A Successful Business Starts with an Established Reputation

Two young, smiling women in business attire conduct a podcast

The success of your business is often determined by what you do before you build one. Every successful business has to start from somewhere. But where? Creating an established brand is a culmination of many things. It depends on where you want to begin or focus on the most, but it all ties into your reputation. So, how can you establish your reputation before you start a business? Let’s find out.

How to Establish Your Reputation

Establishing your reputation requires effort and time, but the rewards will be well worth it if you can power through the strenuous moments. Remember that you may need to seek out your targeted audience as they will not know anything about you or your business. We’ve listed some strategies to help you know where to begin.

Become Certified or Receive Your Degree

Becoming certified or receiving your degree from a college or university is one way to show people that you know your stuff. You’ve likely already received your degree from a college or university. If not, you can still prove to people that you are a skilled expert in your field by obtaining appropriate certifications.

Build a Personal Webpage

A black man in a purple business shirt works on his laptop at home

Although a degree or certificate is nice to acquire, having a place to show your experience and work is equally as important. After all, you want people to see what you can do.

Building a personal webpage, for example, is an excellent starting point to show your experience. Here, you can also introduce yourself and your business to the world. You can also list relevant and significant projects you’ve completed in the past, your goals or vision, mission, strategies, and so on. Listing items like these go a long way in building and establishing your reputation.


If you’re not sure where to start building your personal webpage, our Linq app is the perfect solution. You can show off your work, experience, introduce yourself and your business, connect to a digital business card, and more.

Build Upon Past Businesses

If you have built or helped create successful businesses in the past, use those experiences to your advantage. They show people what you’ve accomplished, and your reputation from those businesses can transfer over to your new endeavors. It’s just like showing off your degree or certificate.

Network

Networking may be intimidating at first, but talking to potential investors or clients is helpful to spread your reputation. For this reason, it’s best to keep an electronic business card on hand so people can reach out to you for additional information if they have questions or want to follow you on social media. 


Having a digital business card is handy because you can easily pull it out and allow the other person to scan it with their mobile device. They’ll receive a link that will take them directly to your personal webpage, where you can list all of your social media links for those who want to follow or learn more about you.

Follow Like-Minded Social Media Influencers

A man taps a social media icon on the screen of his black iPad to connect with an online influencer

Connecting to credible social media influencers with similar values and ideas will be beneficial for you. Their audience will reciprocate the same views and feelings they have about them toward you. You will need to exercise some caution, as associating with the wrong people can hurt your reputation.

Reach Out to Influencers

If you want to build your business reputation, getting involved and taking part in an online community will allow you to gain people’s trust. It also makes it easier to reach out to influencers, to be featured on a podcast or blog article, etc. These platforms are great for sharing your business idea and letting people connect to you in a more relatable and personalized way. It’s the perfect way to reach and grow your audience.

Develop and Express Important Characteristics

People appreciate integrity and openness. They are most likely to give you their loyalty if they know you have their backs. If you are respectful and polite to negative or critical reviews and feedback but show an effort to make things right, people will more likely respect and trust you. Developing and demonstrating characteristics like these will particularly benefit you in building your reputation.

Your Reputation Starts with You

Establishing your reputation before you start a business all comes down to you. If you are diligent and committed, you can overcome whatever obstacles you may encounter. It sometimes takes years to build a good reputation, while it’s easier to ruin it in a single day. If you stick to developing and expressing good characteristics, you are more likely to avoid this problem.