Hiring a designer can feel exciting, but it can also come with a very real fear: What happens if they create something and I hate everything? It's something I hear from a lot of clients right before we start working together.

Most of us know the obvious answer to what to include on a website: your services, testimonials, an About page, contact information, calls to action, FAQs, and maybe a portfolio or examples of your work. But simply having those things on your website doesn't automatically make someone want to work with you.

If you've ever heard the words "brand style guide" and immediately pictured a 20-page PDF filled with logos, fonts, and color codes, you're not alone. But a brand style guide isn't about creating a huge document that you never look at again. It's about creating a system. Your brand style guide is where all of your visual brand decisions come together so you can stop guessing every time you create content, update your website, or bring someone else into your business.