Bernskiold Media

One of the toughest decisions to make is the one whether to promote yourself in your own name or if you should think out a good company name and go under that! Both personal and company branding have their own benefits and can both be good. Let’s take a look at some!

Pros and Cons: Personal Branding

The best thing about personal branding is that your own name comes out. You will automatically gain that expert level and recognition with your name if you succeed. What is the best thing can also be the worst thing! The fact that your business equals your name can mean many restraints in some cases. You will have to think more about where you sign up, what you write on public websites and so forth. If you really succeed, your business will follow you around even where you don’t want it.
Not to shade total darkness on the personal branding however, it is nice to get the instant credit as being the talented freelancer doing the work!

Pros and Cons: Company Branding

I find that the main bonus of company branding is the solution of the negative side from personal branding and so, these types are their own opposites. With a company branding, you have the company name to strive for. People will associate your company name with the quality work that you do which ultimately gives you more freedom (not to overuse that).

As a con, you won’t be as closely associated with your work when it comes to recognition. However, if you really work on it, there is nothing stopping you from becoming known as Yourname at Yourcompany.

Conclusion

As we haven’t taken a look at the legalities in these matters (which also makes a difference), it is pretty much a pick-and-choose model. There is however nothing stopping you from going over to a company branding if you are not happy with doing it in your own name. It is quite a bit harder to go the other way around!

Myself, I chose the company branding many years ago. While I have pondered if it was the right decision to make when I just started out, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am happy with it. However, had I been making the choice today, I would have probably started out with a personal branding.