Let's talk about personal brand vs business brand.
Which one is better for you?
After our live 5-day challenge a few weeks ago, I came to the realization that things were not quite aligned in my brand the way I needed them to be in order to build a business that I love…five, ten, twenty years from now.
One of the biggest things I struggled with and had to finally stop fighting…I needed to build a personal brand instead of building a business brand that I thought I wanted.
Let’s first talk about the difference between a personal brand and a business brand so you can decide which is better for you.
Personal Brand
A personal brand is a brand that revolves around you as a person. It has a lot more flexibility in terms of your copy, personality, and visual style…and it’s a whole lot easier to adapt, make changes to, and evolve as you do.
Personal brands are great for speakers, authors, or influencers.
Business Brand
A business brand is built around an identity you create for your business. The process of building a business brand takes a lot longer upfront because you’re creating an identity around a business, not you as an individual. In a personal brand, you already have a sense of who you are and what you believe.
When it comes to a business brand, there’s not a lot of room for flexibility. There are a lot of rules of engagement that get established upfront, and if you have a great brand manager, changes to a business brand should be harder to make because they’re there to ensure that the business stays on brand. Remember, the brand manager is not trying to be Debbie Downer. The role of a brand manager is to protect the brand.
So after our 5-day challenge, I realized that Sung & Co should really be a personal brand. You might be thinking, duh, it has your last name in it, Sarah! And I guess that should’ve been the first clue, right?
But the thing is, I thought because I’d have a team (small, but mighty) a few years from now, I had to be a business. And if I’m being completely honest, I also wanted to hide my quirky side from the world because I was afraid that people wouldn’t take me seriously. But the more I tried to be “business” and less “let’s have a heart to heart” through my brand, I realized that I was not having fun anymore…and things were getting boring real fast. 😴
People will tell you how to run your business or how you should post content on your social media along the way. And although, yes, you should very much listen to what’s working and what’s not working for others, you also need to decide what’s best for you and your business. After following a lot of “this is what you need to do” from marketing influencers, I realized that I was losing what made my business mine and what I was known for.
If you’re in the season of rebranding, you’ll want to join the newsletter and get some helpful tips and resources to help you along the way.
Until next time,
Happy Branding!
