Personal Branding vs. Business Branding: Understanding the Difference

The other day, I posted about branding your business. If you’re an online service provider, you might have heard about personal branding and business branding. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a consultant, or an online coach, understanding the difference between personal branding and business branding can be the key to growing your business. But what exactly are the differences, the pros and cons, and which should an online service provider focus on? Continue reading and I’ll explain…

What is Personal Branding?

Personal branding is all about you. Your name, your face, your expertise, and your reputation. It’s the process of marketing yourself as a unique individual, building a business that showcases your skills, values, and unique experiences. Personal branding is deeply tied to who you are and how you present yourself to the world, both online and offline.

Personal branding allows your authenticity to shine through, therefore building genuine connections with your customers. You can do this by sharing your personal story, your values or even any mistakes you made. Basically – personal branding makes you human, and more relatable to your audience, so they end up trusting you a lot more.  

There are a few negatives to personal branding, however. The biggest one is that it opens you up to any personal mistakes or challenges you may face – this could directly impact your business growth. The other negatives include issues like scaling your business, as it relies very heavily on your own involvement, plus, if you have scaled and you want to sell your business – a personal brand is hard to sell.

What is Business Branding?

Business branding revolves around your actual company and the services it offers. It involves creating a brand identity for your business that includes a name, logo, mission, values, and voice. This identity is a completely different thing from you as an individual and doesn’t always relate to the people behind the identity or the business.

Branding as a business is great in many ways, it allows for a more professional ‘look’, and people may argue that business branding is something people take more seriously. It also allows you to scale a lot faster, plus you can appeal to a wider audience.

However, there is a lot less personal connection, and it can be hard to make those all-important relationships, meaning that the same level of trust that a personal brand gets is hard to reach. Also, if you decide to take your business in a different direction, it might be a bit more difficult to change.

What should an online service provider do? 

For online service providers, the decision between personal branding and business branding depends on your goals, your industry, and long-term vision. Here’s how to approach it:

Personal Branding: If you’re a freelancer, consultant, or coach personal branding can be really powerful. It allows you to build a reputation based on your expertise and personal story. However, consider how you might eventually scale or transition if you decide to expand or sell your business.

Business Branding: If you’re planning to grow your online service into a larger entity with multiple employees, offerings, or locations, business branding might be more appropriate. This approach allows you to create a brand that can stand on its own, separate from you as an individual.

Hybrid Approach: Many online service providers find success by combining both approaches. I have done this approach for my business. You might use personal branding to build trust and attract clients while developing a business brand that can scale. Having a business brand in place, with your personal branding being used on socials, emails etc means that you can slowly move away from personal branding when the time comes.

Whether you choose personal branding, business branding, or a hybrid approach, the key is to be strategic about how you present yourself and your services. Consider your long-term goals, the nature of the industry you’re in, and how you want to connect with your audience. By understanding the differences and weighing the pros and cons, you can make a planned decision that gives you and your business success.

If you need help deciding on which route to go down, then give me a message today and I can chat it through with you.