Your own brand

I have read the Trump Card by Ivanka Trump again recently.  An heiress who is "happen" to be rich and famous is not at all surprising. Even the fact that she has built a successful career is often viewed as a "dah", considering how much resources and opportunities are available to her. Yes she has the upbringing, the wealth and the last name that people can only dream of, I still admire her being a high achieving woman and entrepreneur.  I recommend young women, and men, read this book, as it gives out tangible career and business advice. Sometimes these pieces of advice do not necessarily need to be novel or fancy. In fact, there are sets of principles that will always apply, whether you are fresh graduates or top executives. These are normally common sense principles, for example, don't be late, check typos in your emails. If you do these, you won't get any extra brownie points but if you don't, you will immediately feel the negative impacts.

What I also like about the book is that Ivanka described the journey she took to discover and establish her own identify and brand when launching her fine jewelry business.  This is inspiring for entrepreneurs who have started but have not really found the edge, or who are still putting together their business plans. I recently asked a group of entrepreneurs, after they decided to launch a business, what was the first thing they did the next morning. The answers include, get a good accountant, register a company (for 20 odd pounds), and find your target market. The answer is unique to everyone.  But no one said that they had a lie-in the next morning, and ended up doing nothing about their business idea.  Well, many people did not have a lie-in but legitimately had a second thought about the business idea. They felt the barrier to entry to too high in the market they wish to pursue, or the market is already saturated.  There people (including me), who simply went through the motions, are not entrepreneurs, yet.

Everyday, things get invented and new business are formed. I recently came cross an article about the set up cost of an asset management business. The first impression was gee, £1 million sunk cost, 5 years to break even! Then I read it again carefully and had a pen in hand to write down the cost items. It turned out, the author went for the maximum you could spend for each item and include items that may not apply for all businesses.  The picture suddenly become less discouraging than the author painted.  The barrier to entry may not be as high as you thought.

Back to the question on what to do the next day should you wish to go on a business venture, my view is you could think about your brand, in other words, what do you (and your business) stand for. We are not the daughter of Donald Trump, but there is a brand for each one of us. It is a matter of finding it out and putting it out there. The "putting it out there" bit is easier considering the number of social media means available. You can hyperlink your LinkedIn pages to a CV document, just to add one more dimension to your otherwise fairly standard CV. Blogger and personal website could also be another good way to brand yourself in front of your clients, employers or business partners. But be sure to have a consistent image via these social media, so that it is memorable.  The rationale is simple, if you open a can of Coke and it tastes differently each time, then you don't have a brand.