How to tell your company origin story (and why it matters)

Every business has a story, and it needs to be told. Sharing your company origin story can help your business better connect with customers and leave a strong impression. 

The best place to begin might be social media, with 57% of business owners surveyed in the QuickBooks Entrepreneurship in 2025 report acknowledging the power of social media in brand building. 

While telling your origin story has many benefits, it may be hard to execute. There are many elements to a good origin story, like emotional connection, consistency, and data-driven business insights. If you want to use your story to foster customer relationships and attract potential investors, then you need to learn how to tell your origin story properly. 

Let’s explore what elements are necessary to build a solid brand story and what steps you can take to craft your perfect origin story.

Why building a brand story gives your small business an advantage

How to tell your small business story in 5 practical steps

Use data to deepen your brand's story

Get ready to tell your company's origin story

Why building a brand story gives your small business an advantage 

Your story is unique, and it says a lot about your business. An honest, relatable origin story can give your business the competitive edge by increasing customer engagement and loyalty.

Tapping into the emotional connection

How you turned a once abstract concept into a tangible business is a journey worth sharing. Storytelling is an age-old tradition and a highly effective marketing tactic. Any narrative that showcases an underdog’s journey toward an eventual happy ending will resonate with an audience. 

In his book Tell to Win, Peter Guber, a film producer and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment, explains the power of storytelling for businesses: 

Although your small business may not yet be as established or accomplished as you’d like it to be, don’t diminish the value of its origins. Tapping into the emotional connection brand storytelling provides can help you build a connection with your customers, future employees, and potential investors.

Building trust through your authentic journey 

Trust is crucial to any business. Sharing your origin story can help you break down walls between you and your customers and help build lasting relationships—but only if your story is genuine and relatable. 

You can start by mapping out your company’s history. Discuss the challenges, frustrations, unexpected pitfalls, and successes you’ve experienced as a small-business owner. 

Share what you’re proud of, what hasn’t gone as planned, and what remains on your list of goals for the future. And don’t forget to include the “why”—who you are and why you started your business.

Authenticity fosters trust, so it's important to always be honest about your experience. You can share your journey using a combination of media, like a blog on your website, social media, videos, etc. Remember to interact with your target audience when you post to promote stronger connections and build trust.

Creating common ground with your customers

Today's consumers don't just want to buy from your brand; they want to be part of the experience your brand offers. There's a level of emotional investment in the places they shop that goes beyond the product or service. With this in mind, crafting a small business story that includes the customer is more important than ever. 

Steve Parker Jr., co-founder of digital marketing and analytics firm Levelwing, suggests reflecting on your sales patterns, social media interactions, and informal conversations to determine how you can reach your customers. Identify which of their needs aren’t being met and use elements of your story to explain how your business helps to fulfill them.

How you write your origin story is just as important as the story itself. Analyze your word choice and sentence construction. Do your words paint a picture, and are your sentences descriptive yet concise? The goal is to inspire your customers and prompt them to reflect on their own struggles, problems, and desires. 

Injecting your unique brand personality

Brand building is all about personality. Using a consistent and distinctive tone, voice, and image (logo, signage, and other visual elements) will help you build a unique brand personality. Strategic storytelling and personality can help you invoke emotion and shape a lasting and memorable image. 

Let’s say you’re a do-it-yourself hardware store owner who learned everything you know from your grandmother. Your story, signage, and retail space might convey this by communicating the “old-fashioned” qualities of understanding, support, and guidance.

For example, you might feature a “most useful skills Grandma taught me” series on your website and social media accounts that tells a new story each week. 

In-store signage might feature a design motif that’s reminiscent of yesteryear. And your customer service might include online chat or phone guidance for struggling DIYers that offers the same type of support Grandma provided you when you were a newbie.

Consistency is key. If you are presenting a charming, old-timey vibe, suddenly introducing modern-style graphics or switching to an underdog story can muddle your brand personality and damage the relationships you’ve already built. 

