover what it wants/what the market opportunity dictates. It’s time to choose its major, or, more accurately, for its major to choose it, so be ready if your baby doesn’t become the doctor you dreamed it would.

Yes, you were a ton of help with your baby’s third-grade art project—your in-house logo was fabulous—but now that you’re actually paying your teachers, you might as well let the professionals do the heavy lifting. And the light lifting. Don’t touch anything, OK? Just sit there.

But don’t disappear! Professors have a lot of students, so if your baby isn’t getting the attention it needs, speak up, be the squeaky wheel until your baby is well greased. But also remember that Professors are people, too, and abusing them won’t do your baby any favors.

Last but not least, pay tuition on time. Nothing is more uncomfortable, for everyone involved than having your baby pulled out of class. So pay close attention to the financial agreement before signing, and negotiate then, if necessary, instead of the later, because “working something out” after-the-fact doesn’t really work.