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Personal or Business Brand?

by Willie Murray
23 replies
I've been debating this in my own mind now for what seems to be an age.... I'd be interested in other warriros opinions?

Do you Brand yourself, your Business or both? I know a personal Brand would be much more difficult to sell later down the road, however you can leverage your personal brand to establish a business brand.

Ideas? Should I concentrate on establishing a Business Brand or Business, my main rational for the question is to focus on one or the other to save time and costs..
#brand #business #personal
  • Profile picture of the author wanjugu
    Personally i believe you should do both.With time some things change and you may want to sell your business brand. But you may never sell your personal brand.The two can strengthen each other.
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  • Profile picture of the author jade69
    If you are well known for something you should try to brand your own name or image, but I will opt for a biz name.
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  • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
    Originally Posted by william1872 View Post

    I've been debating this in my own mind now for what seems to be an age.... I'd be interested in other warriros opinions?

    Do you Brand yourself, your Business or both? I know a personal Brand would be much more difficult to sell later down the road, however you can leverage your personal brand to establish a business brand.

    Ideas? Should I concentrate on establishing a Business Brand or Business, my main rational for the question is to focus on one or the other to save time and costs..
    It depends upon what market you want to enter
    and what you're selling.

    For example, in the Internet Marketing arena the
    majority of sellers of infoproducts brand themselves
    and their own personality. Of course, there are some
    IMers who create a business brand and go by that.

    If you're clear that you want to sell your business in
    future, then consider using a brand name or a pen
    name that you can still sell later if you wish.

    If you're new in the market, then use your own name
    initially, because people do business with people after
    all. You can always move over to a business brand
    name later if necessary.

    Either way, consider using something other than william1872
    as it's not very personable or brandable.

    Dedicated to mutual success,

    Shaun
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    .

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  • Profile picture of the author Willie Murray
    Thanks guys that's excellent advice - something that has been niggling with me for some time now!

    Shaun, will look into changing my username, not sure if I can do that?
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    • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
      Originally Posted by william1872 View Post

      Shaun, will look into changing my username, not sure if I can do that?
      I think you can contact the support desk to change
      your username.

      Maybe change it from william1872 to hailhail1888 or
      something

      Seriously though, use your own name and picture so
      that people can put a real name to a real face.

      Dedicated to mutual success,

      Shaun
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      • Profile picture of the author Willie Murray
        Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

        I think you can contact the support desk to change
        your username.

        Maybe change it from william1872 to hailhail1888 or
        something

        Seriously though, use your own name and picture so
        that people can put a real name to a real face.

        Dedicated to mutual success,

        Shaun
        Lol, I'll stick with 1872 Shaun - I wonder how many warriors will get what we're referring to lol )

        I'll contact support, thanks for the heads up
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  • Profile picture of the author visimedia
    What I'm comfortable to do:
    -brand my nickname
    -brand my business (priority)

    So, which one you're comfortable with, take that. =)
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  • Profile picture of the author adrwcav
    I personally brand my nickname. Seems to be working well : )
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    A lot of people tend to be confused about branding.

    Your brand is like a personality, it conveys who or what you are and what you stand for.

    You can build either yourself or your company it doesn't necessarily matter as long as you understand what a brand isn't. Its not your products or services.

    The brand is your unique personality either as yourself or your businesses personality. Sometimes they mesh because we tend to thread our businesses with our personality.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Rus Sells View Post

      A lot of people tend to be confused about branding.

      Your brand is like a personality, it conveys who or what you are and what you stand for.

      You can build either yourself or your company it doesn't necessarily matter as long as you understand what a brand isn't. Its not your products or services.

      The brand is your unique personality either as yourself or your businesses personality. Sometimes they mesh because we tend to thread our businesses with our personality.
      Given this, it's quite possible to build both.

      You can build a brand around your business, while also building a "Cult of Personality" around yourself as front man for the business.
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      • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
        Hey John,

        This is is true in many cases. The personality of the business owner is often projected into the business they own as well, so they intermingle and seem to be one in the same.

