Advantages & Disadvantages of Personal Branding

advantages and disadvantages of personal branding

You want to know whether building a personal brand is worth it for you or if you rather want to rely on corporate branding instead?

Great! Stick with me since I will show you the pros and cons of personal branding in the following chapters.

Advantages of Personal Branding

  1. Your personal brand is not dependent on your business
  2. Building a personal brand can be exciting
  3. You can learn a lot by building your own personal brand
  4. Other people will envy and admire you for your personal brand
  5. You may be able to become famous
  6. You can build something unique with your personal brand
  7. Personal brands are almost impossible to copy
  8. Your personal brand can make you proud
  9. You may be able to spread your name to many people
  10. Personal branding may make you feel important
  11. Personal branding may become increasingly important
  12. You can position yourself as a real expert in your field
  13. You may be able to establish high levels of trust

Your personal brand is not dependent on your business

One advantage of building a personal brand is that once you have established yourself as an authority in your field, you will no longer be dependent on your business when it comes to success or failure.

For instance, even in case one of your businesses might fail, you will still be able to move on and start a new one since you will have built a strong personal brand and people will still trust in your abilities.

Building a personal brand can be exciting

You should also know that building a personal brand can be a pretty exciting process.

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In fact, you will have to figure out many different things at the beginning and while this can be exhausting, it is also quite a lot of fun to watch your personal brand grow.

You can learn a lot by building your own personal brand

In the process of personal branding, you can also learn quite a lot since you will be confronted with many unknown problems you have to solve and by doing all this hard work, you will not only learn lots of technical stuff but you will also learn how to push through difficult times of your career which will help you become much stronger in the long run.

Other people will envy and admire you for your personal brand

Another upside to personal branding is that you can also really impress your loved ones.

By building a strong personal brand, many people will recognize you and your social circle will secretly admire what you have achieved.

You may be able to become famous

If you take it to an extreme level, personal branding may even help you become famous.

In fact, if you start many social media channels and grow them as much as possible, you may be able to build a strong audience and may even be asked for autographs when walking down the streets.

You can build something unique with your personal brand

Personal branding can also be great if you want to build something really unique that people should connect to your name.

For instance, you could just put your photo on every item you produce and people will always know what it is if they see your face.

Personal brands are almost impossible to copy

In our current state of the world, there are also many copycats out there who try to take your ideas and sell them as theirs.

However, by personal branding, you can mitigate this to a great extent since you will be unique as a person and people will have a much harder time copying what you are doing which may protect you from your ideas getting stolen in the long run.

Your personal brand can make you proud

Building a personal brand is not only really exciting but it can also make you really proud.

In fact, if you are able to build a successful personal brand, this can greatly boost your level of confidence since you will see how many great things you can do with your own hands and may be able to push even harder from there.

You may be able to spread your name to many people

Another benefit of having a strong personal brand is that you can also use your influence to affect many people out there in a positive manner.

Personal branding is not only great for business success but also to raise awareness of people on certain problems.

For instance, you could use your reach for charity stuff and many other nice things to help many poor people all over the world.

Personal branding may make you feel important

Since personal branding allows you to connect to many different people and you will get many positive comments, it may also give you a certain feeling of importance and this may really boost your confidence.

Personal branding may become increasingly important

You should also know that personal branding has become increasingly important over the past decades and may become even more important in the future.

It may even be a crucial tool to stay successful in the long run and building a personal brand right now may therefore be a great idea.

You can position yourself as a real expert in your field

Building a personal brand may also help you convince people that you are a true expert in your field.

By showing people stuff on a personal level, you can strengthen the bonds with your audience and people will be much more eager to buy from you compared to just a random person or brand.

You may be able to establish high levels of trust

Personal branding can also be a great tool to establish real trust with your audience.

For example, you could build a YouTube channel where you speak to your audience face-to-face and can really connect to your followers on an emotional level.

As you can see, there are many upsides to building a strong personal brand instead of just relying on corporate branding.

However, personal branding also has some drawbacks that I want to discuss in the following.

