Should you focus on growing your personal brand or your business brand? That’s a question serial entrepreneur Brett Knutson is asked a lot and the answer may surprise you: Your personal brand.

It may seem counter-productive to new business owners to focus on building the online presence of themselves rather than their new company but it turns out that honing your personal brand can be a lot more beneficial.

Advertisement

“Some of the most successful new companies don’t really have a large brand presence online. They just have a large personal brand behind them,” says Knutson.

If you have a large following of your personal brand, you can launch and promote a new business without an advertising budget. Knutson, who has hundreds of thousands of followers on his own social media profiles, uses himself as an example.

“I literally have spent zero dollars advertising my own marketing agency Monopolize,” he says. By leveraging the power of his personal brand, he is able to spread awareness about his company and acquire clients just by simply talking about it on his personal account.

Today, Monopolize is a multi-million dollar company despite being founded less than a year ago. “That was only possible because of my personal brand and the relationships that I had built. And now, our new business is 100% referral based.”

Helping others grow their personal or business brands is Monopolize’s speciality. With access to the world’s most powerful influencer network, they are experts in helping brands find the right audience.

“Even billionaires with personal brands have better access to deal flow and better opportunities to build lucrative relationships because more people know who they are,” says Knutson.

Successful entrepreneurs like Kylie Jenner and Gary Vaynerchuk are two prime examples. Both had massive followings on their personal brands, so when each decided to launch their new businesses (Kylie Cosmetics and Empathy Wines), they immediately had a customer base. In fact, Knutson doubts either of them spent a cent on advertising their businesses, just like him.

Another benefit of having a personal brand is that you can take it anywhere you go. “If Kylie Jenner decided to sell all of her companies tomorrow, she could start a new company and instantly have it be a multimillion-dollar success because of her personal brand,” says Knutson.

If you’re interested in learning more about Brett and his company, be sure to follow him @knutson or visit his website.