        Building a persona brand can have the advantage to branch out into new unrelated niches as opposed to a niche business doing printing won't get to far as a wedding gown shop. hehe

        Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

        Given this, it's quite possible to build both.

        You can build a brand around your business, while also building a "Cult of Personality" around yourself as front man for the business.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bruce NewMedia
      Originally Posted by Rus Sells View Post

      A lot of people tend to be confused about branding.

      Your brand is like a personality, it conveys who or what you are and what you stand for.

      You can build either yourself or your company it doesn't necessarily matter as long as you understand what a brand isn't. Its not your products or services.

      The brand is your unique personality either as yourself or your businesses personality. Sometimes they mesh because we tend to thread our businesses with our personality.
      This is as good an explanation as I've seen about the issue. Particularly the part about the business brand meshing with the personality. That phenomenon is more likely online than with other media.
      ______
      Bruce NewMedia
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  • Profile picture of the author Jerry Reily
    I'll use my name as my brand. It is flexible. If I use the business brand of a niche market and I'm at the losing end, I have to create a new business brand to start anew.
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  • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
    Who do people trust more: people or businesses?
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  • Profile picture of the author Rocket Media
    While I'm building my brand and networking.. I'd rather have someone refer my company to their friend by saying "yeah ive got a guy that does great stuff. He's trustworthy. His business name is xxxxx"

    Your own brand comes with your companies brand. My dad just uses his first name and service he provides as the company name: ex: bob's heating and cooling. He's been bery successful for 20+ years!
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Evans
      I do both personal and business branding and I get different interests and opportunity from each.
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  • Profile picture of the author JimBell33
    I think it depends. I believe it would be hard for someone with a very common name (i.e. John Smith) to brand their personal name. Its at least much easier for someone with an uncommon name.
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  • Profile picture of the author DonMarketer
    Originally Posted by Willie Murray View Post

    I've been debating this in my own mind now for what seems to be an age.... I'd be interested in other warriros opinions?

    Do you Brand yourself, your Business or both? I know a personal Brand would be much more difficult to sell later down the road, however you can leverage your personal brand to establish a business brand.

    Ideas? Should I concentrate on establishing a Business Brand or Business, my main rational for the question is to focus on one or the other to save time and costs..
    Brand is about perception. It's about how others or the marketplace perceive you.

    Your personal brand is made up of your personality, the image that you project to the world. i.e. who you are, what you can do or what you stand for. The same applies to your company brand.

    Lets for an instance look at Steve Jobs and Apple. Steve has his own brand. His brand inspire trust and confidence in the market. Apple on the other hand has a brand which is associated with quality, innovation and reliability... What a lovely combination...
    What I am trying to say is, you can brand one or the other but it would be better to do both if you can. It because people like to do business with individuals not corporations!

    So, brand yourself as the "can do kind of guy" or the "go to guy" and your business will benefit massively... Once you do so your business/company must deliver the goods!
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  • Profile picture of the author hamzah3
    I think both are necessary.Remember all religions,successful business leaders,politicians have one thing in common "Cult of Personality"
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  • Profile picture of the author absolutelee
    It's according to the ultimate direction you want to take your business in. If this is something you're thinking of building into a saleable business, then you'll need to brand the business.
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  • Profile picture of the author JaySaldivar
    It really depends on the goals you have. There are pros and cons to both. The personal brand can connect more with your audience and can make you more influential. Because in the end people buy from people. However, that brand depends on you and it's really difficult to sell. If you want to sell it later down the road, consider a business brand on your emails and blog, but also talk and write to people like you are. It's like a hybrid, just because you are a 'business brand' doesn't mean you have to talk like a business man. Something that may help get a piece of paper and put pros and cons on both based on what you want and your goals, then decide what is best.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nino Rostomashvili
    You should do both. but in my opinion its better to promotion personal brand. When people know much about you and you are a trusted person for them, then your business brand also has a good promotion. I think people like personal relationships and have more trust in that person as well as his/her brand or business and tend to buy his/her products or service than the products they don't know anything about its owner
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