In mid-2008, Charfish Design became an actual, legal, tax-paying company. I’d like to tell you how my time in the trenches has been so far, and what I’ve learned along the way.

What you’re about to read isn’t stuff I read in some book or overheard some lawyers talking about in a coffee shop. These are just a few things I’ve picked up on this sometimes winding and bumpy road of owning my own business. Hope you enjoy these points and get something out of them!

Communication is the key

I’ve said this a million times on this site and IgniteLiving.com, but if you don’t communicate, you’re not gonna make it.

It doesn’t have to be …

Branding is not a logo. It’s not a fancy font or tagline, and it’s not a color. And it’s not some “indefinable quality that you’ll know when you see.” Designers say this when they want to charge you a bazillion dollars while they’re walking the astral plane looking for “true essence.”

Branding is none those things, though each may play a part.

What branding really is

Let me ask you some questions and you’ll understand the simplicity of branding:

When you see the golden arches of McDonalds, what do you think of?

When you see the multi-colored font of Google on their home page what do you feel?

When you see a Nazi swastika, does it elicit any emotional or analytical response from you?

When you see …