The Rynge blog has moved to http://blog.rynge.com

Starting a business after a lay-off

2009-02-03T16:50:00.001+01:00

This blog has moved, please subscribe to the feed here or look at:

http://blog.rynge.com/2009/02/starting-business-after-lay-off.html

European Start-up Rally

2009-02-03T13:39:00.002+01:00

This blog has moved, read the new post here:

http://blog.rynge.com/2009/02/european-start-up-rally.html

The Rynge Blog has moved

2009-01-30T15:33:00.002+01:00

Dear readers,

We have decided to move the blog to http://blog.rynge.com and would very much appreciate if you could update your bookmarks, redirect any links on your blogs or web pages as well as signing up for the new RSS/ATOM feed.

All the content (posts and comments) are available on the new blog as well!

Thanks once again!

- Ola Rynge

Networking: "You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."

2009-01-28T05:58:00.004+01:00

About a week ago I sent an e-mail to my network regarding helping others and what what goals/projects they have set up for the new year.

I sent it in Swedish to my Swedish contacts, Spanish to the Spanish spoken contacts and English to everyone else. The e-mail went something like this:

------------------------

Dear David,

I hope you had a great end of 2008 and the New Year will bring new challenges and opportunities. Personally, I had a fantastic final visiting Panama and I feel full of energy to create a fantastic 2009.

I would also like to share one of my main objectives for 2009, which is helping the people around me and in my networks to be more successful and reach their goals, or as Zig Ziglar said:

"You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."

With this in mind, I would like to ask you to please send me a short mail with yout goals and projects you have for 2009. It could be anything from personal goals/projects like getting in better shape or learn a new language to professional goals/projects like selling more products online or reach new target groups. After receiving your goals and projects, I will look through my network to see how I can help you to connect with persons I think can help you achieve your goals.

Finally, I would recommend some resources where you can find information about me and get free advice on personal development and business development strategies:

• The Rynge Blog (in English)

• Follow me on Twitter

• If you do not hear from me and my life, subscribe here or send an email to me.

Once again I wish you a great year!

Kind Regards

Ola Rynge

------------------------

So why did I do this?

Well there are a few reasons.

1) I really want to help my fellow humans to reach their goal

2) I want the people in my network to think about their goals and what is needed to reach them

3) To market myself and my services

4) To get new inspiring ideas

I have gotten a great response and a possibility to find some connections that might work out really well. As an addition I will probably post a list of things that my network would like to get help on and I encourage you to help them out. :)

What are your opinions about this, what could I have done better?

- Ola Rynge
The Rynge Group

24 hour business camp - my favourites

2009-01-23T15:24:00.004+01:00

The first edition (I hope there will be more) of 24 hour business camp is over, and some 48 new services where started during the 24 hours. Here are my favourites (vote here) based on the ideas, since most services are not really fully functional yet.

Rmindr.com

"Rmindr.com is a simple productivity tool for people that practice David Allens method Getting Things Done. You collect ideas in a variety of ways, currently only through web and sms. You organize your ideas into actionable items and tag them with the contexts you can perform them in. Then you can access all your tasks through RSS and since all cellphones have an RSS reader, you'll have all your context lists with you where ever you go."

Kundo.se

"Kundo helps companies to participate in the dialogue.

We create a meeting place where conversation occurs between buyer and supplier.

Where new ideas are highlighted to help you to create products and services that customers really want."

Börja Blogga

"The idea is to educate people about the fact that blogs are not just personal journals or today's outfit fashion postings, while it in fact is a complete way of publishing. Some people don't believe you if you tell them that Engadget is a blog, they say it is a news site or something similar, while it in fact is the essence of a group blog.

The key is that blogging is really a method of publishing, rather than a specific kind of content."

jobbkartan.se

"It's a searchengine that lets you search for jobs based on their geographical location. Even if you already have a job, you can find a new one, closer to where you live.

The information about the jobs comes from the swedish job board ("Arbetsförmedlingen"). Each ad is geocoded (based on its zip code) and placed on the map."

minajobb.se

"MinaJobb.se is a free service that help people organize their job search by saving jobs, contacts and activities."

