Five Tips to Create Your Personal Brand

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Are you the brand?

When most of us quit jobs to start businesses, we often talk about our new companies as if they were bigger than they are. We use “we” instead of I, and we like to give the impression that there are other people in the business when most of the time, it’s a one person shop.

There may be valid reasons to do this, but I find that in most cases, the only reason behind the decision to position the business this way, is the fear of the business owner that he or she needs to appear bigger and better in order to seem credible and attract clients.

When we make decisions based on fear, and feel the need to window dress rather than be ourselves, we often miss the best opportunities to shine. Here’s why:

As a small business owner, your number one marketable asset is you. You are the business. You are the brand. You are the brainpower and the heart and soul of the company. You are the one building the client relationships, and caring and nurturing those clients so that they become repeat customers and raving fans.

Even if you have staff or team members, or you subcontract parts of the work to other businesses, you are the face of the company.

By contrast, in large companies and the corporate world, the face of the company is not one single individual. Millions are spent building corporate images, advertising and marketing, and serving customers. In many cases, these large companies do not appear to the consumer as being very human.  But their sheer size and investment keeps them in front of potential customers. So following their standards and trying to appear more “corporate” to be more credible, is a flawed approach from the start.

For small businesses, the single biggest source of new customers is usually word of mouth. People will come to you because they feel they know, like and trust you, or because someone they trust recommends you.

Your best forms of marketing are those that allow you to be personal, build relationships and connections with your potential customers, and those that are also realistic for your balance sheet.

Here are five ways to start building your personal brand:

1. Ditch the “we” talk unless you are delivering your services with others.
2. Tell a little about yourself in all of your marketing material and connections with your customers. Share the experiences that shape you. Choose anecdotes that would resonate with your audience and that connect with the theme of your services.
3. Design your services in such a way to reflect what you love to do, and are good at, as opposed to what you can make money at because you’re good at.
4. Have a signature topic or product that you want to become known for and market that relentlessly. Avoid the urge to be all things to all people, and be that one valuable and irreplaceable person.
5. Use your natural talents as your best forms of marketing your business. For example, if you enjoy writing, write articles to email to your clients, or publish in a local paper. If speaking is your thing, getting in front of more audiences is a surefire way to build authentic connections and gain exposure at the same time.

Following these tips will allow you to show off your most marketable asset, which is you.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:  Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System^TM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and  unlock their business potential for greater  personal freedom and prosperity. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful entrepreneurial adventure. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for free tips on how to unlock the business in you.

Top 5 Reasons Not to Try Something New

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Whether you’re deciding if you’re going to finally quit your job, or you’re already in business and you’ve been thinking about making some changes to your products or something else, you will need to make decisions.

It’s easy to do this when you’re feeling on top of the world, when you’re on a post-conference or training high, or when you’re floating in a pool lounge on a tropical vacation (how many ultimate life makeovers are planned there?).

It’s not so easy when you realize that making the decision isn’t enough, and following through on it is harder than you thought.

At about this time, your doubts start to outnumber your great ideas. You wonder if you were crazy. You question yourself, and you begin to come up with reasons why you should perhaps reconsider. Here are five:

1. I don’t know enough – Someone else knows more about it than I do. Who am I kidding? Everyone will be able to tell, and I’ll look like I don’t know what I’m doing. Maybe I should just stick with what I’m good at, and forget about it.
2. I’m not ready – Since I don’t know enough about it, I think I’ll wait awhile. Going ahead with something that I’m not sure I can do 110% could actually backfire on me. I’ll take the next several months (insert time) to learn more about it and do it then.
3. I’m not sure it will work – Well, I know that others do this, and have had success. But I’m not sure that it will work for me, or my kind of business. Isn’t it better to stick with a more conservative approach, especially if it’s worked for me so far? It if ain’t broke, why fix it?  Variation: I’ve tried it once and it didn’t work. I worked my butt off, it cost me a lot of money and time, and it didn’t pay off. I’ve learned my lesson.
4. I don’t have enough time – I have too much on my plate right now. I have to make a living and take care of me and my family. What’s the point in starting something if I don’t think I’ll be able to maintain it and devote the effort and time I need to make it a success? I think I better wait. It’s selfish of me to do otherwise.
5. It doesn’t feel right – I trust my instincts. Everything happens for a reason, and the reason I must be having these second thoughts is that I must be on the wrong path. The Universe is sending me a message to stop and revisit.

I can guarantee that you have had one or several of these thoughts yourself. I know this because we all have them, at one time or another.

Unfortunately the internet is full of “experts” who claim to be making tons of money doing very little. They’ll make you feel that buying their expensive programs are the only way to get ahead. They’ll sell you on the idea that you have to pay to play the game.

I attended one event where the expert told people that they were not true entrepreneurs if they were not willing to pay $16,000 to join her group program, because they must not really want it bad enough. If they had second thoughts, they should consider throwing in the towel because they’d never be successful.

As much as I admire this person for her business savvy and expertise in her area of specialty, and I think it’s smart to offer a higher ticket choice for those customers that want that, I couldn’t help but think that the harsh approach crossed the line of preying on people’s insecurities.

See, having them is not the real problem. Letting them stop you is. The fact is, if you’re leaving a job for a business, or you’ve done it already, you can expect this, and more than once. Starting a business does not come with a guarantee. Even once it’s rolling along, you will experience the discomfort of change every time you choose to try something new.

Often these thoughts are just our minds’ way of self protection, and are learned beliefs we’ve picked up along the way. A colleague of mine, Brenda Stanton calls this “collecting evidence”, meaning we start to look for the proof that, in this case, our new idea isn’t meant to be. I call this the Law of Rejection!

One thing I’ve learned, if you go looking, you’ll find it! So why not look instead for all of the reasons why you should stay on your path, and choose to succeed.

Sometimes the second thoughts actually help you, if you scrape the surface and find that there are flaws in your plan, or disconnects between your actions, and your end goal. But if you’ve got a solid foundation, they’re almost never good enough reasons to give up.

As you know, I’m a big advocate of putting in the time up front to explore what you want most passionately, finding ways to bring that passion to form in your service, and determine the best matches for you so that you can design, manage and market your business to attain that extraordinary life you’ve envisioned for yourself.

But although you will benefit from help along the way, and you can learn new skills and hire others when you need to, no one else can make these inner decisions other than you.  Be grateful for the discomfort, because it means you’re growing! Never stop!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:  Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System^TM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and  unlock their business potential for greater  personal freedom and prosperity. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful entrepreneurial adventure. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for free tips on how to unlock the business in you.

Break Free Tip! Look through a window

It’s really difficult to get perspective on your business when you are the business. But this is so important, especially when it comes to developing your marketing material, because you need to be able to talk to your potential customers from their vantage point, not yours. A great way to get perspective is to look through the window of your clients, instead of in the mirror. Ask them what they value about you, and even how they would introduce you to someone they thought may benefit from what you have to offer. If you don’t have clients yet, you can still do this – talk to past employers, business colleagues and even very good friends who understand the business you are planning to create. I guarantee that you’ll get an immensely valuable, very different message than the one you would come up with by yourself. To hear more tips, watch the video below.