Brands are typically a company's biggest asset and the bigger the asset, the bigger the company.

Invariably if you ask someone to think of a brand, images of the Nike swoosh, the Coca-Cola lettering, the McDonalds golden arches or similar will spring to mind but the truth of the matter is every company, regardless of size or industry, has a brand - and yours should be just as important to you as Apple is to Steve Jobs and The Carphone Warehouse is to Charles Dunstone.

Over the course of a series of columns, we will be exploring how to create a brand from scratch, looking at everything from developing it and getting buy-in both internally and externally, to protecting it and making the leap from well-known to iconic - generating value for your business at every stage.

And don't think this just applies to consumer facing businesses. Brands add value to all companies, from consultancies to office supply businesses.

Building a brand isn't about a new logo, strap line and stationary but a business philosophy that runs through every vein of the company. It is about making a hard working, valuable asset which will differentiate you from the competition, encourage loyalty from your employees and existing customers, attract new customers, enable you to expand into new products, markets and territories and most importantly, enable you to charge a premium for your product or service - all of which boils down to more profit, company expansion and the possibility of an early retirement.