50 Best Personal Branding ideas & Tips for the Workplace

Do you want to stand out among your team in the workplace? If YES, here are 50 best actionable personal branding ideas & tips for entrepreneurs and employees. One of the main reasons why some employees or entrepreneurs stand out in their workplaces or industries is the way and manner they handle their personal branding.

According to Wikipedia, personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. While previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging.

Building your personal brand is not about play-acting to be someone you are not. It is about knowing who you truly are and putting yourself forward in the world as that person. You ought to do this deliberately with an eye towards gaining more opportunities and achieving your overall vision for your life and career/business. The truth is that in the long run, it will help you build the kind of corporate cum personal brand that will help you achieve all that you have set to achieve.

So as an employee or an entrepreneur, if you desire to become one of the most preferred employees in your workplace or the most preferred entrepreneur in your industry, then you need to take personal branding seriously. Here are 50 workplace personal branding ideas and tips that you need if you are either an entrepreneur or an employee.

50 Best Personal Branding ideas & Tips in the Workplace for Entrepreneurs and Employees

1. Dress Smart and Neat

There is a saying that ‘The way you dress is the way you are addressed’. In essence, the first thing people see about your personal branding is the way you are dressed. If you are a doctor and you are dressed like a mechanic, of course, people will address you like a mechanic unless you prove to them that you are a doctor. As an employee or entrepreneur who wants to be successful, you should always dress successful; that is smart and neat all the time.

2. Create Personal Goal and Vision

The first port of call when it comes to workplace personal branding is to set personal goal and vision for your career. It is your vision or goal in life that propels you to want to achieve all that you have set to achieve; it is what gives direction to your life and business.

In the real sense of it, your workplace personal brand should be closely tied to your personal goal and vision for your life. And you are the only person that can decide what you want to get out of your life. So, if you are looking towards creating personal branding for yourself, then you should start with creating a personal vision and goal for your career and life.

3. Exude Confidence Always

One of the things you need to do if you want to brand yourself as a successful employee in your workplace or entrepreneur in your industry is to always exude confidence. The truth is that when you display confidence, it will go a long way to show that you have what it takes to handle any assignment in your workplace. It will give the management of your organization the confidence to trust you with greater responsibilities.

4. Communicate Effectively and Clearly

Another workplace personal branding idea you can adopt as an entrepreneur or employee is to ensure that you always communicate effectively and clearly. As a matter of fact, communicating effectively is one major tool that will project you for good both in the corporate and business world.

As an employee, when you communicate effectively, both your subordinates and superiors will find it easier to flow with you. So also, as an entrepreneur, when you communicate effectively and clearly, your customers will be able to flow with you.

5. Be Punctual

Punctuality is what will stand you out in your workplace as an employee or industry as an entrepreneur. An employee that is always punctual will one day win an award in his or her workplace. So, one of the workplace personal branding tips you need as an entrepreneur or employee is to always be punctual.

6. Be Humble

Another workplace personal branding tip for an entrepreneur or employee who desires to stand out is humility. Humility is a virtue that can take you from the lowest cadre in your workplace to the top; it has helped loads of people achieve their business goals. You can be competent and smart, if you lack humility, in most cases you will find authority figures resisting your promotions.

7. Leverage on Social Media

In recent time, if there is any tool that can project your personal brand, then social medial should be number one on the list. With social media, you can easily communicate your personal brand to a wide audience; it is a tool that has opened doors for many people. I must also mention that social media can ruin your personal brand if you are not careful. When it comes to using social media to build your personal brand, you should be conscious of what you post.

8. Work on Your Interpersonal Skills

The way and manner you relate with people in your workplace or in your business will go a long way to portray who you are; it will indeed communicate your personal brand. If you want to build a good brand as an employee or entrepreneur, then you should be deliberate when it comes to working on your interpersonal skills.

9. Be Respectful

Another workplace personal branding idea that you need as an employee or entrepreneur is to be respectful. To be respectful does not mean you should only respect those who are your boss or those who are older then you. You are expected to show respect to all and sundry.

10. Always Display Competence

Come to think of it, if you are not competent, it won’t be too long before you are shown the exit door in your organization. So, one of the branding tips you need as an employee or entrepreneur is to always display competence in your job. You are expected to go the extra mile to gain knowledge and experience that will help you perform your job excellently.

11. Be Exposed

One major tips or idea you would need when it comes to building your workplace personal brand is to find ways to get exposure. Trust me, there are loads of avenues you can leverage on to achieve this. You can gain exposure form offline or online medium. Just ensure that you are at the right place and at the right time learning one or more things that will help you improve your soft skills, because ultimately, your soft skills are a major influencer of your personal brand.

