#BrandInMinutes: An Interview With James Chapman, Bella Bathrooms

In today's interconnected world, the premise of brand-building gets increasingly broader and more hazy. You may be familiar with the term "brand," but do you know what it takes to build one.

Building a brand is a journey of self-awareness, conviction, and finding yourself in your business. Whether you're a CEO, a marketing expert, a freelancer, or even a regular joe, if you want to make an impact, you need to get your branding right.

Every business name and logo you see today is a product of labor-intensive branding.

The business card you received at that executive function didn’t just appear out of thin air. Someone put immense thought and heart into its design before deciding to hand it out for the world to see.

As an entrepreneur, building a brand for your business is a never-ending effort. But know this: The companies that invest in establishing great brands have a substantial competitive edge.

While the rewards are sweet, the journey to get there rarely is. But we want to change that.

Branding can be fun, quick, and easy with #BrandInMinutes

With our Brand Plan, it’s simpler than ever to #BrandInMinutes with our collection of professional branding templates and tools to help you launch the brand you’ve dreamt of for so long.

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The only way to understand the impact of having a #BrandInMinutes is to take a dive into the stories of entrepreneurs who have had to make it happen on their own.

And James Chapman of Bella Bathrooms is the perfect example.

We spoke to James about his journey in building his brand for Bella Bathrooms.

Hopefully, his inspiring story can inspire new entrepreneurs, such as you, to take the leap and get your businesses out there.

1. Tell us about your business.

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Bella Bathrooms is an industry that sells bathroom-related products.

Since I was a previous plumber, I decided to venture into bathroom-related products and business because this is where my expertise is and I'm knowledgeable enough in this field.

Yes, it was challenging at first, especially the decision-making aspects, but since my family supported me in starting this business, I was able to take my leap.

I started planning on this business when I realized there were more opportunities in this business that were not yet fully explored and discovered by other companies.

2. How did you go about building a brand for your business?

We decided to employ a designer for our logo design process since it is not part of our expertise, so we hired an expert for it instead.

We just provide the instructions and laid-out plans and let the expert do his work. We don't have any mugs or branded stationery.

However, we do have business cards and email signatures, and just like what we did with our logo, we just employ an external agency to work for us and just provide instructions because we don't have an internal team to work with it.

Building our brand was carefully planned out by our team. It was indeed time-consuming, but it was worth it in the long run. Although we needed external assistance to create it, all the ideas were from the team discussion and planning.

Our team needed to develop it to know the core and foundation of our business, and we'll know how to manage it if things get rough, but building the site and logo requires external help to be realized.

3. In your opinion, how important is it for a business to build a credible brand?

It aided in developing customer trust in our brand and generating leads.

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Customers don't just buy brands they've never heard of, especially today since scammers are so popular; instead, they look for reliable brands they can trust with their money, the product, and any issues that may arise, which is why branding is so crucial in every business.

4. How did you get your first customers?

Our company began with a brick-and-mortar location before expanding to online platforms. So, our first customers were our relatives and friends, whom we were able to inform about our new business.

We started expanding online after we could fully establish our physical store, to serve those customers who couldn't physically visit us.

It was not easy at first, especially getting your brand heard in the market because you are still new and developing. However, we used old-school methods like handing out flyers, placing ads in newspapers, and running magazine campaigns.

A tip I can give to other businesses is that they should utilize all available resources and utilize the trend in their brand marketing strategy so that they'll be able to allow their brand voice to be heard in the market.

5. What are your future plans with respect to building your business?

We are scheduled to open more trade counters and showrooms due to our previous tremendous success. This will allow customers to see the top quality of the bathroom products we are selling.

We are also continuously developing our website to make the process of locating items and placing orders simple and effortless. The addition of the helpful search bar also helps to look for items, inspiration, and even advice from our handy blog section.

Over To You

Branding has no exact formula to it, but we do know there are a few key characteristics impactful brands have in common.

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And it might be tempting to look at the successful businesses and say, “I’ll take that brand, please!” But what makes a brand work is how it speaks to you.

What makes your business authentically you? Businesses that manage to be true to who they are, what they do, and why they do it are able to create lasting, evolving connections with their audiences. This authenticity is the core of your branding.

What are you waiting for? Shine bright and #BrandInMinutes today!