June 10, 2011
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Every small business has a story waiting to be told—and that story can be your most powerful ally in demonstrating how your business is different from all others. One term I have often used to describe this is in terms of the backstory of an organization.
A backstory is the history behind an organization and how it became what it is today. It is not a timeline of accomplishments or the boilerplate history that can often be found on company websites. The backstory is something more meaningful. It has real characters and a believable tale of how these characters had to evolve and overcome challenges in order to make their business successful.
In order to create a powerful backstory, you generally need to have five key story elements:
- Characters: Who are the people in the story that your customers must associate with?
- Challenge: What is the key question or need they are trying to answer?
- Vision: What was the unique idea or premise that they embarked upon?
- Conflict: Who or what stands in the way of their success?
- Triumph: How are they (or will they) overcome this conflict?
These are the building blocks of powerful stories, and they are common whether you are trying to tell the story of your company, or writing a screenplay for a Hollywood blockbuster. They are universal.
When it comes to putting them into action for telling the story of your business, there are 5 basic story types that describe any backstory you might wish to tell about your small business (though you might combine more than one of the models below):
1. The passionate enthusiast
A driven individual takes a personal passion and builds it into a successful business—like Moleskine, Storyville Coffee, and ScotteVest.
2. The inspired inventor
A tireless inventor creates something new and different by not giving up on his/her vision. Examples include Apple, Dyson Vacuums, and Twitter.
3. The smart listener
A new company is created as a result of listening to customers, partners, or others, like Stacy’s Chips, Dell, and Zappos.
4. The likeable hero
A dedicated individual overcomes all odds to make his or her idea work. Think Kiva.org, Innocent Drinks, Tom’s Shoes, etc.
5. The little guy vs. the big guy
An underdog company takes on a seemingly unbeatable, established adversary. Examples: Under Armour, Bugaboo Strollers, and Southwest
Creating the right backstory for your small business doesn’t have to be a daunting task, but it does require some discipline and creative thinking to identify the best way to tell it. If you are ready to move ahead, there are a few more tools shared below which are available online that might help.
For a more detailed how-to guide on creating your small business backstory, you can also download a full 29 page PDF excerpt from Personality Not Included for free on Facebook here.
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