People buy from you if they feel an emotional connection to you and your product or service. Your brand starts with who you are, what you like, how you present yourself, the type of people you connect with, and how you interact with them.
Since you are a solopreneur (single person running a business by themselves) offering a persona service business, your personal brand and your business brand are one and the same.
It starts with unearthing your authentic self to develop a brand that reflects your natural talents, abilities, and passions. Then you extrapolate that to your business.
Reinforcing your brand and practicing brand consistency will cause people to respond to you just as you’d like them to, so that when they hear your name mentioned they make positive associations. Eventually a trusted brand earns customer loyalty.
Items encompassed in a brand are your:
Personality/Attitude - What you are and are not (i.e. serious/frivolous; outgoing/self-centered; generous/stingy; honest/deceitful)
Key attributes – what makes you stand out from others – what do you have to offer
Presentation – how you present yourself; voice, facial expression, eyes;
Brand Description – Background: what your Brand Stands For
Mission Statement
All of this together must be consistent and send the same messages in order to build your brand.
Below is a questionnaire designed to help you look at what kind of person you are. Your branding should naturally fall from the answers. When someone looks at your brochures, or website, or hears about you, they should already feel like they know you. When they meet you in person, there should be no surprises because who you are was reflected in your branding.
This questionnaire will also help you decide what organizations to join or activities to participate in. You should be networking doing activities you love. Anything you like to do, just find a way to do it where you will meet lots of new people. You’ll show up as your best self, and you will instantly have something in common with the people there.
PERSONAL BRANDING QUESTIONNAIRE
What Kind of people do you like being with? What are their qualities? (eg: serious, fun-loving, outgoing, quiet, generous, honest, spiritual, intelligent etc. )
What kind of people do you have the most in common with?
What kind of person are you? What are your qualities?
What do you like doing for fun?
What do you feel passionate about?
What are your favorite colors to wear?
What makes you stand out from others? What do you have to offer?
Anything else about you that’s important to know.
Val Sharp is the founder and past president of the Canadian Re-designers Association and the author of “The Art of Redesign – 5 Simple Steps to No-Cost Redecorating”. She instructs people in starting their own interior redesign and home staging business. If you want to become a redesigner or home stager or you want more information about Val and her book, stop by www.sharpredesigns.com
