Some would say that the personal brand for an entrepreneur is not that important since he/she is not in a employee situation, but rather in a hiring position. This is totally wrong.
Sure the entrepreneur often is high up in the company hierarchy or running a one-man-company, but as I written before, the brand is not only for career situations. It isn’t even only for professional situations.
When I started my first company, at the age of 17, a lot of persons around me looked at me not as an business man, but as an child and probably a lot of them thought that the company was not going to last for very long or that I would loose interest in running a company while aiming for higher studies. Well, I manage to keep the company running, and as the time passed, the respect for me and my business rose. The company I started was Liquidice, and it is still up and running. [edit: Liquidice is a part of The Rynge Group since 2007].
It is an advantage for you if the following groups of people are appealed to your brand:
Friends/family
When running at business, you need the people close to you to understand that even if you are sometimes buried in work, you love those around you.
Colleagues
If your team doesn’t believe in you, then you are in big problem. Early stage businesses are dependent on a good company culture where everyone respects and believes in the others.
Investors
How many times haven’t we heard that no matter how good an idea, without the right team, no one will invest in it? This is true, and it should be this way. You have to earn a good personal brand as an entrepreneur to attract the big money.
Customers
The most important group of the four listed here are the customers. Without them, your business doesn’t have a purpose. When selling for a new company, often with brand new products, it is essential to win the customers trust. If you are not a trustworthy person in the customer’s eyes, it doesn’t matter how good you say your product are.