I would also like to thank all the participants, even if I wasn´t there, it is great that there are events like this to boost Sweden. :)

- Ola Rynge
The Rynge Group

24 hour business camp

2009-01-21T20:37:00.002+01:00

I suppose that by now the participants of 24hbc has gathered for the dinner that initiates the camp. At 12:00 CET Thursday the event will start and about 90 entrepreneurs are going to develop 52 web services during 24 hours, hopefully good enough to create new businesses.

I look forward to see the result on Friday.
Meanwhile, follow the event at the live blog and read more at the official site.

- Ola Rynge
The Rynge Group

Smart marketing for smart businesses

2009-01-20T20:33:00.004+01:00

Small businesses are often faster moving and have easier to adapt to change, but are small businesses equal to smart business? Generally speaking I would say no, since the small business often lack experience, knowledge and personal resources that the bigger company has access to. With this said, the small, smart business has the best position to be a fast(er) growing company than its competitors since they have the speed and ability to adjust to the market needs, to communicate in new ways with customer and to test and use new unproven marketing techniques. So let´s list a few things you can try to improve your marketing:

1. Make an inventory of news within your business that might be interesting to the public, such as; expanding when the economy is slow (recruiting, starting new offices etc.); increase focus on environmental issues (great thing to do when the economy is slow and there might be some employees with more time available); new cooperation partners that have a social purpose beside the business one (environmental organization, work environment organizations etc.); new big customers; increased profit; or any other news that might be of local, regional or national interest. Then find out what papers you would like to be seen in and mount a strategy to present the most relevant new to the right journalist. With the right approach you might build a great relationship with the media during times of little positive news, and have an advantage when the economy starts growing again. Why not create a press section on your webpage with some basic information about the company, some pictures, your logo, articles and quotes that are free to use by newspapers as long as they mention the source.

2. Listen to your customer and hear what they have to say about your company, ask them how you could improve your product range, customer service or if there are any other things that they like you to do. Building your trust and confident with customer when they are not doing business with you at the moment is a great investment for the future when they want something that you offer.

3. Make a statement and invite key people and the press to a workshop where you discuss a problem for the industry, a problem for your clients or something else that show that you are thinking proactively about issues that matters. The worst that can happen is that you get better relations and contacts with the group you invite and the best case is that you will get some action points that will help your industry/clients and if you do things right you might even get free marketing in the form of articles, blog posts etc.

4. Show your references to your potential clients. Nothing proves your skills and professionalism as good as references, still there are so many companies (especially small ones) that do not take the time to describe the projects and clients they have been working with. Describe the mission, the outcome and the client as well as ask for a quote and if you can publish contact information. Put in your marketing material and on your website.

5. Make your competence a marketing tool by writing articles and guides for your industry. Don´t be afraid of someone stealing your material. If they are that cheap they would probably not hired you anyways. If you do a workshop, present the main points and why they are so important.

- Ola Rynge
The Rynge Group

7 steps to better hostels

2009-01-18T17:51:00.004+01:00

I wrote this guide a few years ago after travelling throughout Latin America and while many hostels are well run and provide decent environments for backpackers and other travelers, there are always ways to improve the services and offerings to clients and by doing so improving the reputation of the hostel and in the long run the revenue for the owners.

Even if these steps are written for hostels, many of them can be applied on other types of businesses as well.

Step 1 – Does the clients feel welcome and at home
The most important thing in all kind of businesses is to make sure that the clients are content or even better, more than content with the service they pay for. It is therefore important that the staff and management are very friendly and helpful. Always greet the clients with a smile and go out of the way to help them in any way possible.

Any time available that are not occupied with helping clients or administrating the daily tasks, should be spent on improving the quality or quantity of services for the clients.

Shared areas for staff and residents should be given attention. Sharing communal areas (including entrance doors and foyers) with residents breaks down institutional barriers and also provides a useful opportunity for key workers to meet clients and develop a better understanding for the customer needs in a more relaxed environment.

Step 2 – Are you clear and precise in your offerings
Information is essential when dealing with consumers of today, but with all information that are presented to us every day makes it more and more important to make sure that the information about our offerings is clear and displayed in ways that are easily accessible
to the clients (the lobby, Internet, the rooms, the kitchen, bathrooms etc.). Make sure to include all basic services included in the offering and the quality of the services (ex. Laundry including ironing $1/kg, Double room with private bathroom including towels, soap and daily cleaning). It could however be a good thing to add something extra that are not included in the basic offering and are not marketed either. This will make the client feel special and recommend the hostel to other travelers.

