As we continue gravitating toward a paperless digital society, small business owners need to plan for the future. When the current generation of professionals begins retiring, we will soon have a workforce with much less of a sentimental attachment to physical record keeping. Newspapers and books are already on their way out, and it won’t be long before those old bulky filing cabinets are a thing of the past.

One of the most important, and often overlooked, parts of growing and marketing a small business is great branding. A company’s brand should be able to tell its story to prospective customers at a glance, and should inform all design decisions for sales collateral, social media, and conventional advertising. A well-branded company inspires customer loyalty, and can command higher prices for its goods and services due to the perception of higher value.