That’s right! It’s time, at last, for another edition of Bland to Brand! In this edition: Business bios. What they’re supposed to do, why they often fail, and how to make yours serve a purpose beyond simply telling people you exist.
Your business bio is basically the entrepreneurial form of a resume. Rather than help you get a job, though, a business bio showcases who you are as a business owner/freelancer/startup founder and gives potential new clients and partners a reason to reach out.
That is, if you’ve written your business bio the right way.
If you’ve written it the wrong way, well, it’ll just sit there and collect cyber-dust.
So how can you make your biz bio start working for you? Here are 3 quick and easy things you can do to give your bio a boost.
Talk About Your “Why”
Why do you get up in the morning? Why do you do what you do? Why does any of your work matter? These are the questions your business bio should answer.
“Why” is more than just an annoying question that 6-year-olds keep asking when they want to get your goat. It’s actually a central aspect of what attracts potential new clients/customers/partners to you. Simon Sinek wrote that “people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”
That’s why your mission needs to be front and center in your bio. Your “why” is what differentiates you from your competitors and fosters a genuine connection with your audience. It’s what gets people emotionally invested. It’s what brings in the inquiries.
Use Plain Language – No TechnoBabble!
You know who understands your technobabble? Technicians in your industry. AKA, probably not the people who will actually be engaging your services. The purchasing agents at your target clients most likely come from some kind of a business background, like an MBA program. They most likely don’t have an in-depth and nuanced level of knowledge about, say, the syntax of the Python programming language. Nix the tech talk and explain in common-sense terms how your skill-set helps their bottom line.
Own Your Accomplishments
Your business bio is no place for humility. Yes, bragging about yourself in casual conversation is probably a good way to quickly run out of friends, but in a business bio, you want to do everything you can to establish credibility quickly and effectively. And that means boasting a little bit.
Did you save your last boss $300,000 a year by replacing an obsolete process with something better? Did you win an award for something related to your work? Those kinds of achievements are exactly what make people on LinkedIn think, “daaaaaaaaaaaaang.”
Business bios can take a lot of different forms, but the last thing they should be is boring. When you’re revamping your business bio, just remember: Be human. Be confident. And for the love of all that is good and holy, do not write your bio in the third person unless it’s for a conference.
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Bland to Brand is written by Mike Straus, a copywriter, journalist, marketing genius, walking pun factory, and longtime coLab community member. Each post is part of a larger series to help YOU and YOUR small business succeed in a landscape that is becoming more and more saturated every day. Like what you’re reading? Find out more about Mike and his work at Brand Gesture.
