Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs – How To Position Yourself As An Expert In Your Field
Personal branding for entrepreneurs is just as important as branding is for major businesses. Learn how to build the perfect brand if you are an entrepreneur.
Hi Trish Davies here and today I am focusing on personal branding for entrepreneurs. When it comes to starting a business and building a successful brand, it’s easy to get lost in the details.
So much of your time is spent on making sure that every facet of your business is being taken care of. Such as sales, marketing, inventory management, customer service. However what about your personal branding?
As you grow larger and more successful, it will become harder for people in your industry to remember who you are. Especially if you don’t have a personal brand to represent you. This blog post will go over some tips for developing your personal brand. This will help you can stand out from the crowd and make yourself memorable.
Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs – It Is More Than Just A Logo
Your personal brand is your company’s face. It’s the first point of contact for potential customers that you make and it can be the best way to make a lasting impression.
That being said, the personal branding process is not just about designing a logo. Or coming up with a catchy phrase to represent your company. That’s just the starting point.
In order to develop a successful personal brand, you have to put in some work upfront. This will get your business where it needs to be before you can start building your own personal brand as an entrepreneur.
Building your personal brand as an entrepreneur comes after you’ve put in all that hard work establishing your business online and offline. People will come across your website or hear about what you do for the first time.
At that point they should have a clear idea of who you are and what sets you apart from other businesses in the industry.
If you haven’t already established yourself as an authority in this field, now is the time. The time to focus on getting there so that when it comes time to focus on yourself, people will know exactly who you are. Also what they’re getting if they choose to support your business.
Brainstorming For Your Personal Brand
Your personal brand is what you want to represent to the world. It is your personal representation of you and your business. This can be challenging as every entrepreneur has their own personality and businesses have different focuses. However, by brainstorming for a bit, you should be able to come up with a few things. Things that represent your business and what it does well.
For example, if you are in the pet industry, your personal brand might be all about pets. Then maybe the mascot of your company is a dog or something else related to pets.
Maybe your products are geared towards dog owners or cat lovers. Whatever it is, it needs to tie into what your company specializes in.
If you run an accounting service and specialize in helping small businesses get organized. Then maybe part of your personal brand would be that you are an expert at starting small businesses or running them efficiently.
If you have a lot of experience with marketing campaigns for start-ups. Then that may also be a way for people to remember who you are as well.
Of course this doesn’t mean that there’s only one way to develop your personal brand. It just has to reflect what your business does well and make sense for who you are as a person too!
Naming Your Personal Brand
Names are important. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. If you want to be successful, it’s important to have a recognizable name. Don’t worry about coming up with a name that’s perfect the first time. You’ll need to keep tinkering until you find the right one for your business.
The best way to come up with a name is to use keywords and phrases that identify the products and services your company offers. For example, if you work at an ad agency, your brand might be “Creative Marketing Experts.”
Brand Name vs Business Name
One of the first things you need to consider when developing your personal brand is your name. Your name should be reflective of who you are and what you do. It should also be something that people can easily remember, like Nike or Kraft.
A lot of people mistakenly choose the same name for their business and personal brand. However this can actually hurt your personal branding efforts. The idea behind a personal brand is that it’s a way to represent yourself separate from your business.
If people associate the two different brands with one person, they will have difficulty remembering which one is which.
In order to build a successful personal brand, it’s important to keep them separate – even if they sound similar.
Personal Branding For Entrepreneurs – The Big Reveals
The first step is to figure out what your personal brand represents. What are you selling? Who are you? What does your personal brand stand for? Once you know this, it will be easier to start building your social media presence and other branding materials around that concept.
The next step is to pick a name for yourself so that people can identify with you in an easy way. Lastly, create a logo that reflects your personal brand and the name that you have chosen.
Building A Strong Visual Identity
One of the best ways to build your personal brand is through your visual identity. This means designing a logo, creating a recognizable visual style for all of your marketing materials. Also choosing colours that signify who you are as an individual or business.
When it comes to deciding what these things should be, first think about your business or personal name. Pick one main colour that will represent your company and use this to create a logo.
Next, choose a few secondary colours that will work well with the main colour and can be used in other branding materials.
After you have figured out what colours will work with the rest of your branding materials, take some time to sit down and figure out what design elements you would like to include.
Make sure that the designs fit into your professional field of expertise and don’t try to be something that you’re not. Otherwise, people won’t take you seriously as an expert in your field.
Another way to establish yourself as an expert in your field is by including testimonials from satisfied clients. Include these on every marketing piece that you produce.
This goes hand-in-hand with building trust with potential clients. That’s because they’ll see how credible you are when they find glowing feedback from their peers. This feedback will appear on every page of your website or on every social media post.
Colours, Fonts, Logos
Your personal brand’s colours, fonts and logos are an important part of how people will identify you. You want your logo to reflect your personality and what you represent.
For example, if you’re a fashion designer, you’ll have a different logo than someone who builds furniture. Take time to think about what would be most appropriate for your business and your personality.
Using Visuals To Represent You On Social Media
If you want to make yourself memorable, you need to be everywhere and that includes social media.
However how do you do this when everyone is already on social media? You can make it easier by using visuals to represent yourself.
For example, if you’re a fashion designer. Try taking a selfie of the dress you designed and post it to Instagram with the caption “Just finished this! Who wants to see?”
People are more likely to remember the image of your dress than if you simply posted about it in text alone.
Another way to incorporate visuals into your personal brand is through photos of your products or creations. If you’re an interior designer, post pictures of the rooms you’ve styled and tagged them accordingly.
The same goes for food bloggers. Take pictures of plates and dishes that have come out of your kitchen (or bakery, etc). Then post them online for all your followers to enjoy!
Why Should You Have A Personal Branding Strategy?
Personal branding is more than just a logo that you slap on your website and social media profiles. Personal branding is all about how you represent yourself as an individual, not just as the founder of a company.
In order to establish your personal brand, you’ll need to include a number of things in your personal branding strategy, including:
- Professional headshot (photo)
- Clearly defined mission statement for yourself and your business
- Logo design that represents your brand well
- Your signature colour scheme
- An easy-to-remember tagline or slogan
The point of developing an identifiable personal brand is to find ways to stand out from the crowd. This can be accomplished by using colours and logos that are unique to you.
It helps people remember you and identify with you as they interact with your website, social media profiles, etc.
Conclusion
The personal branding process doesn’t need to be a long, drawn-out task. In fact, it can be easy and simple.
when you have your personal brand name, logo, and visual identity as well as your social media presence set up. You can then go ahead and start marketing yourself as an expert in your field.
It’s time for you to take control of your personal brand and start positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry. For me information and mentorship on personal branding for entrepreneurs click here.
Trish Davies
Trish Davies International
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