Step 3 – Do you use innovative market strategies
Of course market research and benchmarking with competitor are important tasks to keep up with their marketing efforts, but even more important is to be one step ahead of the competitors, and that is done by innovative marketing. The treat given to the clients in step 2 is one innovative marketing strategy used by a hotel at a resort where a basket of fruits awaited the guests when they entered their room upon arrival. This unannounced treat helped gave the resort tons of free marketing when their guest started to talk about the nice basket of fruits to their friends at home.
What are your unique ways of marketing your services?
• Here are some tips of marketing channels all hostels should try to use:
• Try to get listed in international and local travelers guides (Footprint, Lonely planet, Rough Guide etc.)
• Ask clients to recommend the service to the guides, maybe even give them a free night or something else for the effort
• Talk to the tourist office in your area as well as at the airport to get them to recommend you
• Try to get signs up on bus terminals etc. where you state that you are recommended by the guides that recommends you
• Provide online registration (own website, hostelworld.com, iyhf.org, gomio.com)
• Discounts for long stays
• Discounts or free stay if working for the hostel
• Cooperate with hostels in other cities where your clients are likely to come from/travel to
• Cooperate with NGO and other organizations that can provide returning groups of clients
• Offer special deals (ex. 4 nights + breakfast + tour for package price)
• Offer language classes or other local related classes (salsa, Indian culture etc.)

Step 4 – Do you offer services around the core offering
One strategy to improve sales and revenue could be to lower the price of the actual stay at the room and offer services that are not included in the basic price. Such services could be selling food and drinks, different levels of breakfast, tours, money exchange, laundry, airport pickup, basic shop (towels, soap, toothbrush etc.), cheap international phone service, WiFi, different types of event (BBQ nights, Charity events etc.), rent-a-bike, credit cards accepted (ex. via PayPal), selling phone cards, rent mobile phones and have information available for clients regarding the mobile services, and finally a charity box for used clothing.

However there are quite a few services that are more or less expected by the clients free of charge, including linen provided by the hostel, common room with TV, music and games, basic breakfast, different level of accommodation (dorm, single, double, with or without bathroom), Computer with Internet access, security lockers, luggage storage, guest kitchen, 24 h reception/check in, no curfew or lockout, daily cleaning.

What special services do you provide? What makes you different?

Step 5 – Do you use innovative ways to reduce costs
There are always ways to cut costs, sometimes the quality will be reduced, but there are ways to maintain, and even improve the client’s experience, while reducing costs. I have already mention to let guests work in the hostel for payment in food and lodging, another is to keep a high number of guests at all time and by doing so negotiating better deals with suppliers and cooperation partners.

Step 6 – Do you collect feedback from your clients
Let the clients evaluate your performance and give suggestions of improvement. Set up a system for customer feedback where the clients are encouraged to leave their opinion before leaving. Such encouragement could be to offer free rides to the bus station or discounts. A guest book can also work as a marketing tool if presented in the right way.

The next step is to evaluate and act upon the feedback received. If you get a recommendation on how to improve the hostel and can actually implement it before the client leaves, that can be a really good way to improve your reputation. Once again, by listening to the needs of your clients and act accordingly you will stay ahead of the competitors.

Step 7 – In which ways are you unique
In today's business world, it is very important to be unique in one way or another to attract clients that might otherwise chose a competitor. Therefore it could be a good idea to find a niche that attracts the same sort of people. An example is to promote the hostel as the Party Hostel, the Family Friendly Hostel or the Cultural Centre Hostel. By providing extra services directed to persons interested in culture the clients with this interest is more likely to arrive at your hostel. It is however hard to attract all persons in this way. The family travelling with 2 babies would not want to stay at the party hostel and the bar hopping backpacker would probably avoid the family hostel for obvious reasons. Without this segmentation however, there are more probability that they end up in the same hostel with both parties discontent, and we are looking for happy clients, aren't we.

If you are a hostel owner I would like to wish you the best of luck with your hostel business and would very much appreciate your feedback on this article as well as your success stories as well as stories regarding when it did not turn out the way you planned. Once again, the best of luck!

Do you have more tips and tricks for running and marketing successful hostels or hotels, please add a comment.

