The founder’s story is central in every business.
Many entrepreneurs merge their identity with their business, linking their personal story to the business’ “why.”
But before adopting this approach, it’s important to consider whether this is the right strategy for you and your business.
Many large businesses don’t share their founder story publicly and instead choose to focus on their offerings. However, some consumers want to know who and what they are supporting, looking to more than price when making a decision.
But what should you include, if anything? For the answer, you need to know your customer and what encourages their buying behaviors, and to what extent you want to be the face of your brand.
If you are selling to businesses, particularly in more conservative spaces, personal details may do more harm than good. In those cases, details, opinions and content that could be divisive are better left omitted if your business wants to be accessible to all consumer and client psychographics.
This is not intended to discourage business owners from holding opinions or expressing them, but instead to encourage awareness of the potential impact it may have.
For those having trouble deciding if they should be the face of the brand, I recommend thinking about where you want to be in five years. If you want to be running your business with a small team, it might make sense to have your customers associate your identity with the company. If your plan is to sell your business, you may wish to separate yourself so the business has its own brand.
While trust can be built through vulnerability of the founder, it can also be, arguably better, built by consistent, well-differentiated product or service delivery — and a show of strength across the leadership team.
But what about…
All of the ways that businesses can benefit from alignment with the founders’ brand?
For business owners with huge social media followings and social capital, it absolutely makes sense to leverage those followers as potential customers. If the founder’s story explains the need for the solution that the business sells, it may help to share it. It may be even more effective to have another individual share their struggle with the same problem.
I AM my brand and my customers know me; shouldn’t I keep the momentum going?
Sure. When business owners live, eat, breathe and sleep their businesses — and like their lives set up this way — there is not necessarily a reason to change. If your model is working, keep going!
If I change my brand, my customers might leave. Isn’t this risky?
Maybe. But with good customer research, you might also find new customer segments that you can convert to repeat customers. A rebrand might open new doors, but of course, do your customer discovery/market research before rolling out any major changes to your business and its brand.
You also may have heard that “people do business with people they know, like and trust.” Maybe. But think back through your last five product purchases: Did you know the person who made the products? As a consumer interested in supporting local brands, I know many of the entrepreneurs I am purchasing from. Still, there are plenty of times that I am making purchasing decisions based on quality and price alone.
Ultimately, your story is yours — and yours to do with as you see fit. You don’t owe your customers a story. You don’t have to trade your personal information for potential sales. Being an entrepreneur is incredibly difficult, and you do not have to add the emotional work that comes with vulnerability about your personal history, traumas or relationships unless you personally want to do so.
