Personal Brand or Business Brand?
September 3, 2009 by Linette Gerlach
Filed under Business
Should you build a personal brand or a business brand? I know that’s been a big question buzzing around the last few months, especially in social media. I think it depends on your objective, but in most cases you’re better off building a business brand than a personal brand, and I’ll give you a couple reasons why.
- If you build a personal brand and something happens to sideline you from your business, everything you’ve worked for could be derailed when someone else needs to take the helm.
- If you decide you want to sell your small business, it will be more difficult if the business is brand is you. Take you away from the equation, and there might not be much to sell.
- If you build a good strong business brand, your personal brand should also go up with your businesses success.
Sometimes it’s difficult to sit back and let your business do the talking. It can be a great thing for your ego when everyone knows your name. But is that the best thing for your business in the long run? Do you want them to remember your name? Or the name of your business?
Image via Photoxpress.com
I am a freelance writer, and I have built my brand around my name. Of course, my product comes from my mind, so it’s not like I would be able to flip my site or sell my business turn-key fashion. I know I want to write and stick to the publishing field. I am not likely going to branch off into any kind of income stream very far from the realm of writing. I liked the idea of using my name because I felt like it stuck out. My other site is called ProFreelanceWriter, but I don’t even use it because there are a million other sites with names similar to it. My name is pretty unique, especially in freelance writing circles, as far as I can tell.
Whether or not to use yourself as a brand depends on the nature of your industry, and whether your product is something you would even be able to sell. The only reason I can think of not to use your own name is if you think there is a possibility your venture could fail. If your demise was widely known, you are then stuck trying to re-build a reputation, or you just have to come up with other names for your businesses. Trying to re-build a ruined business reputation is more difficult than starting out fresh, because you have to tear down old ideas, then build new ones. Since I imagine most people are like myself and went into self-employment, they hopefully went into it full-steam ahead, with no doubts in their minds as to their success. Isn’t that the only way to do it?
Plus, when people mention me, they won’t have to say, “Oh, you know, Trina Grant of ’such-and-such business’…” They will only have to say my name. I also want to be able to use other businesses I may build as subsidiaries of my name. It will be my ‘flagship’ enterprise.
Thank you for raising this question and for the pointed advice. Very astute advice.
Trina~ I have the same struggles, since my business started out as writing for others, it was mostly all about my name, and building up my own name. Now I do some consulting,and have a couple other “branches” to my business.
I’m not planning on selling my business in the near future, but I might some day… It is a really tough thing to decide, branding a business name, or branding yourself. I like the points you made for the personal branding too, I definitely think it depends on the business, and what you want out of it.
Thanks for your insight:-)