Getting Personal With Your Business

[andrew]

Okay, so I've been designing my business website for about a month now. That includes the backend and everything, as well as all the text and copy. This is a sole business, and I'm the only one so far. In the future when I start making money, I'll want to employ more people because this is just way too much work. I've been doing this product for over 15 months.

Anyways, I was reading over one of Steve's articles, and he talked about not doing the 'we' if you're an 'I'. I can feel that, but right now I have the site copy mostly in the 'we' sense. Of course for the same reason to make my business seem more like a company, rather than just a home business.

Now why am I doing that? Well, I'm selling a plugin I developed for about $250. It just seems to me that writing the site from the singular 1st person, gives it less of a business and professional feel, and more of a 'out of my house' feel. And also the fact when I do get bigger and expand, it won't seem to change.

So as I'm writing this, I seem to be more inclined to make it obvious it's only me. I just wanted to think ahead and have my site with everything, and be able to accommodate new products etc.

Okay, so finally, my question is this: how personal do you get with your business? Where do you draw the line, and how do you make it a reflection of you, but yet not be you. If that makes sense. Do you keep your company separate from you, or do make it you?

I don't know. I was doing great until I ran into this little issue, but I think this is very important for me and my business to have a solid understanding of how I want to run it. And as you can tell from this post, I'm not very grounded or sure of myself here – I'm kind of off balance.

Thanks!

[maclinda]

On my clinic website, I too was very tempted to use "we" rather than "I". I'm the only physician there, the other folks are support staff.

I went back and replaced all the "we" 's with "I" and it felt very scary. Sort of like I wasn't quite as "big", or there was less space between me and my reading audience.

But I think it's far better, because when someone calls my office they're making an appointment to talk to ME, after all.

[Ree]

Originally Posted by maclinda

On my clinic website, I too was very tempted to use "we" rather than "I". I'm the only physician there, the other folks are support staff.

I went back and replaced all the "we" 's with "I" and it felt very scary. Sort of like I wasn't quite as "big", or there was less space between me and my reading audience.

But I think it's far better, because when someone calls my office they're making an appointment to talk to ME, after all.

I agree. In fact, folks who say "we" when they mean "I" turn me off in a big way. It seems to me that they are trying to dodge responsibility by placing it on others who may or may not even exist.

Politicians are the first group that comes to my mind. Ugh.

The way I feel is, my business IS me and I am happy to shoulder all the responsibility, since I also get to take all the credit!!

[PMcDonald]

Great point Ree.

My business is personal. It is about connecting with people and about being the leader they are seeking to show them a better life so absolutely I brand myself on my site.

And even though I could fall off the face of the planet and my team members will absolutely have a very large community of entrepreneurs to assist them to be successful (actually the support is there either way), it is me first and foremost that is responsible for building my business and so I definitely want people to get to know who they will be working with.

That being said, I can certainly see where such personal branding is not necessary. Just make sure your customer knows exactly what they are getting and what the benefits are and keep in mind that a strong factor in sales is testimonials from people who have benefitted from what you have to offer so as you build a customer base, ask those folks to provide a short testimonial about their experience with your products and/or services.

[gc3833]

Originally Posted by PMcDonald

Great point Ree.

That being said, I can certainly see where such personal branding is not necessary. Just make sure your customer knows exactly what they are getting and what the benefits are and keep in mind that a strong factor in sales is testimonials from people who have benefitted from what you have to offer so as you build a customer base, ask those folks to provide a short testimonial about their experience with your products and/or services.

Paul, you make a great point.

Personally, I have several sites up and based on my business model or intent of the site, I may share details of my life to illustrate a point or I may approach my message in a traditional business sense.

[Jill]

There's nothing wrong with saying "we" even if it is only you in your company. "I" is you specifically, and "we" is the company in general.

That said, when it was just me in my company I've used both throughout the years. I never hid the fact that I was "just me" but in some instances, using "we" just makes sense. (I did outsource at times to others, so it wasn't really untrue.)

Now I am growing and hiring and really am "we." But I still find myself saying "I" or "my" whatever a lot. I have to learn to always say we now.

I really don't think there's anything wrong with saying we right from the start, and it will make it easier later when/if you do grow!

[richie]

Provide the best service possible its what matter much to clients. If you are I then say 'I' no need to Stress yourself. Sometimes an I could take you a long way and also gives your company a personal touch. But if your niche needs it, do it. Currently I do have employees but even when I was alone in some of my business which required "we" I preferred using 'we' as no matter how much we hate to use "we" it states professionalism and trust.