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Advantages and disadvantages of personal branding

by jan roos
5 replies
Hey Warriors, Ive been wondering about something for a while now and would love to hear what you think about it.

I am thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of building your business as a personal brand (frank Kern) or more as a business entity.

The way I see it is that if we build our businesses around branding ourselves we can connect with people better and build quite a loyal following but if we wanted to sell our business one day then it will be a huge problem in my opinion.

If Frank Kern wants to sell his business today it will be hard because people follow him as a person and the new owner I feel won't be able to keep such a loyal following but if he built his business as an entity without branding himself he could easily sell the business to someone new.

Your thoughts?

Cheers,

Jan
#advantages #branding #disadvantages #personal
  • Profile picture of the author impact-productions
    I think you can do both.

    Internet Marketing is a people business, and customers buy from and connect with those people they know and like.

    However, you can still have 'brands' within your own business that you're also known for. I release products under certain websites, or under series name (for instance, the PLR brand '10 Buck PLR'), and it would be possible to transfer those aspects of a business.

    That's also one advantage of working with a partner, so that those aspects of business are more than just a personal brand.

    Interesting question anyway, and I'm keen to see more about what people think.

    Thom
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  • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
    It depends upon your business strategy and the amount
    of flexibility you want for your business now and in the
    future.

    If you know that you want to sell your business in the
    future, then that will inform your choice of branding and
    exit strategy.

    A potential downside of going the personal brand route
    is that if you change your mind/direction later on, you've
    then got to unbrand and rebrand yourself. If however
    you've branded a business name instead, you can change
    direction and business names more easily later.

    Remember, people do business with people and going the
    personal route will help you build better realtionships with
    your prospects, customers and JV partners too.

    It depends upon how much you want to be the face of
    your business.

    Another route is to have a persona via an invented
    character (a la Rich Jerk), a spokesperson, or even
    adopt a cartoon or animal.

    Dedicated to mutual success,

    Shaun
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    • Profile picture of the author jan roos
      Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

      It depends upon your business strategy and the amount
      of flexibility you want for your business now and in the
      future.

      If you know that you want to sell your business in the
      future, then that will inform your choice of branding and
      exit strategy.

      Another downside of going the personal brand route is
      that if you change your mind/direction later on, you've
      then got to unbrand and rebrand yourself. If however
      you've branded a business name instead, you can change
      direction and business names more easily later.

      Remember, people do business with people and going the
      personal route will help you build better realtionships with
      your prospects, customers and JV partners too.

      It depends upon how much you want to be the face of
      your business.

      Another route is to have a persona via an invented
      character (a la Rich Jerk), a spokesperson, or even
      adopt a cartoon or animal.

      Dedicated to mutual success,

      Shaun
      Thanks for your input as always Shaun.

      Yeah it's a tough decision. If one goes into lots of different niches with info products like Eben Pagan it's good to use pen names which will make it easy to sell that business or niche if one wants too.

      Cheers
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      • Profile picture of the author JJOrana
        I've been through this and I can tell you that you'll get conflicting advice...

        Because both can be profitable.

        For Personal Brand think about Oprah, Tony Robbins, Dr. Phil, etc.

        Corporate...of course Coke, Nike, etc.

        My opinion, go for personal brand if it's something that you can see yourself doing for a lifetime.
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  • Profile picture of the author paintbrush4u
    The advantage is really.... you can make money for who you are and not necessarily what you do....(once you have your brand established).

    Disadvantage... you will have to make a deliberate choice to live in a glass house (sort of)...coz you will put yourself out there...to create that brand.....
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