Do personal brands help or hurt a business?

Having a personal brand when creating business can be a well thought-out business strategy. When you create your business, you already have a personal brand, whether you think you do or not. The impressions you leave on others are your own personal brand qualities or reputations. These impressions can be good or bad depending on how you present them.  If they are presented correctly, they can improve your business and help make quality relationships with other professionals.

According to Rebecca Shambaugh, the founder of Women in Leadership and Learning, “having a brand that defines your best elements and differentiates you from others in a positive way is key to achieving your career goals and aspirations” (Huffington Post, 2015). When presenting your personal brand along with your business, you should always make sure you will be able to set yourself apart from other businesses. Show your best qualities and make potential clients or employers see that you are unique. By doing so, you will be showing them that your business and your brand can offer them something they have never had before.

Creating a personal brand in the wrong way can be devastating to your business. If you present yourself in the wrong way, you can damage prior relationships with professionals and send target markets the wrong image of your brand. Whenever you meet new people, always keep your personal brand in mind, you never know who you might run into again, and you always want to put your best foot forward.

Here are a few tips to get you on the right track to creating a good personal brand:

Learn about how others think of you
This will help you understand what you should modify or keep doing when creating personal brand. You can gage your general first impressions from your friends, employers or other professions by simply asking. After finding the results, identify your strengths and weaknesses and begin to build your personal brand from your strengths.

Find the right opportunities to market your brand
Identifying key target markets will help you tailor your brand to that specific market. You can make your personal brand fit with your business plan by knowing your market well and keeping their wants and needs in mind when creating a business plan. You do not want to market to everyone, as your business or personal brand might not fit that target market.

Be consistent
After you identify your strengths and weaknesses as a personal brand, you should keep those strengths and be consistent when marketing your brand. Whether it is in meetings, emails, phone calls or just meeting other professionals, you should always keep consistent with the identity of your personal brand and have a good sense of what it can bring to your business relationships. 

Be true to yourself
It is important to know yourself and what you want out of a personal brand. Keeping your best interests at heart while maintaining a good business model can help your business practice be ethical and done the right way. Keeping a good sense of self is important when dealing with a personal brand. You should never change your personal brand to fit another’s idea of what you should be, as a person or a brand.

With these tips in mind, go out there and create a personal brand that is going to boost your business and career in a positive way.

Sydney Gibson is a junior at GVSU majoring in Advertising and Public Relations. She has been with GrandPR for over a year as an account associate. In her free time, she enjoys browsing Pinterest, watching Friends or Mad Men, and hanging out with her family and friends.