12. Do All You Can to Gain Press Coverage

If you are good at what you do, be it in business as an entrepreneur or in your place as an employee, you will one day attract the media. The media is one of the most potent tools when it comes promoting your personal brand and if you are able to gain the attention of the media, you are sure going to become a celebrity of some sort if you use the opportunity to your advantage.

13. Join Professional Organizations

Part of what you need to do when building your workplace personal brand is to join professional organizations within your industry or career. The truth is that attending local business and community events will help groom you and of course project your personal brand. Remember, you can’t just sit back and hope your personal brand will get noticed — you need to make it happen.

14. Hire a Personal Groomer

If you are truly serious about personal branding, then you should not ignore your overall appearance in public. Going the extra mile to hire a personal groomer to groom you in such a way that your personal brand will be noticed is one sure way to successfully build your person brand as an entrepreneur or employee. Although it might cost you to hire a personal grooming coach, but the truth remains that it will be worth it at the end of the day.

15. Be Deliberate in Letting People Know Your Views and What You Stand For

Another workplace personal branding idea for an entrepreneur or employee is to always be deliberate when it comes to letting people know your views and what you stand for. The truth is that when you make bold statements on controversial issues, it will go a long way to show that you are intelligent. It is a known fact that who you are and what you value are important parts of your personal brand.

16. Get involved in your community

Whether you are a worker or an employee, you belong to a community and part of what you need to do to project your personal branding as an entrepreneur or employee is to get involved in your community. When you get involved in your community, you stand the chance to learn from people, and also project your personal brand.

17. Always Wear Cheerful Smiles

It is often said that genuine smiles always open the doors of the heart. If you want to work on your personal branding, then you need to always wear cheerful smiles. Let it be known by your clients and colleagues that you are a man or woman that always smiles. The truth is that when you smile under pressure, it goes to show that you know what to do and that of course is a plus when it comes to building your personal brand.

18. Your Words Should Be Your Bond

Another personal branding tip that you need is to ensure that your word is your bound. If you are someone that will say A and do B, you can’t be trusted and you can hardly grow in your career. In the bid to building your workplace personal brand, ensure that your word is your bond. They say action speaks louder that word, which is why you should only say what you know you can do.

19. Be Professional with Your Hair Style

Aside from your dress sense, your hair style can tell the kind of person you are. When you work in an office or as a business man or woman, there are certain hair styles you are not expected to carry. In essence, if you want to build effective personal brand as an entrepreneur or employee, then you should always be professional with your hair style. Decent and presentable hair style should be your guide.

20. Join Social Clubs

There are several social clubs that help their members when it comes to grooming and branding. If you are serious about your workplace personal brand, then you should pick up membership with such social club. Clubs like Toastmasters, Rotary Club, Lion Club and Leo club et al will help in that regard.

21. Choose a Mentor

Another personal branding tip is to choose a mentor to guide you. Do you know that a mentor who has achieved what you want to achieve can help you achieve yours in record time? Yes, mentors are there to make things easier for mentees. If you have someone whose style (brand) is what you truly want, then you can approach the person to mentor you.

22. Mentor Someone

We have established the fact that a mentor can help you in your quest for creating a personal brand, another angle to it is that you can always work on or improve your brand by mentoring someone. The truth is that if you mentor someone, it means the person will look up to you for guidance and if you have someone looking up to you for guidance, you are likely going to be careful on how you act and speak. This is one easiest means of building and projecting your workplace brand.

23. Avail Yourself for Trainings

Another workplace personal branding idea for entrepreneurs and employees is to be available for training. The training could be the ones organized by your employers or the ones you paid for from your pocket, the bottom line is that you cannot build your personal brand without availing yourself for trainings. When you attend trainings, especially training that has to do with personal branding and workplace effectiveness, you stand to gain stuffs that will positively reflect on your brand.

24. Be Vibrant and Lively

If you are looking towards building your workplace personal brand as an entrepreneur or employee, then you must ensure that you are always vibrant and lively especially when you are at your workplace or when relating to clients. The truth is that being vibrant and lively can be your personal brand and people will know you for that. How will you feel when people say describe you as someone that is vibrant and always lively? You will sure feel good.

25. Have a Powerful Mantra

Another personal branding tip that is most suitable for an entrepreneur, especially someone who is just building a new business is to have a powerful mantra. The truth is that people will always identify with your mantra. Take for instance, if your mantra is ‘Your Comfort Is Our Concern’, people will always see you or your business as a business that truly cares. So, if you are looking for a personal branding tip, then you should come up with a personal powerful mantra.

