Hi Melanie

Since people ultimately do business with people, not companies, using your face can be a powerful, unique branding tool for building loyalty and identity.

The downside is that it can tie you to your business. New and existing customers will come to expect that you personally are the solution, the provider. This is fine if you plan to be a sole operator, but if you hope to one day expand and hire staff, you may find customers feel let down if they don't get your personal attention.

I would definitely recommend you implement a different brand for your consulting services, to make a clear distinction between the two businesses. Each would need its own marketing plan - one that identifies the brand's tone of voice, the target market, where they spend their time and what problems they need you to solve. Don't try to create a combined plan, as this results in a diluted communication stream and gives your customers the impression that you don't quite understand yourself, or them.

It is essential that each of your brands has its own social media identity and a tailored social media publishing calendar. I manage a range of social media accounts on behalf of my clients, many of whom have more than one brand, using platforms like Buffer and Hootsuite and prepare publishing calendars on a monthly or quarterly basis according to the needs and budget of each business.

If I can be of any further assistance, please don't hesitate to drop me an email.

Good luck!

Megan

Business is personal. A brand is often referred to as a personality. "What would your brand be like chatting to at a bar" scenario. As a consultant you are the brand. there's no point thinking like a hipster Californian startup. For industry vernacular, look at the patterns: McKinsey, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Bain, Oliver Wyman, Ernst & Young. Notice a pattern?

Consulting firms tend not to sell well as they are knowledge based. Someone with the same knowledge will need to take it over. So they just start their own firm, there is no point in an acquisition. Typically the big fish eat the small fish, if you are offering a service that is unique.

Try to think of your branding as all the contact points with your customer base, not just a logo, but a holistic solution. Be interesting and not disappear in the noise by being bland. Working with a designer is a long term partnership, so choose wisely.

Hey Melanie, Got to agree with the other advice you are getting.

Using your own image makes 100% sense for personal branding of your professional services, however you should also have a business brand to ensure it is scalable, sellable and infinitely adaptable.

We are in the age of the authentic brand and consumers want to know who they are dealing with.

The one question I think needs to be asked though, is why you have multiple brands?

You need to choose the one thing you want to be known for and leverage just that.

Yes your company can offer multiple services, but in order to become well known, well paid and wanted, your personal brand should stand for one thing.

What do you want to be known as?

i would separate yourself from the business brand for sure. position yourself and the founder and chief - or whatever title you want, but have a business brand that isn't just you. hopefully you'll be successful and grow and have new team members and more clients than you can handle at some stage and when that happens, you'll want to be separate from the business so you can sell, upsize, add team members etc etc.

hope this helps

hunter

It is really powerful to put a face. Take Brian Dean, Neil Patel, Elon Musk and others who are very public about their businesses.

It depends on if you are comfortable with it or not, some people prefer to keep it separate, some people use their own identity as the brand. Both works wonder if you are dedicated.

As a marketer who's spent 20 years building 'faceless' brands, but now have my own business where I'm the brand, I'd have to say that it's such a game changer to put your face out there, as part of your brand, no matter whether it's a large business or small. 
Businesses are just groups of people, people buy from people, in particular those who they like! 
It's so much easier to build connection when you're showing yourself and your letting your values shine through.
as the leader of a larger company, people know they're not going to be dealing with you directly, but that your ethos is the foundation of your company. 
It's hard to think of any downsides, a business brand with a face to go with it is far more memorable than one without.