Disadvantages of Personal Branding

  1. Your business is connected to your name
  2. You may have serious problems in case your reputation suffers
  3. Building a personal brand can be expensive
  4. High levels of pressure on your shoulders
  5. Building a strong personal brand is not easy
  6. Many people fail with building a personal brand
  7. Personal branding may not be worth it in some niches
  8. Personal branding greatly depends on your authenticity
  9. Hard to sell a business connected to a personal brand
  10. Getting a business loan may be harder
  11. Building a personal brand may not be great for rather shy people

Your business is connected to your name

If you rely on personal branding, your business ideas will also be connected to your name and if you fail building a strong personal brand, your businesses may suffer as well and may just not get the attention they might deserve.

You may have serious problems in case your reputation suffers

Another problem with personal branding is that in case your reputation suffers due to lawsuits or other poor things happening to you, you may get into serious trouble since people may no longer want to buy from you and may connect your face with poor experiences which you may never be able to overcome.

Building a personal brand can be expensive

You should also not forget that building a personal brand can be pretty expensive and time-consuming and this means you would have to invest quite a lot in your personal brand which may just not be worth it in some cases.

High levels of pressure on your shoulders

By building a personal brand, you will also put high levels of pressure on your shoulders since you will have to execute many marketing tasks yourself and if you are not built for this kind of lifestyle, you may just not get happy with it in the long run.

Building a strong personal brand is not easy

Another downside to having a personal brand is that it is also a pretty hard game.

In fact, pushing your name out there is not easy in a pretty competitive environment and you may just invest lots of time and money without seeing any success in the short run.

Many people fail with building a personal brand

Since building a personal brand is not easy, many people will also fail in the process since they might just give up sooner or later and may rather focus on building a strong corporate brand instead.

Personal branding may not be worth it in some niches

Depending on the business model, it may also just not make sense to build a strong personal brand since corporate branding may just work much better in industries that may not require high levels of emotional connection for customers to buy from you.

Personal branding greatly depends on your authenticity

While really authentic people may be able to build a strong personal brand rather quickly, people lacking authenticity may have a really hard time doing so since their audience will realize pretty quickly whether they are honest and integer or not.

Hence, if you are not really proud of the products you sell, you may just not be able to sell them with the help of personal branding since you may not be convinced by your products from the bottom of your heart and people will usually feel this.

Hard to sell a business connected to a personal brand

Personal branding may also be problematic in case you want to sell your business sooner or later since if everything is connected to your face, your business will greatly lose in value once you get out of it and people may just not be willing to buy your business for a reasonable price anymore.

Getting a business loan may be harder

If you don’t rely on corporate branding and want to focus on building a personal brand, banks may also be less eager to grant you a business loan since in case something bad happens to you, banks may be at greater risk of not getting their money back.

Building a personal brand may not be great for rather shy people

Also in case you are a rather shy person, building a personal brand may just not be for you since for building a strong personal brand, you really have to get your face out there and should like to interact with many new people on a regular basis.

Top 10 Personal Branding Pros & Cons – Summary List

Personal Branding ProsPersonal Branding Cons
You can run multiple businesses with your personal brandPersonal branding can be costly
Personal branding can be excitingBuilding a personal brand takes a lot of work
You can learn quite a lot by building a personal brandYou may have to deal with many snarky comments
Growing a personal brand can be funPersonal branding may not be important in some areas
You may be able to become famousBuilding a successful personal brand is hard
Personal branding can help you sell more productsMany people fail with building a personal brand
You can really connect to your audiencePoor reputation may destroy your personal brand
Personal branding may make you feel importantBanks may be less likely to grant you a loan
Personal branding helps you get out of your comfort zoneHard to sell your business
Personal brand may become increasingly importantHard to make a reasonable exit
Advantages & Disadvantages of Personal Branding

Does Personal Branding Make Sense For You?

While personal branding can make quite a lot of sense in case you want to put out your name and also strive for becoming famous, it also has some drawbacks since many things depend on you and in case your reputation suffers, so will your businesses.

In the end, it is on you to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of personal vs. corporate branding carefully so you can decide for yourself whether personal branding makes sense for your business venture or not.

Sources

https://www.statista.com/topics/1664/brand-value/

About the author

My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.

As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.

After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.

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