Dressing Your Persona For Success… It’s Not About Clothes!

We’ve all heard of the concept of dressing for success. It’s likely that you, dear reader, own a power suit or at the very least a lucky tie. Clothes are the armor with which we protect ourselves from the rigors of a fast paced and increasingly competitive business landscape. They can be empowering, giving us a psychological advantage in negotiation and debate; giving us confidence in ourselves and emboldening us in a way that can make us seem assured and in control in a way that’s extremely appealing to clients, shareholders and investors. Dressing for success, however, is about so much more than clothes. It’s about projecting a certain image, and while your suit may help facilitate that, it can’t do all the heavy lifting for you.

If you need to make an important impression on a key client, an important investor or simply your employees, it’s important to dress yourself in the confidence and self assurance that will mark you out as an accomplished entrepreneur and a market leader. This can be difficult, especially if you’re of a modest and self-deprecating nature. These strategies, however, can help you project the image of success and fortitude that will make all the difference.

Be mindful of your achievements

It takes a very particular kind of person to become an entrepreneur and while you may take the specific mindset and set of skills for granted, it’s important to take stock of what you’ve achieved through your business. Not only will it feel confident and empowering, you’ll also be able to allude to your achievements in ways that will give others faith in you. It could be a time you’ve increased productivity, a time your business made record profits, or a time you helped an employee overcome a great personal or professional obstacle. The very act of establishing your very own business is pretty impressive and inspiring stuff, especially if you bootstrapped your enterprise from the ground up.

Remind yourself of your adversities and how you’ve overcome them

We all have our personal obstacles, failings and adversities and it would be disingenuous to pretend that we don’t. Nobody expects you to be so perfect that you’re free of adversities, but they will be interested to know how you’ve overcome them. Take debt, for example. Many entrepreneurs face difficulties with personal and business debts, but overcoming it is a great example of triumph over adversity. By restructuring your debt or reaching out to a specialist in debt consolidation loans bad credit is prevented from impinging on your business. Being able to prevent business costs from spiralling out of control is no mean feat in the current climate.

Don’t rely too much on the corporeal

Be wary of relying too much on the superficial trappings of success like expensive clothes or flashy cars. Accomplishments in business aren’t measured by the corporeal rewards and if you’re seen to be using them as a crutch you actually run the risk of coming across as a poser, and people will (however subconsciously) doubt your integrity.

Take stock of the relationships you’ve forged

You are not an island, and it’s important to look back on all the people who’ve helped you along the way and to be grateful for the contribution they’ve made, but it’s equally important to remember the people you in turn have helped and the success stories that you have contributed to. From your clients to employees to other businesses, arm yourself with the knowledge that you have been a force for good in the business world, helping others on your way up.