Instead of just telling you why personal branding is essential, it might be more effective to give you some examples of other entrepreneurs who illustrated just how crucial personal branding could be.
Here are five people who started as entrepreneurs but knew early on that, as a business leader, it was just as essential to build their own reputation as it was to build the company’s.
Whitney Wolfe Herd recently made headlines as the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire when she took her dating app, Bumble, public.
She has been in the public’s eye for longer than just recently, though, having been involved in getting the dating app Tinder off the ground, as well as ventures before that in the nonprofit world.
Whitney Wolfe Herd has meticulously crafted a personal brand around her wild success, taking the lead in empowering other women to take on leadership roles as well.
She’s also built a reputation around standing up for herself when she filed a lawsuit against Tinder in 2014 for harassment. Her personal brand is all about building other women up in the world of business.
A household name around the world, Bill Gates is a constant fixture on the list of the wealthiest people in the world, usually trading places with the likes of Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and Elon Musk.
However, he didn’t start rich and famous; he and Paul Allen cultivated a public persona of a couple of “wunderkinds” who were constantly innovating in the world of software and personal computing. This personal brand allowed them to find Microsoft, create a reputation for excellence, and land lucrative contracts with IBM computers.
Today, Gates has moved outside of the world of computers and is well-known for his philanthropy.
Warren Buffett’s name is synonymous with being an expert investor, and this reputation didn’t come around by accident.
From an early age, Buffett was constantly looking for ways to turn his money into more money, but he had to build a personal brand to get people to trust him enough to invest in his company.
Without a proven track record of success, Buffett had only his personal brand to convince his friends. And convince them he did, along the way founding one of the most profitable companies in the world, Berkshire Hathaway.
More people probably know Elon Musk’s name than either of his businesses, Tesla or SpaceX, and that’s because his personal brand is larger than life.
A self-made billionaire, Musk was involved in two massive buyouts when he was young, helping to cofound Zip2 and PayPal and receiving a big payday when Microsoft and eBay acquired them, respectively.
Elon Musk has long proven himself a visionary, and when he speaks, multiple industries listen; his Tweets have been enough to affect the stock market.
Musk proves that there’s a lot more to business than just a fancy logo (but if you need help designing a logo, check out LogoCreator, where you can do it for free).
The final entry on our list is Sir Richard Branson, an Englishman who founded the Virgin Group and is one of the world’s wealthiest men.
His entire company is built around his fun, energetic, adventurous brand, and has become an innovative and daring company.
Branson’s company follows his lead, and most people know his name and what he means. He’s a successful example of an entrepreneur whose personal brand could take his company to incredible heights.
All of these insanely wealthy people started out as simple entrepreneurs, but they grasped early on the importance of getting publicity around their personality and company. They’re perfect illustrations of why no entrepreneur should neglect their brand.
This article has been authored by Sally Walker
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