Nobody can tell your business from the other guy's

Look at your truck. Now look at your business card. Now pull up your Facebook page.

Do they match?

For most owners I talk to, the answer is "sort of." The truck is green. The cards are blue, because that was the logo before the sign shop redid it. The website has a phone number from two numbers ago. The shirts have the logo in a white box because nobody had the real file. And the guy who does the Facebook page writes "we're so excited to announce" when you have never said "excited" in your life.

None of that is a crisis. But it adds up. A customer sees three versions of you and, without thinking about it, trusts you a little less. And every time you need a new thing made, whoever makes it has to guess.

Big companies fix this with a brand guide. It is a document that says: this is our name, written this way. These are our colors. This is how we talk. Here is what we never do. Everyone who makes anything with the company's name on it follows it.

You can have one too. It takes about ten minutes, and I built a skill that does it.

What a brand guide is, in plain words

It is one page. It says how your business looks and how it sounds.

Looks: your logo, your colors with the exact codes, your two fonts, and what kind of photos you use.

Sounds: three words for how you talk, the words you always use, the words you never want, and a couple of real examples. A text to a customer. A reply to a review. Your voicemail.

Then a list of everywhere your name shows up, which ones match, and which three to fix first.

That is it. It is not a mission statement. It is not "core values." It is a page you hand to the sign shop, the web person, your spouse who does the invoices, and any AI you ask to make something for you. After that, nobody has to guess.

What the skill does

It asks you about your business in five short rounds. One round at a time, so it is a conversation and not a form.

1. The basics. Your name, written exactly the way you want it. What you do, in one sentence. Who your best customer is. Where you work.
2. What you promise. Why people pick you. What you always do that the other guy skips. What you will never do. If you have reviews, you paste them, and it uses the customers' exact words.
3. How you sound. You send it three things you actually wrote. A text, a post, a review reply. It reads how you really talk and writes that down. Then three words for how you want to sound, and the words you never want used.
4. How you look. Your logo, if you have one. A photo of your truck or sign or shirt, so it can pull the exact colors from what you already paid for. A few real photos of your work.
5. Where your name shows up. Truck, shirts, cards, invoices, website, Google, Facebook, voicemail. Which ones match today and which don't.

Then it writes the page and shows it to you. You get two files: the guide itself, and a one-page sheet you can print and put on the wall or send to the sign shop.

What one looks like

Here is the sheet it made when I tested it. I played a made-up pool company, Blue Heron Pool Care, and answered the questions the way an owner would: no logo, no photos on hand, a truck with a black magnet, and two real-sounding reviews. It took about ten minutes.

Look at the "Fix first" list. That is the part I would actually do something with. The cards say the wrong name. The Google listing has no photo. The magnet, the shirts, and this page are three different looks. Now there is one page that says which one wins.

What it will not do

It will not make anything up. If you did not say it, it is not in the guide. No slogan you did not ask for. No "we are passionate about excellence." No made-up customer named Sarah who is 34 and loves her yard. If a section is empty, it says "Not answered yet" and leaves it for you.

It will not design a logo. If you do not have one, it sets your name in a plain, strong font as a stand-in, tells you that is what it is, and writes the short paragraph you can hand a real designer. A local sign shop can usually do a simple logo for a few hundred dollars from that paragraph, and it will be yours.

It will not tell you blue means trust. Your colors come from your truck, because matching what you already have beats a color somebody picked from a chart.

It will not make you sound like a company. If you write "hey, running 15 late, sorry," the guide says that is your voice, and it keeps it.

Why this is worth ten minutes

Two reasons.

One: the next time you need a flyer, a yard sign, a Facebook post, or a new set of cards, the person making it has the answers. Same green. Same phone number. Same way of talking. You stop paying for guesses.

Two: every skill on this site, and any AI you use, works better when it knows who you are. Attach the guide when you ask for a flyer and the flyer comes out in your colors and your words the first time. That is the real reason I built this one first.

How to try it

1. Download the skill at the top of this page. Add it to Claude or ChatGPT. The steps are in the box, and inside the zip.
2. Say "make my brand guide." It will start round one.
3. Answer honestly. Send it a photo of your truck and a couple of texts you wrote.
4. Look at the sheet. Tell it what is off, in plain words.
5. Fix the first thing on the "Fix first" list this week.

If you make one and it looks like you, I would like to see it. My email is on the contact page.