- Ola Rynge
The Rynge Group

Startup Sweden - konceptet sprider sig

2009-01-09T16:22:00.003+01:00

Under oktober genomförde The Rynge Group tillsammans med Martin Frönmark Startup Sweden Göteborg 2008, ett koncept som vi har intention att fortsätta driva under 2009, men då i andra städer runt om i Sverige.

Det verkar som fler och fler har fått upp ögonen för konceptet och i dagens DI kan man läsa om att ett antal internetentreprenörer försöka lansera 52 fullt fungerande webbtjänster under ett dygn, ett arrangemang som går under namnet 24 hour business camp och som arrangeras av webbutvecklaren och bloggaren Ted Valentin.

Relaterat:
Mattias Järnhäll skapade www.skapatillsammans.se på liknande sätt

2009 – ett bra år för småföretag

2008-12-31T04:42:00.001+01:00

Det vill säga, ett bra år för småföretag som tänker proaktivt, ser möjligheter där storföretagen i kristider ser stora problem. För många småföretag är krisen en väckarklocka där de inser att vara för beroende av ett eller ett fåtal storföretag som kunder, kräver att man är väl förberedd för kristider. Så hur är då 2009 ett bra år för småföretag?

1. Storföretagen drar ner på personal och sparar pengar vilket innebär en minskad exponering på marknaden. Detta kan smarta småföretag dra nytta av och ta marknadsandelar från sina större konkurrenter genom bättre kundservice och tillgänglighet.

2. En genomgång av företagets mål och strategier utifrån den nya marknadsplatsen ger nya infallsvinklar och synsätt på hur företaget ska verka för att nå ut till rätt kunder på rätt sätt med rätt produkter. Att använda en utomstående part i strategiarbetet är ofta en god idé då denne inte ser på rutiner och arbetssätt på samma sätt som någon som arbetar med dem dagligen. Kanske finns denna person i styrelsen, annars skulle jag rekommendera att ta in en konsult med erfarenhet och verktyg av att arbeta med strategiprocesser.

3. Kristider är en bra tidpunkt att förbättra relationerna med nuvarande kunder. Att försöka ta reda på hur man kan hjälpa sina kunder att komma snabbare ur krisen är oftast mycket uppskattat och ändå är det få företag som arbetar på detta sätt. När krisen är över är lojaliteten till företaget mycket större. Tänk steget längre, kanske kan du knyta ihop vissa kunder med varandra så att de kan dra nytta av varandra. Det är även vara värt att titta på hur man kan förbättra sina leverantörskontakter under kristiden för att stärka banden och förhandlingsstyrkan inför framtiden. Eventuellt kan man nå bättre prisöverenskommelser eller hitta nya lösningar för att förbättra produkterna/tjänsterna.

4. Storföretagen drar ner på sin marknadsföring vilket ofta innebär att småföretagen kan köpa billigare annonsplatser om man är beredd på att förhandla och pruta med leverantören av annonsplats. I vissa fall kan rabatter på upp till 80 % uppnås.

5. Småföretag är snabbare på att anpassa sig till nya tekniker och metoder än storföretagen och 2009 kommer vara ett gyllene tillfälle att hitta nya marknadskanaler och stärka sitt varumärke. Att blogga och använda sociala medier (twitter, friendfeeds, facebook) för att kommunicera med kunder och visa på företagets professionalism och kompetensnivå kommer bli allt viktigare. Lägg gärna ut referenser och rekommendationer på företagets hemsida så att kunder kan se prov på tidigare arbeten.

6. Gör en kompetensbehovsanalys och vidareutbilda personalen. Vad behöver företaget för kompetenser som det inte har idag och kan någon i den befintliga personalen lära sig dessa? Då det finns extra tid i produktion och administration, finns det tid över för utbildningar vilket kommer att 1) få personalen att känna att de är viktiga för företaget, och 2) göra företaget bättre förberett då konjunkturen svänger uppåt igen.

Sammanfattningsvis handlar det om att fokusera på det fundamentala, göra rätt saker för rätt kunder. Det spelar ingen roll hur effektiv din personal är om de arbetar med fel saker.

- Ola Rynge
The Rynge Group

New Year’s Resolutions

2008-12-29T17:34:00.003+01:00

Every year the same questions arise just a few minutes into the new year.

“What are your new year’s resolutions?”