26. Offer Pro Bono Services

If you are serious about building your brand, one of the tips you need to adopt is to offer pro bono services once in a while in your community. This tip is highly suitable for an entrepreneur. When you offer pro bono services, people around you will identify you as someone with a good heart and that of course will help shape your personal brand. Offering pro bone services could be coaching a local basketball team in your community or distributing relief materials to people in distress.

27. Avoid Negative People

In the quest of building your personal brand, people with negative attitudes can influence you negatively if you give them the chance. So, part of what you need to do if you want to effectively build your brand as an entrepreneur or employees is to steer clear of people with negative mental attitude. The truth is that there is little you can do to help such people other than to avoid them.

28. Abide by Your Organization’s Rules and Regulation

You cannot boast of building a workplace personal brand as an employee if you are always known for disobeying or working against your organization’s rules and regulations. When organizations set rules and regulations for their employees, it is meant to grow the business and of course make their employees better. So, if you want to build a reputable workplace personal brand that you can be proud of, then you must ensure that you always abide by your organization’s code of conduct.

29. Stay Motivated

Trust me, in the quest of building your personal brand, you are sure going to get tired at a point hence the need to stay motivated always. Motivation is not a one – off thing, you just have to surround yourself with materials and resources that motivate you.

30. Abide By Established Etiquettes

Another workplace personal branding idea or tip that you need to imbibe as an entrepreneur or employee is to always abide by established etiquettes. When people know you as a man or woman of decorum, they can easily attribute it to you as your personal brand. So, if you want to build your workplace person brand, then you should be deliberate when it comes to abiding by established etiquettes in your workplace or your social circle.

31. Become an Orator

If it is possible with you, try and become an orator; it will place you in a better position to project your brand as an employee or entrepreneur. For example, if you are known to be outspoken in your organization, you can be saddled with the responsibility to speak on behalf of your team or organization and that of course can be attributed to your personal workplace brand. Please note that some people are born orators, while some people train themselves to become one.

32. Read Books on Workplace Personal Branding

Another workplace personal branding tip that an entrepreneur or employee needs to imbibe is to always read books on personal branding. Come to think of it, there are loads of books on the subject of personal branding and when you read such books and practice what is written there, you are sure going to notice remarkable difference in your personal brand. So, if you want to build workplace personal branding, then you need to start reading books on branding and workplace effectiveness. Google the subject and you will be amazed at the list of titles you will find.

33. Sell Yourself Through Your Blog

In some cases, people can hardly identify with your personal brand, and one of the avenues you need to project your personal brand is via your blog. The truth is that people can identify with your brand by mere reading through your write-ups cum blog. So, if you are a good writer, then you should start blogging on personal issues or what relates to your career or business.

34. Follow the Trend in Your Industry

Another personal branding idea is to follow the trend in your industry. You can’t brand yourself in your workplace or industry and still abide by the old ways of doing things in the industry. Just ensure that you know international best practices in your industry and then leverage on it to build your brand.

35. Learn to Receive Feedbacks

Part of what you would need to do to ensure that you successfully build your brand as an entrepreneur or employee is to ensure that you create room for receiving feedbacks at regular intervals during the course of running your business or carrying out your assigned duty in your workplace. You don’t have to wait till the end of the year before you entertain questions from your clients or colleagues; give room for questions and feedbacks et regular interval. It will help you adjust when you need to and of course at the right time.

36. Maintain Eye Contact with your Clients or Colleagues When Communicating

Part of what you need to do when it comes to building personal brand is to maintain eye contact with your clients or colleagues. When you make business proposal presentations or communicate in the workplace, ensure that you maintain eye contact throughout your presentation or discussion.

When you make eye contact with your clients or colleagues, it enables you to know whether you are carrying them along or if you have lost them along the way. When you make eye contact with your audience, it also shows that you have confidence and you know what you are talking about.

37. Avoid the Use of Unnecessary Jargons When Communicating

Part of what you need to do to project your personal brand is to avoid the use of unnecessary jargons. Although in some instances, you would be required to make use of professional jargons to drive home your points when making a presentation or selling your services or product, but you should try as much as possible to keep it simple so that you will be able to carry your clients along. If you don’t minimize the use of jargons during your sale presentations, you will struggle to convince people to buy your products or invest in your ideas.

38. Ask for Referrals

You might also want to look inwards too when it comes to building your personal brand as an employee or entrepreneur. Whilst you are experimenting with other avenues that might possibly get people to know about your personal brand, you should also not neglect the old and existing ones. Ask your existing clients whom you have served well to give you a platform to market yourself and of course project your personal brand. You will be amazed at how effective this method can be.

