From the first time a potential customer hears your company’s name, they are subconsciously analyzing what makes up that company. Things like why are they here? what do they do? and what makes them stand out? are among the questions that wrack a consumer’s brain and this is all before they consider buying your product or using your service.

In this day and age, consumers are getting online and researching all there is to know about a company before applying for a job, eating at their restaurant or even just getting a haircut. The decision is made before they step foot into your space. Your online presence and your brand convey something a good review just cannot say: your values.

It is important to define a company’s values in a language that is plain and simple so that customers can grasp them, but complex enough to define your entire brand in just a few words. Values allow the potential consumer to really take a glimpse inside your brand and see whether they align their beliefs with yours. Today, a company’s values are just as important as the first sale and it is imperative for a brand to have them and use them well.

First and foremost, a set of values identify a brand to its consumers. It shows the company in a favorable light and provides the customer with all that the brand is and wants to be. Values clarify what a firm stands for, and if they have a great set of values compared to a competitor that has lax values, (or none at all) I know I would choose the one with the clear values backing their brand.

Values allow a company to have something to fall back on in light of a difficult decision. If a conflict arises, a company can look to their values to answer there question. If one of their values is honesty and they are knee-deep in a scandal, it might be best to tell the public the truth.

Ment has been focusing on defining our values recently and we thought we could share our process with you in hopes that it could help your business maybe do the same.

First off, we sat down and did our research. There are five existing core values for the coworking industry: Community, Openness, Collaboration, Accessibility and Sustainability. While these values are ones we uphold as well, we felt there were different words to describe how Ment feels and how we want it to feel for others. Therefore we pulled up our handy dandy Google search and began looking for other words that stuck out to us but still fell under the five industry values. There were many (a lot) of -ment words that we pulled out and as you will see we kept a few of them too.

We wanted to really harvest what we were trying to do as a coworking space and then provide that to the members and the community of Bowling Green as a whole. With this, we landed on four core words that we ended up realizing they cultivated the image of a plant growing into a garden.

Take a step back and think about what makes up your brand, what makes it stand out, and what you want to convey to the public. Those qualities are what will make up your values. Proceed then to share them on a website, blog, or on your social media accounts. Your values will allow you to dive deeper toward your customers and provide a more personal approach to business which will result in a brand that will last through any recession, any hiccup, and any mistake.