I like that question. I like the idea of new year´s resolutions. What I do not like is that there are little thought put into the resolutions and I have never encountered anyone that had establish a follow up plan for the resolution. A resolution is a goal, outcome or achievement that the person would like to meet during the year, and desired achievements should meet some standards if you ask me.

Checklist for achievements

1. You should have defined a purpose for each achievement

This way you know that the desired achievement is yours and not a thing that you adopted because someone else wants you to do it. A great way to do this is to define what is most important to you and create a written life plan. For each desired achievement, ask yourself “How will this achievement contribute to reach my life goals?”. The answer might be the purpose you are after, if not it might be something else, but if you can´t come up with a purpose, consider eliminating the achievement from your list.

2. Achievements should be formulated according to the SMART model

Goals/achievements should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound. I would like to add Challenging to this as well. “Going on holiday to Sweden” is not a well formulated achievement. “Saving € 400 a month during January – July so that I can go to Sweden for 2 weeks of holiday with my wife to Sweden in August” is a much better formulation.

3. What get´s measured, get´s done

Make sure that you have a follow up plan where you follow your achievements on a weekly and monthly basis so that you can take action in time to make sure you reach the desired outcome. Every month, look at your desired achievements for the year and go through the past month to follow up on what you did do that you planned to do, what are the tasks that you didn´t do and what did you do that helped reaching the goal that you didn´t plan. Now decide what activities you can do during the month to make sure that you are preceding to the set goal. Do the same for the weekly plan.

4. Things change

Change is development, in a direction you like or a direction that you do not like, but everything changes no matter if you´d like it or not. There are two ways to handle change, see it as an opportunity and adapt to it as fast as you can. This way you will be proactive and get a lot of advantages in life. The other way is to try to slow down the change process, which might work for a while, but when the change is happening you will be way behind the adaptor. Like everything else in life, it is your choice who you would like to be.

If you chose to be the adaptor, it is wise to periodically go through your life plan and your achievements so that they are in line with your life goals (which might change over time).

I am going to dedicate my day tomorrow to look into my desired achievements for the year to come. I am not sure yet how I will present them here, but somehow I will.

- Ola Rynge

The Rynge Group

Healty working space

2008-11-07T13:57:00.004+01:00

I just came across a really funny, but still ingenious post about a healthy work place. The user has attached a holder for the laptop to the threadmill and the drawers etc. just at the side. No more sitting still in front of the computer. Actually the concept can be taken to another level by incorporating an external keybord with a mousepad into different types of training equipments, add an projector or +24'' screen on the wall in front of the equipment and there you go. Maybe this is something for the gyms to incorporate, just plug in your own laptop and start working.

Rynge Fanclub?

2008-11-01T10:42:00.003+01:00

Since I have a vast interest in personal branding, I google myself every now and then to get a notion about what is said about me and what pages is appearing in the index. My last name is very rare, all the Rynges are family, but there is also a small village in the very south of Sweden which has a soccer team, a weather station and a carpenters shop.

These are normally the hits on google outside of my families social networking profiles etc., but today I found a webpage that really amueses me: http://lokalpatriot.se/t-shirt/Ystad/Rynge

Here you can buy a lot of Rynge t-shirt, one looking like this:

It is nice to have your own fan club :)

Creative Blogs

2008-10-24T22:56:00.004+02:00

I have been asked by several persons to give them tips on blogs and websites regarding businesses ideas and creativity, so here we go:

Blogs on Ideas and Creativity
http://www.springwise.com/
http://disrupters20.com/
http://www.ted.com/
http://www.picnicnetwork.org/
http://www.seedsofgrowth.com/
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/
http://sixdisciplines.blogspot.com/
http://disruptive.nu/ (Swedish)
http://www.innovationsbloggen.se/ (Swedish)

International Business Networks
http://www.talkbiznow.com/
http://www.wecando.biz/
http://www.viadeo.com/
https://bluehouse.lotus.com/
http://www.xing.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/
http://www.opencoffeeclub.org/

Swedish Business Networks
http://www.foretagande.se/
http://www.shortcut.nu/
http://www.linked.se/
http://www.driftig.nu/ (focus of women entrepreneurs)
http://www.elwira.se/ (focus of women entrepreneurs, Göteborg based)

Oetisk försäljning av Eniro Gula Sidorna

2008-10-23T12:13:00.002+02:00

Man vill ju gärna tro att det stora, traditionella katalogföretaget använder schyssta metoder för att sälja sina tjänster, men så är det inte.

