If you’re working harder than ever to build your business
and still not making money, it may be because you’re trying to be someone you
are not.
Try instead to be — and to brand — yourself.
Premium brands, such as Christian Louboutin with his
signature red-lacquered-sole shoes, can charge so much more for their products
because of branding and the same is true for people. You want to be a celebrity in your field so that people are asking for you by
name. When you’re top of mind in your field, you get more referrals and it’s
much easier to bring in business through referrals than through advertising, cold
calling or submitting proposals.
How do you brand
yourself?
Begin within. You have to start by understanding who you are
before you can build a brand. Focus on the PITs — passions, interests and
talents — that make you who you are. Take your examination all the way back to
childhood and don’t forget to look at your personality, because it doesn’t
change. Ask “What’s your red sole?” Thanks to a recent court
decision, Christian Louboutin has an enforceable trademark on red-soled shoes.
With a few exceptions, he is the only one who can sell red-soled shoes. You
need to pinpoint what is unique about you — not something that applies only to
a few other people, but something that applies only to you. For most of us,
this is only going to be one or two specific things.
Own your name. Buy your space on the Internet —
www.YourName.com — and work at making yourself the first full page of results
that come up in a Google search of your name by blogging and engaging on a
variety of social media networks. You also want to put pictures out there
tagged with your name so that you have a full page of image results. Don’t
forget to set up Google alerts for your name and its various misspellings, so
you always know what people are saying about you.
Create your look. You need a consistent appearance for
yourself and look for your brand. Think about colours, logos and fonts — and
don’t forget to get a great head shot.
Post valuable content. Write blog posts and use social media
to pass along useful content that relates to your brand. Be sure to tag
everything with your name, so it all leads back to you.
Start something — something big. When you create something that’s
valuable to people, you open the door to making real connections with them.
Speak in public. If you’re unsure or inexperienced, just
start practicing.
Fire clients. The easiest and quickest way for you to
create a breakthrough in your lifestyle is to fire those clients (or customers,
or products, or product lines, or revenue streams or service offerings) that
don’t produce. You can’t serve everyone, and you don’t want
to be wasting your time on work that doesn’t pay off.
Raise prices. Yes, you’ll lose clients by raising prices,
but you’ll have to work less to make the same amount of money, so you’ll be a
winner. There are a variety of ways to raise prices, including bundling your
service instead of charging by the hour, charging more for fast or last-minute
service, and charging new clients more at the outset when you have the most
leverage.
Prepare for haters. When you set out to establish and
promote a strong brand, there will be haters, but there will be people who
love you more and they’re the ones who count. Surround
yourself with people who love and support you and who think you’re great!
