Working as a contractor, versus in a task on a everlasting basis, means greater emphasis on selling yourself as the fitting candidate more ceaselessly. To do that effectively, it’s necessary to have a powerful brand.
Constructing a brand that reflects what you bring to the table requires you to consistently and repeatedly position yourself in a certain way. You’ll need to relay your expertise, reliability and experience in order that clients and peers alike can trust you and rely on you.
Let’s have a look at the important thing reasons for a contractor brand and learn how to achieve this effectively.
Three reasons to construct a powerful contractor brand
Have the fitting publicity
Even when you’ve gotten the fitting skills, you’ll struggle to seek out clients without the fitting image and status. Branding isn’t just in regards to the logo or the web site – it’s to ensure you come across as skilled, established and trustworthy. Briefly, people have to know exactly what they’re getting once they involve you of their projects.
Protect your contractor status
At Hays, we work with contractors across a variety of industries day-after-day. Our advice to them is to establish their services under an organization.
Why? In lots of countries, this brings financial advantages that aren’t afforded to a person in employment. As such, it’s best to have a logo, website and associated materials that indicate that you just’re managing a business, slightly than your individual work.
Prepare for future evolution
Take into consideration what number of large businesses began as only one person as a contractor before expanding.
Your online business could change into something big, so why not start with a structure that may scale? Defining a brand will help to include further services, and even employees, later down the road. Even when it’s not something that interests you now, there’s no reason to make it harder for yourself later.
3 ways to construct your brand as a contractor
Perfect your online presence
You shouldn’t need telling but having an entire and up-to-date LinkedIn profile is non-negotiable. This includes:
- Having a photograph, which results in 21x the variety of views in your profile and 9x the variety of requests to attach. It doesn’t should be a studio shot, but ensure it’s skilled and fairly recent.
- Initially and end of your projects, update your work experience with an summary of your responsibilities and achievements.
- Add any certifications you’ve earned, not only those you’ve done through LinkedIn.
- Ask past colleagues, managers and project managers for recommendations that you could showcase.
Get more in-depth suggestions here.
Website
Beyond LinkedIn, make a dedicated website for interested parties to find more about your services beyond your profile and applications. It doesn’t should be anything special, but should involve:
- An ‘About You’ section, containing keywords that tell the reader who you might be and what you do
- A portfolio of past work, including extra-curricular projects
- An updated list of your certifications
- Testimonials from clients
- Links to your profiles on other channels
- A blog (more on that later)
This might sound daunting, but with the fitting tools it might be very straightforward. In case you don’t have any technical knowledge or experience in constructing a site, I like to recommend a user-friendly platform like Wix or GoDaddy that will let you use templates and existing components.
Network proactively
Keeping your online profile current is vital, but it’s worthwhile to get it on the market so people find it. Although networking doesn’t come naturally to a lot of us, it’s something you’ll have to get used to as a contractor.
I like to recommend starting out virtually. Leave comments on other people’s LinkedIn posts that relate to your area of experience. Approach this with the attitude of being helpful or sharing an insight you’ve found useful, slightly than dominating the discourse. Apply this to relevant forums, where you possibly can contribute to conversations or start your individual. Start slow and get a feel for what you’ve gotten to supply before increasing the frequency. It could actually be time-consuming to juggle this together with your workload during a project, nevertheless it’s value continuing to maintain your name in people’s minds. In time, your peers will recognise you as someone to contact for advice or experience.
In case you’re ending up in a everlasting role or your current contract is coming to an end, note the main points of anybody who is likely to be a useful contact in future. Make sure that you allow them with a very good impression of yourself in order that they remember you positively.
When you’re more confident in connecting with people online and having conversations with stakeholders in person, it’s a very good idea to explore in-person events where possible. Take into consideration what you’ve gotten to supply and begin conversations with that in mind. You won’t be helpful to everybody you speak to with, nor will they be a useful contact to you. Nonetheless, coming away with one or two names you possibly can proceed the conversation with is an excellent result.
Create content that showcases your expertise
Producing content will enable you stand out amongst your peers as a thought leader with invaluable insights. There are two primary audiences for this:
- Potential clients: By sharing insights that not only display your knowledge but in addition touch on relevant business challenges, you’ll position yourself as an authority.
- Other contractors: Becoming a trustworthy voice amongst your peers will enable you to expand your network and strengthen existing relationships. It’s also more likely for a contact to recommend you for a project in the event that they’re unable to take it.
Topics to your content
- Commentary on trending news that impacts your field
- In-depth exploration on relevant challenges and solutions
- Advice for professionals and businesses
- Updates in your projects and learning
Formats to your content
Selecting the fitting format to your content will rely on what you desire to say, in addition to your strengths and resources.
For quick suggestions and advice, a social media post or a brief speech to camera works best. LinkedIn is your best bet for reaching an expert network and prospective clients, so discuss trends there through posts, articles (which you’ll publish out of your account) or longer videos.
To access a wider audience, you may also consider working with anyone else to record an interview or conversation. Start out with pre-recorded videos that may be uploaded to YouTube or LinkedIn, with shorter clips on other platforms. After that, you may experiment with live streams or webinars where you possibly can interact with the viewers.
Don’t feel obliged to choose one in every of these and proceed with it – find which of them works best for you as a creator, and which of them your goal audiences engage with most. Invite people to comment or submit questions, and publish polls which they will respond to simply. Once you agree on your selected topics and formats, you possibly can be consistent, which in turn reinforces your brand.
Constructing your contractor brand
As a contractor, you shouldn’t underestimate the facility of a consistent brand that tells clients and peers what you do. This starts with a web-based profile that’s not only easy to seek out, but in addition lets people find out about your skills, experience and status. After this, constructing a network of fellow contract employees, clients and former colleagues will will let you get the word out about what you are promoting even further. Even in case you’re not yet comfortable with writing or recording content, these steps will enable you enjoy continued success in your contractor profession.
