Should You Spend Time Building a Business Brand or a Personal Brand?

As a professional, you have the option to either create a business brand or a personal brand, but what are the differences exactly?

In this blog, we will help you decide where to spend your time.

Business Brands: The Basics

In a nutshell, a business brand is based on an identity that you create for your business – it’s separate from your personal name.

Pros

 Keeps your name and business separate. If you don’t mind linking your face to your business but you don’t necessarily want to get too personal with potential clients, a business brand is a better fit for you.

 Highly focused. When you build a business brand, you are forced to have a solid plan, vision, and goals in place right from the start.

 Easier to sell. If you ever choose to sell your brand, selling a business brand is a lot easier because it’s not linked to a specific person.

Cons

 Not as flexible. When you create a business brand, it’s not as easy to alter things should your interests and expertise change.

 Harder to build. Building a business brand generally takes a lot more work. With a personal brand, you’re only asking people to trust one person. With a business brand, you are now asking people to trust a brand name, where it’s not always clear who’s behind it.

Personal Brands: The Basics A personal brand is all about you and is based on your personality and lifestyle – you would brand your business using your name.

Pros

 Great for one-person businesses. If you are a professional speaker, coach, author, or artist, it makes more sense to spend time building a personal brand. That’s because your services are directly linked to who you are as a person.

 Greater flexibility. When you have a personal brand, you get to decide what you want to do and specialize in at any stage.

 More personality. While a business brand can be fun, it’s much easier to have fun with a personal brand because you get to incorporate your interests and personality.

Cons

 Harder to establish yourself. Because a personal brand is only one person, it can be more difficult to establish yourself and build trust within your industry. This is why it’s important to promote yourself using the right tactics.

 Difficult to sell. If you ever want to sell your brand or business, it’s much harder to do when it’s linked to a person’s name.

How to Spend Your Time

Now that you understand the key differences between a personal and business brand, you probably have a better idea of how you want to spend your time. The good news is that there’s also the option of finding a happy medium where you build a business brand but also your personal brand as the owner of the business.

Jamie Salima Love is a FingerLakes, NY and Boston MA based Headshot and Personal Branding Photographer extraordinaire. She has helped thousands of small businesses, brands, and entrepreneurs over her 20 yr career by creating updated photo libraries with stellar imagery. She is available for a multitude of services, whether you’re looking to work with her to simply update your Headshots, or to create an extensive Personal Branding Photography strategy and library with all the bells and whistles she’s got you covered.