With starting any business, of course you need a name and a logo and overall personality. It was time for me to get to thinking about options for my business name and what kind of brand I wanted to have. My boyfriend, Justin, is an entrepreneur himself and he is great about helping me brainstorm and innovate. 
I needed a name—one that was clear and probably best for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes. He even helped me with a concept mapping activity to brainstorm what kind of direction I should go in. We wrote key words on a white board and connected other words that would immediately come to mind in relation to the key word. We did this for a good 15 minutes and came up with a whole white board full of ideas. The drill was really just to get our minds working and it helped me reel in on what I liked best and what message was the most important to me. I initially wanted something clever and witty but ended up on a reliable, traditional, solid name: Bay Area Kitchen Rental. Plain and simple. Another bonus to having this name is that the acronym is B.A.K.R. which is a little tribute to my humble beginnings as a baker. I affectionately use “BAKR” when referring to my business.
The name was done and now I needed a logo. I wasn’t sure about what I wanted–Do I want to focus on the Bay? Do I want it to be hip and modern? More playful? The only thing I was confident about was wanting bright colors of fruits like lemons, green apples, and blueberries. After seeing some options from my designer and tweaking here and there, I wound up with one that had a little bit of a younger personality while still portraying the functions of my business.
When it came to business cards, I always wanted something that would give a reason for someone to think: “Hey, that’s cool!” Justin and I have always admired Johnny Earle from Johnny Cupcakes who believes that you should always give people a reason to talk about your brand, whether it be a quirky type of packaging or special giveaways to your fans so that they excitedly spread the word. Justin and I take this to heart and try to give our businesses and marketing materials little accents like this. I fell in love with the idea of my business card as a traditional, old school recipe card–just like your grandma’s collection of handwritten recipes. Since my business card has the tab that sticks out, it sits nicely in a wallet and grabs your attention. Just love it!
We are now working on the website for my business. It was really important to me to have a website that my clients could easily use for their needs. My main goal is to make scheduling and payments easy for everyone instead of using old school methods of filling out a paper application and giving payments in person. Hopefully these features come out just as I want them and that website ties in to the logo and brand that I have developed thus far.