Exceptional Strategic Brand Development

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in marketing but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Hayes Roth, Principal and Founder of HA Roth Consulting LLC., located in New York, NY, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

HA Roth Consulting LLC specializes primarily in brand consulting, from positioning, research, communications development, brand design, and expression. I have spent decades in traditional advertising, then as a marketing communications consultant and writer in my own firm and, more recently, as CMO and a key client director at Landor, a major global branding agency. Since leaving that firm in 2014, I've been running HARC, a small brand and marketing consultancy, working primarily with major healthcare and non-profit institutions.

Tell us about yourself

I was a creative writing major at the University of Miami with no real clue about advertising or marketing. Fortunately, someone finally took pity on my terrible interviewing skills and hired me as a media associate at a large, Midwestern ad agency. Once "inside" the industry, I quickly realized I loved working with clients and using my writing and communications skills to help direct campaigns, and 15 years later was running a large P&G account when a merger left me out of work.

Starvation being a great motivator, I opened up my own marketing consulting business, which I soon discovered was even more fun and rewarding than working in a big agency. After 8 years, however, Landor made me an offer I couldn't refuse, and for the next nearly 20 years, I became a dedicated branding consultant and evangelist. And now I'm back doing it on my own since 2014 and still loving what I do. Every day I get to work with senior clients I like and respect and help them transform their organizations through strategic branding. It's a pretty good gig!

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

The first was simply learning that working for myself was both exciting and lucrative— no bureaucracies to fight or layers of internal approvals. I also learned that I loved prospecting for new clients and pulling teams of experts together to serve them. This knowledge also served me very well at Landor, as it turned out, and now sustains me at HARC. As for my proudest, most inspiring client/work experiences, I would say that rebranding the United Negro College Fund and The World Trade Center are stand-outs among a broad list of wonderful, game-changing clients.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

It's all on you! You're chief cook & bottle washer all at once, and while you can and will hire people to help, it remains your responsibility to find clients, maintain the quality of your service or product, and stay ahead of changing trends and tools. And this gets more complicated every day!

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

When I started my first consultancy back in "analog" days (pre-PC/email/etc.), I wrote out a simple, 2-page plan that started with "What am I good at?" (i.e., what am I selling?), Who is most likely to buy it? How am I going to find them? How and when will I know if I've succeeded? I followed this simple plan, referring to it regularly, updating as I went (as conditions change and you learn), and worked hard to make sure I was delivering on my "brand promise."

Lastly, it's very easy to get caught up in the "doing" of your business and neglect the "selling" of it— as in marketing yourself and/or your services. Many more highly efficient tools to do this today than ever before, but they need to be managed creatively and consistently— you can't neglect or indefinitely postpone this critical business building block. That's called effective branding!

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.harothconsulting.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/harconsulting
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayesroth/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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