Personal Branding for Small Business Marketing Brands

Business is becoming more and more competitive. Small business marketing is the fastest-growing segment of business in most parts of the world.

Sales and Copywriting

So thanks to the Internet, your competitors are no longer just the businesses down the street. They are the businesses in the next town, in the next country and even on the next continent.

So, as the leader of a small business, how do you succeed in a dynamic world of increasing complexity with a much larger set of competitors?

The answer seems too easy to be true: Be yourself.

To succeed with your small business and keep it on the right track, use your personal brand—your unique promise of value. In the world of small business, the corporate brand is the personal brand of its leaders.

Inextricably Linked

These brands are inextricably linked. You need only look at successful entrepreneurs like Ben and Jerry, Richard Branson and Bill Gates to see that entrepreneurial ventures take on the values and passions of their leaders.

According to Nation’s Business Magazine, “Branding is the hottest concept in marketing today, and, it’s an idea that is not just for the deep-pocketed, highly glossed Coca-Colas and Nikes of the world. An increasing number of independent-business owners are embracing branding as the guiding philosophy for building their companies.”

Being true to your personal brand ensures that your business stays on course and remains highly differentiated and valuable to your target market.

Christophe Ginisty, managing director of the communications firm Rumeur Publique, says, “Buyers are putting their trust not only in a company, but in the leaders of that company. For small businesses, the leaders are often even more important. It is critical to ensure that the leaders are an integral part of the corporate communications strategy and that their personal brands are clear, relevant and accurate.”

Building your business around your brand also enables you to obtain the highest level of satisfaction and fulfillment from your hard work. The first and most important step in brand building involves uncovering your unique promise of value.

This helps you to identify what is truly important to you, what makes you unique and what values will drive your business decisions. Understanding your true personal brand enables you to stay on target with your business and make strategic and tactical decisions that are consistent with your values, your passions and your goals.

Once you have a clear understanding of your differentiation and its relevance to your ideal target audience, you can build a brand communications plan to get your message out to those who will make your business a success. These communications need only be focused on your target market. If your target market is everyone in the world, you will need a communications budget the size of Coca Cola’s.

That’s why focus is the key. Although it seems counterintuitive, the smaller you make your target market, the greater your chances of success.

Like with all strong brands, once you have established an authentic and differentiated brand that is relevant to your target audience, you must ensure that all aspects of your business are reinforcing this brand message. Developing brand guidelines that clearly describe what is on- and off-brand for your business will help guide you as your business grows.

Some Practical Advice

Here are three steps to using your personal brand to build your business.

1. Unearth Your Brand:

• Document your vision, purpose, values and passions.
• Be clear about the goals for your business.
• Describe your ideal target audience.
• Understand your competitors.
• Define your unique promise of value (what separates you from your competitors and is compelling to your target audience).

2. Build Your Brand Communications Plan:

• Define the communications tools you will use to reach your target audience.
• Clearly document your brand message and ensure that it is included in all your communications.
• Develop a communications plan that will keep you constantly visible to your target audience.

3. Manage Your Brand Environment:

• Make sure that everything that surrounds your brand (your office, Web site, customer service organization, etc.) communicates the same brand message.
• Build and nurture your professional network and ensure that all members understand your brand message.
• Establish appropriate partnerships to extend your brand and gain complementary brand value.

So when you are developing a branding strategy for your small business, take a good look at your personal brand. And through the clear and consistent expression of your unique promise of value, your business will thrive.

eing an entrepreneur is very appealing but not everyone can become one. One of the quickest and easiest ways to become a successful entrepreneur is by working at home through a home-based entrepreneur business.

Firstly, you need to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. After the evaluation, you can now determine if you can manage your own online business. Aside from the evaluation process, you must know how to plan, organize, staff, and control. These are your responsibilities as an entrepreneur. You should be able to work alone because now you’re the boss and all business decisions will be made by you.

Some say that online businesses can be run without many problems. Well, they are very wrong because even with an online business, you have to deal with certain business problems and risks. You can’t eliminate such risks because that goes hand in hand with any business undertaking, both for online and offline businesses. However, you can reduce the risks that you’re bound to deal with in the future by choosing the best home-based entrepreneur business that will work for you.

Entrepreneurs are known to be self-starters. Organizing your time is a difficult task but if you want to run a home-based online business, you should be able to do it. Remember, you don’t have a boss that you can rely on. This is your business and you have to be responsible for it at all times.

Running your own business would also mean that you have to deal with different kinds of persons. You will surely encounter demanding customers, moody vendors, and an unreliable staff. To become a successful home-based business entrepreneur, you should know how to deal with them individually. You should know the quirks of every person that you encounter so that you can address them and the situation correctly.

Running an online business is all about your attitude and character. According to some experts who conducted researches about the characteristics of entrepreneurs, there are certain traits that an entrepreneur should possess. As mentioned earlier, entrepreneurs are risk-takers, self-starters, and know how to deal with different kinds of people.

Those traits and characteristics are not enough. You have to have more than that. Another trait that you should possess is being an excellent decision maker. Since you’re the boss, you should be able to make quick yet effective decisions. Some situations are filled with pressures but despite the pressures, you still need to make an informed and wise decision. As owner of your online business, you have no one else to rely on when it comes to business related decisions.

To be an effective online business entrepreneur, you must have lots of energy and superior work ethic. Owning an online business may mean working even on late hours and on the weekends. However, you must not be pressured of your tasks. View them as challenges and strive even harder. Your efforts will be rewarded once you see the profits rolling in.

If you already know the responsibilities of an entrepreneur, then you can assess if you can become successful in an online business. Working at home through a home-based entrepreneur business requires dedication and hard work. You must be able to monitor your finances, tasks, inventory, work schedules, and many others. Good luck and may your chosen home-based business become a success.