39. Never Compromise Excellence

If indeed you want to build your brand as an entrepreneur or employee, you should never compromise excellence at any stage of your career or when running your business. Excellence in terms of services and products is what will keep help you project your personal brand.

People are always willing to identify with a brand that portrays excellence, so whatever line of business or career you are involved in, please make sure it is a business that produces quality products and renders quality services.

40. Adopt Healthy Lifestyle

Basically, a healthy life is the foundation for a better life. If you intend building a personal brand as an employee or entrepreneur, you must ensure that you pay attention to your health. Some people while chasing after a better life put their health at risk. Learn to exercise, eat right and drink right if you want to enjoy a good life. The truth is that if you are not physically fit, you obviously can’t achieve much.

41. Positive Mental Attitude

Positive mental attitude is a key requirement for anybody that desires to build effective workplace personal brand. Positive mental attitude puts you in a position that enables you see positives in every misfortune. A person with a positive mental attitude believes that there is always light at the end of every tunnel, and that the rainbow will always come after the stormy rain.

42. Continuous Personal Development

If you truly want to build an effective workplace personal brand, then you must not take continuous personal development lightly. Continuous personal development can help you enlarge your capacity as a worker or entrepreneur. As part of your continuous personal development, ensure that you read good books, listen to motivational CDs, attend trainings, seminars and workshops et al.

43. Be a Man/Woman of Integrity

Another workplace personal branding tip for an entrepreneur or employee is integrity. Integrity is one quality that can guarantee anyone a good life no matter where they are coming from or the person they know. If you desire to build a personal brand that will promote you, you must ensure that you never compromise your integrity at any point in your life.

Most people, especially people in business appreciate people with integrity. For example; if you are a person of integrity, you might be poor because you don’t cut corners, but there is the possibility of someone repaying you hugely for your integrity.

44. Diligence

Diligence is another quality that you must imbibe if you truly desire to build a personal brand. You must continue to work hard even if you are not getting the kind of result that you desire. Diligence pays long – term dividends to those who won’t allow temporary failures to deter them from doing what they know how to do best. So, if you are interested in building your brand, then you must be diligent in all you do.

45. Spend Time Meditating

Meditation is an essential requirement for those seeking to build personal brand. If you spend time alone meditating, it helps you build strong emotional stamina to be able to confront life’s challenges that might want to deter you from building your brand. You don’t necessarily need to travel to the woods or the mountains to engage in meditation.

You can meditate whilst driving; you can meditate on your bed or any place that has no distraction. Just make it a point of duty to create time for daily meditation, it could be 20 minutes or more; the truth is that it will go a long way to help you improve your emotional intelligence and ultimately your personal brand.

46. Spend Time Relating with People

Another workplace personal branding idea or tip for an entrepreneur or employee is to spend time relating with people. If you are deliberate about building your personal brand, then you must spend time relating with people. They say the easiest way to learn swimming is not outside the swimming pool but right inside it. So also, the easiest way to learn how to relate with people is to expose yourself to people.

47. Sponsor Events

Another effective way to launch your personal brand into the market is to sponsor events that can help you project your brand. For example; if your product idea is meant for teenagers or children, then you should look towards sponsoring events such as school debates or school sports. The good thing about sponsoring events is that you have ample opportunity to tell people about your brand and product idea.

48. Be Deliberate When It Comes to Choosing Your Friends

You can’t build a worthy brand if you are not deliberate when it comes to choosing your friends. The truth is that part of what you need to do when you want to build your brand as an entrepreneur or even an employee is to carefully choose your friends. There is a popular saying that goes thus ‘show me your friend and I will tell you who you are’. In essence, you can’t be projecting yourself as someone of integrity and walk with friends who are known to always cut corners.

49. Provide Leadership and Motivation

Another personal branding idea for an employee or entrepreneur is to provide leadership and motivation to your colleagues. The truth is that you would need a good leadership skill to be able to persuade people to follow and work with you.

As someone who wants to build a personal brand that is worthy of emulation, you automatically become the team leader and everyone working with you would naturally look up to you to provide leadership and direction for them. Motivation is another key factor that is needed to get people going when confronted with challenges and setbacks in the pursuit of their ideas. So, ensure that you do all it takes to always motivate the people working with you.

50. Be Accountable

Lastly, an effective workplace personal branding tip or idea applicable to an employee or entrepreneur is accountability. Come to think of it, you can’t successfully build an effective personal brand that is worthy of emulation if you are not accountable to anyone.

Being accountable means that you have people (or a person) you report to and of course take advice from. If you are not ready to subject yourself to a higher figure, then you are not serious about building effective workplace personal brand.