How to tell your small business story in 5 practical steps 

The goal in crafting a brand origin story is to establish a meaningful connection with your audience. To do this, there is a five-step framework you can use to develop the perfect origin story for your business. 

Step 1: Find your "why"

Every business has a “why”—why you founded the company, why you chose to do things differently, why you are passionate about your products or services. Readers want to know about that initial spark or aha moment. 

Take Sara Blakely, who just wanted to look her best when wearing white pants and ended up founding Spanx. Or how Daniel Lubetzky, who wanted a healthy snack and to spread kindness, founded the KIND bar company. 

But it's not just big companies that have a powerful "why." Consider West China Tea in Austin in 2012. The founder's "why" stemmed from a desire to build communities with Chinese tea and tea services. While originally an online-only business, West China Tea has been so successful that it has opened a brick-and-mortar location.

Finding your “why” can help you outline your vision and values for your company's future. With a purpose and values in place, you now have a starting place for telling your origin story. 

Step 2: Map your business timeline

Your story has a beginning, but what happened after that? Map out the timeline of your business, focusing on key obstacles you faced, unique events, and milestone achievements. 

If you faced a setback early on, feature it—everyone likes a good underdog story. Is there a historical event that changed the shape of your business? Include it in your timeline. To sell your achievements, include data points that help the audience visualize your success. 

Having a detailed business timeline can provide you with a solid framework for crafting a meaningful origin story. 

Step 3: Use relatable details and emotions

The next step in brand development is all about personality and appeal. While facts and figures are important in building a picture of your brand, how you present this information is just as important. 

You want to engage your intended audience and elicit an emotional response. To do this, you should be honest about your journey, include vivid and memorable details, and don’t shy away from the frustrations and feelings you experienced.  

Step 4: Weave in your customer's perspective

The core element in any company's origin story is the customer perspective. How can you help your customer connect with your origin story?

Start by identifying the fundamental problems your business solves. What do your products or services provide, feature, or accomplish that the competition doesn’t?

Research your intended audience, determine their biggest concerns, and shape your data points accordingly. Knowing the issues your customers face and how you can solve their problems can help you craft a relatable story. 

Step 5: Choosing the right channels to share your story

Once you’ve crafted the perfect origin story, it's time to share it with the world. This involves more than just an “about us” page on your website. 

You can use many tools to get your story out there, such as blogs, social media platforms, videos, podcasts, and more. How you shape your story will need to evolve depending on your chosen media. Social media sites feature short, punchy posts, while blogs and videos give you more room to tell your story. 

Regardless of format, keeping your personality and story consistent throughout is a crucial element in transmedia storytelling. Telling your story using a wide variety of media lets you connect with more customers, interact with diverse audiences, and craft a unique, unified narrative. 

Use data to deepen your brand's story

Crafting the perfect origin story requires inspired storytelling, vivid imagery, and detailed facts and figures. Instead of telling your audience your business has grown significantly over the last few years, use specific data points to illustrate your achievements. 

For example, "We’ve doubled in size since last year," "We achieved $1 million in sales," or "Our customer satisfaction has increased 20%." 

Obtaining these facts and figures doesn't have to be difficult. Accounting tools like QuickBooks let you quickly gather data points on the financial milestones you have achieved. 

With QuickBooks Advanced Online, you can use the Revenue Streams Dashboard to quickly gain concrete data on your revenue changes from year to year. View your business growth, see how many products and services you have sold, and track the number of refunds issued to determine customer satisfaction.

Talk to your customers and employees, and partner with an accounting platform like QuickBooks to get the data you need to tell your business’s story. 

Get ready to tell your company's origin story

If you're ready to craft the perfect company origin story and build better customer relationships, you should start by outlining who you are as a business, what you want to accomplish, and what drives you. 

Details are important to your origin story, including giving your audience the cold, hard facts on the obstacles you’ve overcome and the milestones you’ve achieved. If you use accounting software like QuickBooks, getting hold of these facts and figures is easy with our insightful financial reports. Learn more about your business today.