Häromdagen ringde en säljare från Eniro Gula Sidorna AB och försökte sälja plats i katalogen och på nätet till en klient som jag hjälper med marknadsfrågor. Jag visste att kunden hade köpt från Eniro Gula Sidorna AB (fakturadatum 2008-03-06) i våras och det hade varit väldigt otydlig information då både Eniro Sverige Online AB och Eniro Gula Sidorna AB hade försökt sälja in i stort sett samma sak till företaget.

I ett säljmail från från Eniro Gula Sidorna AB, står att läsa följande:
"I vårt korta samtal informerade jag till dig om ett fördelaktigt Ny-kunds pris med 50% Rabatt. Priset för ett helt år är 1 210 kr ex moms. För detta blir Ni sökbara på Ert företags namn, adress och ett tfn nr på aktuell Rubriksökning."

I samtalet höromdagen säger säljaren att om vi inte beställer igen, försvinner listningen från sökningarna på Eniro online direkt. Efter att jag påtalar att vi betalat för ett år påpekar hon att vi visst är sökbara i papperskatalogen under hela året. Detta trots att vi under samtliga samtal har påpekat att vi inte är intresserade av den tryckta katalogen utan bara online.

Vi kommer avvakta och se om listningen verklien försvinner i sökningarna, samt gå igenom avtalsvillkoren. Den här historien är inte slut...

Innan jag ens hann posta detta inlägg ringde de från Emfas (som också är ett Eniro-företag) och försökte sälja in sina katalogtjänster de med, på liknande sätt: "Vi ringer bara för att verifiera att era uppgifter stämmer..."

Andra som har råkat ut för Eniros oetiska försäljningsmetoder:
http://www.fairshopping.se/viewopinion.asp?opinionid=2506
http://www.fairshopping.se/viewopinion.asp?opinionid=2581
http://www.makeit.se/jepeblog/index.php?entry=entry080531-094605

The Rynge Blog goes corporate

2008-10-23T09:00:00.000+02:00

From this moment, The Rynge Blog will be a part of The Rynge Group and cover a slightly broader spectrum, not just personal branding, but also entrepreneurship and other business related stuff. It is my intention to keep the blog updated at least every week in the future, some posts will be in Swedish if just concerning the Swedish market but most will be in English as it has been before.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions on how to make the blog better.

You do not have a personality!

2007-07-12T20:26:00.000+02:00

When talking to friends or introducing myself as working with Personal Branding, many responds that they do not want to appear as someone they don't are. I totally understand that and would never suggest someone to pose as someone they are not. However, this arises another interesting question:

Who are you, really?

As Steve Chandler once said in his 100 ways to motivate yourself: "I am sorry if this offends you, but you do not have any personality", referring to that the personality you "have" is created by many different factors such as environment, peoples opinions, etc. and that you can change it if you want. Just as you can change career, you can change who you are, and so, there is nothing wrong in working with altering your personal brand into something new and something that you want to be. Actually, imagining that you are something else, often is a great way of getting there. Ask any psychologist working with athletes how they picture their self in a position where they want to be in the future.

Are you defined by your network?

2007-06-26T13:01:00.000+02:00

When talking about personal branding, there are a some experts that says that you can be defined/described just by looking at the network you have. The studies in the field are mostly conducted on off-line social networks, but of course this applies also for on-line communities (or even more) such as Facebook, Xing, MySpace etc.

The Swedish business newspaper E24.se has an article today about a recent study at Berkley in California, which shows that more universities students prefers Facebook in front of MySpace, which is more populated by persons starting to work right after high-school.
Even BBC covered this story in this article.

10 PR commandments and how to use it for Personal Branding (7--10)

2007-01-21T15:49:00.000+01:00

7) Thou shall embrace blogging - It´s not a fad, it´s here to stay. Be part of it.

If you have the time and the ability to write a blog about what you like and what you stand for in an interesting way, it is an excellent way to promote your brand and it does not even cost anything more than your time. However, it could be good to develop a blog strategy, so that what you write is actually in line with the brand you want to build.

8) Thou shall use a simple language - People want to hear from you in a human voice. Don´t hind behind advanced words. It will soon sound like ye olde English (or whatever language you speak).

