When my friend asked me for advice about starting a new business, the first thing I told her was to build herself first before building her own Empire. If you are not prepared for what’s to come in your business, then you are not ready to build your business. Building yourself means building your own personal brand. You can’t expect to grow your business brand if you don’t do branding for yourself first. Why does this matter, though? Keep reading this article to find out!

When some of my clients fully trusted me to provide content marketing services for them without feeling the need to involve themselves in the projects, I was feeling both proud and worried at the same time. I ended up telling them to be more involved in the projects, not because I couldn’t do it without them, but we had to do it with them – and that’s a part of the progress we have to implement in order to build a business with stronger marketing strategies. Growing your own personal brand can help you boost and grow your business brand in more effective ways. Here’s why…

People need to know they’re dealing with a human, not just a faceless company

You could be a company that had been established since years ago and still, people wouldn’t recognise your company’s presence simply because they didn’t know you. In most cases, people won’t buy from a brand not because the brand is not popular, but because they don’t trust the owner. With almost all crimes happening in the cyber world nowadays, people are reluctant to buy stuff from new online businesses because they don’t trust the owner. Is the owner a real person? Is the owner reliable? Will the owner send me the stuff I have bought from them? That’s why people need to know if you are real and you are really selling your products or services. So, how do you convince them, then? It’s simple (but not that simple); you have to be present in your business. What I meant by ‘being present’ is that people should know your name, your bio, your personal profile – your identity. Yes, you need social media. When you have your business social media, it is natural for you to also involve your personal social media account in your business social media campaigns. Although I said that, it doesn’t mean you can mix personal matters with business matters. It simply means that you are introducing yourself to your potential customers and letting them know that you are here to solve their problems. To make you get a better understanding of this, let me give you a real life example. There is this beauty brand I have been following for a while on Instagram. The brand is not that big, nor is it globally known, but surprisingly, they hold much audience – enough to get profits from that. The method the brand uses for increasing their brand awareness is simple; sharing skincare knowledge straight from the owner. I also know the owner’s name because it was shared once by the brand. After watching her Instagram stories (both from her personal and business accounts) and reading her story highlights, I can say that the owner is very ambitious yet so humble to share helpful information especially about skincare. Do you realise what this means? It means she shows her followers that she is genuine and her business is not a scam. She doesn’t trust anybody to manage the business social media account so she is the one who manages it. And believe me, she really knows how to ‘control the crowds’ and get them to listen to her. She knows what she is doing. She gains her followers’ trust both in her business and her products through her involvement in her business.

That being said, even though you are letting your customers know about you, don’t mix your personal matters with your business matters – you have to keep it professional. The reason you build a business is not merely because you want to gain profit, but it is because you want to be the solution for your potential customers’ problems. When you do it the right way with this in mind, you are on the right path.