Have you ever thought about your personal brand and what it says about you?
When you hear Apple or Microsoft, those names conjure up a particular brand image in your mind.
Depending on your particular view of the world and those companies it can be either a good or a bad image that is brought to focus in your mind when you hear the name for those particular brands, and for a lot of companies and brands there is both good and bad.
Your view of Apple could be that they produce cool and stylish products that are easy to use and on everyone's must have lists, or on the flip side you could view them as producing expensive and proprietary technologies and aggressively attacking anyone with their lawyers that tries to bend their rules.
Microsoft can either be seen as the market share leader with top quality products or a monopoly that uses unfair/uncompetitive practices to squeeze out the competition and force their mediocre products on the masses.
As an Independent Contractor, you are your brand. What is the image that your potential clients think of when they hear your name?
Well for most independent contractors the answer is nothing. Your potential customers have never heard of you, so there is no association whatsoever. You are just a commodity, a number of hours against a budget line item, a body in a chair. Now of course the hiring company wants to get some productivity out of your, but they have no idea why they should choose you over the dozens other resumes they received for the same open contract.
Most of your prospects have never heard of you until your resume or proposal land on their desk or inbox.
That is fine, but when they go and look you up, what are they going to find? Anything? Anything good? Something bad?
Your personal brand is likely never going to become a household name to the average Joe on the street. It can however become known in your niche, but you have to work at it to get your name out there.
The best way I know of to accomplish setting your self apart from the crowd and becoming a commodity, just another body in a chair, is to become a specialist in an industry, a specific technology, or in your geography or some other market niche.
What we as independent contractors need to do then is create a positive brand for ourselves and get that brand exposed out to our target market so that those potential customers know who you are and have a good opinion of you and your particular set of skills.
What have you done to enhance your Personal Brand?
Paul Monax
Independent Contracting Resources http://www.IndependentContractingResources.com/
I am a Mentor for Independent Contractors to help them with the Business Side of their Business.
I have been a small business owner of a number of businesses over the past 11 years.
For the past 6+ years have been as the owner of a small Independent Contracting business specializing in custom software development for large enterprise systems.
Because Being Independent Doesn't Mean You Have To Do It All Alone!