Maybe some professor or government official will be impressed by your advanced language, but to get the point across it is much better to be clear and specific.

9) Thou shall tell the truth - If you don´t tell the truth, it will come out anyway.

This is the most important thing in both business branding and personal branding. If you lie, your trust will decline and no one will believe you later on when you are telling the truth. Branding is all about trust, make sure that you are consistent in your trustworthiness.

10) Thou shall thinketh in 360 degrees - Ask not what you can do for your fellow humans, but also what your fellows humans can do for you.

Spreading and building your brand is in your hands, but that does not mean that you can not think of how others can help you in your quest. Word of mouth marketing is the most powerful marketing tool. Make it easy for your trusted ones to help spreading your brand.

10 PR commandments and how to use it for Personal Branding (4-6)

2006-08-07T13:21:00.000+02:00

4) Thou shall not be fake - Keep it real; don't hide behind characters and phony IDs.

This should be obvious, but many persons try to be something that they are not. A strong brand consists of honesty and trustworthiness, none of which will improve if you do try to be someone else and do not walk the talk.

5) Covet thy customers - Don't sue your fans. You will alienate them.

A basic rule is that if you help people, something good will come back to you. Some call it karma, some networking. For me it is just common sense. The customers in the commandment represent the people around you, so be honest and friendly with the people around you. No one likes a grump.
Just remember, it is not wrong to stand up for your self, but there are good and bad ways to make your point.

6) Thou shall be open and engaging - Involve your customers in the PR process. Invite them to help you develop winning ideas and become your spokespeople.

This is also common sense, but as someone said "common sense is not that common". Jesus had his apostles to spread his word and build his brand. Was he successful in this strategy? Did he come up with all the answers himself and told people what to think, or did he leave the thinking to the people so that they could draw their own conclusions?
Basically, do not be a know-it-all, be humble to others convictions, that's the only way to win their trust and in the end letting them convince themselves.

10 PR commandments and how to use it for Personal Branding (1-3)

2006-08-03T11:32:00.000+02:00

Steve Rubel has come up with 10 commandments for public relations professionals. I was thinking of how to use those commandments in the work of personal branding, so I have written some comments to each of the commandments. Here are comments on the first three commandments.

1) Thou shall listen - Utilize every avenue available to you to listen actively to what your publics have to say and feed it back to the right parties.

How do you handle the feedback you get from people around you? For starters, begin with writing down the positive and negative feedback you get. Then look at it and see how it matches the way you want to be seen. Maybe the negative feedback is in line with what you want to communicate and maybe you are getting positive feedback that communicates something you don't want to be associated with.
When people starts talking about you in a way that matches the personal brand you want to achieve you have laid the foundation of your personal brand.

2) Remember that all creatures great and small are holy - It doesn't matter if it's the New York Times calling on you or an individual blogger, both have power. Take them all seriously.

Word of mouth is a powerful tool, and works in both directions. With the right approach you can build your brand by stating your principle to people that does not agree with you, no matter if it is your neighbourhood or the head of the company you want to work at. With the wrong approach however, even upsetting your neighbour can have devastating consequences if he/she talks about you to the wrong person.

3) Honour thy customer - Create programs that celebrate customers and they will celebrate you.

This does not only apply to your customer, it applies to all things in life. I have covered one aspect of this in the earlier post about brokeback entrepreneurs, simply meaning that if you get help from others, be generous and repay the favour. This way you will build you brand and the respect for your person. There are many ways of creating win-win situation with your customers/friends/colleagues, be creative and find the ways that suites the situation.

Personal Branding experts

2006-07-13T15:54:00.000+02:00

Since I live and work in Sweden I tried to map out who are the experts in the field here in Sweden. Not an easy task, since they are not easy to find on the Internet. I thougth that those experts should walk the talk and position themself on the web. Anyhow, here are the ones that I found that works with personal branding or similiar activities:

Isabel Werner Runebjork, Ditt Varumarke (has written the only published book in Swedish about personal branding)

Marie Sammeli, Appareo

Jimmy Wilhemsson, Attach Information

Peter Sackemark, Drivkraften kommunikation

Anna Olin, Anna Olin Business Communications

Matts Heijbel, Storytellers

Kim Rydeheim, Rydeheim PR

Lottie Knutsson

And of course, me:

Ola Rynge, Liquidice

Internationally I have to mention the following as great resources for personal branding information:

Peter Montoya
Tom Peters
Fast Company (search for personal branding)
ReachCC
Branding personal Blog (Spanish and english)
Marca Propia (Spanish expert Andres Perez Ortega)

To what extent do your personal contacts refer to you the way you would like?

