Maximising Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs Donna Rachelson has just released her fourth book, Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs, a fast and worthwhile read to enhance your personal brand and to figure out what makes you truly distinctive.
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Donna has more than 25 years of experience in investigating what makes brands successful. She has a passion for entrepreneurs, has extensive experience in helping start-ups and growth stage businesses to succeed and is an entrepreneur herself.
She highlights a key finding from Seed Academy's The Real State of Entrepreneurship Surve that marketing and getting customers is a key challenge for entrepreneurs.
"They have limited funds to market their businesses, so it makes sense for entrepreneurs to brand and market themselves - it's essential for any entrepreneur to get ahead."
Finding the knowledge gap
Rachelson noticed that there were very few books about personal branding and having sat through countless business pitches, she identified the gap.
Related: Personal Brand or Business Brand: Which is More Important?
"The truth is that people buy into people before they buy into a business idea," she explains, "So it's imperative that South Africa's entrepreneurs gets this aspect right to become more successful so that our economy can grow."
Effective personal branding is about being deliberate in cultivating how others perceive you. It's about packaging everything you offer in an authentic and noticeable way that makes you stand out.
She encourages readers to understand what differentiates them from others with similar qualifications and experience, as a personal brand is your competitive edge.
Real-life examples and advice
Rachelson's book offers practical advice and real-life examples gleaned from seven successful entrepreneurs.
Related: How Personal Brands Drive Business Success
The seven come from different industries and are at different stages of their personal branding journeys yet what they offer is applicable to most businesses and their experiences can help you to build and market your own personal brand.
You'll learn about what a personal brand is, why it's critical to business success and what's needed to grow it.
The book is a quick, small handbag sized read at only 148 pages and is filled with easily digestible nuggets and simple-to-apply actions. It's ideal for short attention spans. For instance, Rachelson explains a personal brand pitch: "Simply state what key problem you solve, for whom and what benefit they get from out it."
Related: How Lesego Maphanga Is Building His Personal Brand
She encourages you to list your best strengths by asking you to answer: Why do people choose to work with you over someone with similar skills, experience and technical ability? It's the type of book that will work for you as hard as you work to implement its ideas.
It was written for entrepreneurs but anyone who wants to take their career to the next level will benefit from the lessons offered. Donna's previous books were all best sellers and include Branding & Marketing YOU, Branding & Marketing YOU Through Teams and Play to Win: What Women Can Learn From Men in Business.
The book is published by Tracey McDonald Publishers and is available at all fine South African bookstores. The ebook is available on Kindle. Also available for purchase from Amazon and https://donnarachelson.com/
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