I’ve spent years as an online entrepreneur and cycled through a handful of websites, but I’m almost ashamed to say that it wasn’t until I started The Creative Boss that I even discovered what a brand style guide was.

Seriously, I had no clue.

I knew the basics – a logo and consistent fonts and colors.

It wasn’t until later that I realized the importance of having a brand style guide saved in an organized file in case I needed to hand it off to someone else, or I needed a quick reference when creating something for my brand.

So, what the heck is a brand style guide?

Basically, it is a guide that you create where you keep your logo(s), fonts, color palette, and other crucial elements of your brand’s image.

But as I’ve learned, there’s much more to it.

My brand style guide is the foundation of my brand and has revolutionized my business. I’m able to save time, create visual consistency, and ensure immediate recognition of my brand by having all my assets organized in a single document.

Why does having a brand style guide REALLY matter?

When you’re starting out, it makes creating graphics or referencing your color palette easy-breezy by having all your style elements in one place.

Now, let’s go on an adventure – better yet, let’s time travel!

We’ve landed a year or so down the road, and your business is booming.

Remember this isn’t a fantasy – it just hasn’t happened yet.

So, business is good and you’re incredibly busy, so you decide to hire a VA to your team to handle your social media and create your blog post graphics.

What?! That is so awesome – I know. Your business is taking off, and you’re ready to hand over these tasks so you can focus on other projects. But you don’t have time for the other projects when you’re constantly discussing design elements with your VA, nor are they able to work efficiently when they’re scrambling to hunt down patterns and fonts and color codes.

Ain’t nobody got time for that! Time is money and you have deadlines to meet.

This is where your brand style guide comes in. You send it to them along with the tasks you need completed. Now they can pull style elements from the guide any time they have a new project for you, accomplish it in record time, and don’t have to email you six times to get all the information they need to do it.

#EpicWinning

Okay, Hermione, get your time-turner back out, and let’s rewind back to the present where you’re still soloing your entrepreneur gig. And that’s okay; however, you have almost no time to spend on tasks.

So, what are you to do? Spend an hour searching through files trying to find where you saved your color codes? Hello - #TimeSuck!

Well, not today. You now have a brand style guide, so you can quickly jump to that document and grab those assets as you need them. Simply paste into the graphic you’re creating, type some text, hit save, and you’re done.

Go grab a glass of wine; you deserve it, but #DrinkResponsibly

So, does having a brand style guide really matter? Hell yes, it does! Especially if you value your time.

What exactly do I USE a brand style guide for?

Okay, you know you need a brand style guide, and you know that it saves you time and makes running your business a hell of a lot easier. But what exactly do you do with it? Well, just about anything from streamlining the process of creating graphics for blog posts to creating a brand-new course.

Whoa – that escalated quickly. But – how freaking exciting! – let’s say you are creating a course. You need it to stylistically align with your brand, so students will instantly recognize your look and your voice, and they’ll associate your brand with VALUE.

You can pull any asset from your style guide and incorporate it into your product which makes designing them ridiculously easy because you’re no longer searching for the perfect color palette and font combination every time. Now that everything is in one place, you can be sure all your design elements will be consistent with everything you create.

Pretty awesome, huh? But wait…

There’s more!

Your branding style guide is pretty much limitless – it’s all up to you. You can include, not only the visual elements, but anything else you want.

You can save hashtags to quickly copy-and-paste to your social media posts. In addition, you can include words, phrases, slogans, or taglines to incorporate into your brand. For example, I frequently use the term “ridiculously easy,” and I do it intentionally. By associating this phrase with my brand, you instantly know that whatever product or service I’m presenting will be easy to use. You’ll know that it will be broken down into steps eliminating all the complicated fluff, so regardless of your tech knowledge or skillset, you’ll be on the fast-track to success. “Fast-track” being another one of my key phrases that reiterates my use of simple formulas.

See what I did there? I used two of my key phrases.

Everything you include in your brand style guide will allow you to seamlessly blend your brand into different platforms – your website, emails, social media, invoices, and more – by using the same cohesive elements. The best part is it can grow as your business does. Add things. Take them away. Evolve them.

By now, I bet you’re curious how little ‘ole you can create your own brand style guide, so let’s move on and I’ll show you.

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How do I CREATE a brand style guide?

If you’ve gotten this far, I’ve probably convinced you that you need a style guide, so you’re ready to create one.

Sweet! This is exciting.

First, let me say, there’s no right or wrong way to do this. You can use whatever tools you’re most comfortable with. For me, that is Adobe Photoshop – and it’s only $10/month! But you can use Adobe Illustrator, PicMonkey, Canva, or whatever. Hell, you can build it in PowerPoint if you want. Your style guide is mostly for you, so create it however you prefer. But, as you know, The Creative Boss is all about getting you on the fast-track, so… are you ready for it?

I created a shortcut.

Yep, just for YOU.

You can take the Build a Brand Style Guide masterclass, and it will probably be the best hour you spend on your business all week. Seriously. It is completely dedicated to showing you EXACTLY how to create your own brand style guide. This masterclass includes a free ready-to-use template for Photoshop.

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But, wait… why Photoshop? Well, it’s one of the least expensive products in the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite, and it will allow you to keep your style guide neat, organized, and easily accessible as you design other elements such as blog post graphics.

Awesome! But what else does the masterclass offer?

I’m glad you asked. Besides the step-by-step walkthrough for creating your style guide complete with a ready-to-use template, it will show you how to actually USE it once it’s all put together.

Plus, I’ve included a real-life example… an exclusive sneak peek into my very own brand style guide for The Creative Boss.

So, I present you with two amazing options for your brand.

• Purchase a ready-to-use brand kit from The Creative Boss Shop.
• Take the awesome-sauce masterclass Build a Brand Style Guide.

The kicker? Both are available for the exact same price. What?! Crazy, I know.

So, why choose one over the other? If you’re brand-new and have no idea what your brand style is, and you’re on a limited budget, then start out by grabbing a Brand Kit that fits your personality and go from there. If you’re a bit more established and you have a logo, colors that you sometimes remember to use, and some fonts that you like, then it’s time to get that shit organized and make it presentable with the Build a Brand Style Guide masterclass!