2006-05-24T23:21:00.000+02:00

The other day I visited my father and helped him prepare the new beauty centre for my mother. When introduced to his friend, a business man in the area, I was presented as my fathers "youngest son". Nothing wrong in that, but frankly I am not very keen on being referred to as the "youngest". It kind of sounds like that I am inexperienced and new to whatever I am doing. It just does not sound trustworthy.

So after we where done at the centre, I asked him how he would have presented me at a business meeting if I would be an employee at his company, responsible for the business development processes. Guess what, he would not have presented me in the same way.

Do you want you family to refer to you as "my baby girl" or "my daughter who is an expert in public relations" when meeting with their friends and colleagues. Most people has a limited network and does not work to expand it very actively, so when they hear that their friends daughter is known as an expert in public relations, guess who they will call when they need to market their new product line.

By the way, this does not only concern your family. It is even more important that your friends do not present you as a "couch potato" or "party animal" to people they meet. You probably want them to describe you as a fun, driven person with social skills as well as expert knowledge.

Maybe you want to separate your personal and private life. If you are presented as a public relations expert or a social skilled person and the other person wants to discuss that topic after the introduction, spend a few minutes discussing the topic, trade business cards and kindly point out that you would love to meet to discuss the subject further over lunch some day. The other person is most likely not to keep talking about your profession.

The use of personal branding for students

2006-05-18T13:49:00.000+02:00

Are you interested in being great in your future profession? Are you confident that you can succeed, if only you had the network of a person that has been in the business for several years? Are you looking for a shortcut?

Well, if you are a student, then you are most certain to do some project work or thesis. If you can control the direction of the thesis, think of how you can do it to build your network in the areas that you want to. If for example you are thinking of being an entrepreneur, running a business in sell educations, then you could do a thesis on the structure and needs of the top companies in your region regarding educations. This way, you will get a real case to work with, you can book meeting and establish contact with the decision makers at the top companies and you will get a head start on starting your business.

Sure, that obvious, you're probably thinking. I could not agree more. So what can you do to develop the concept? Maybe you can build the connections even harder to the top companies by telling them that you would be glad to recommend them to the other top companies that you meet during the interviews. Now you start adding value to the companies, as well as your brand. The executives are probably thinking that this is a smart person which is eager to go the extra mile. Do not ask for compensation though, if you play your cards right you will get the favour returned at a later occasion.

Are YOU in control of your life?

2006-05-17T18:24:00.000+02:00

The Workplace

Are you educated, working with specialized tasks? Then you are probably irreplaceable at your workplace. This is a situation that you can be happy about, but you should also know that your employer probably does not share your positive view of this. Most employer wants to transform your competencies to "structure intellectual property" so that if anything happens to you (or between you and your employer), then he/she can replace you.

Are you frightened yet? Don't be. Be proactive and learn how to use this to your favour. Talk to your supervisor and explain that you have an urge to develop your company and want to share your knowledge, and suggest that the company starts a knowledge sharing program. This way you will show that you care and that your work matters as well as you will learn from others in the program, hence develop your own competencies. Do you think that this will make you replaceable? Actually, this makes you even more valuable to the company since you get a better understanding for more processes as well as it will be harder to replace you when you have more knowledge of the company. And do not forget that while developing your skills, your value increases when looking for new positions (within and outside the company).
By now you are probably thinking that this is a way to differentiate your brand at the workplace and creating value at the same time, and guess what, you are completely right. This is an excellent example of differentiation at the workplace.

This is two different views of intellectual capital, one representing the employer and the other the employee:

Employer:
I need to convert the skills of my staff to structure capital so that I can manage if I lose personnel without loosing intellectual capital. The staff should be replaceable. This can be done by documentation and knowledge transfer between the employees.

Employee:
I need to stay unique to keep my value to my employer to make me irreplaceable. This I can do by staying one step ahead in gathering knowledge and use the knowledge to excel in my current role.

Tip of the week: Do not fight the knowledge transfer. Support it and if possible, take control over the process. Learn as much as you can and analyze how you can use the knowledge in your favour.