Factors Affecting Personal Branding in Accounting

Personal branding is an investment in personal professional development in a world where marketing can increasingly determine the fate of businesses and jobs more than ever. To have the desired personal brand, people should learn various characteristics through the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and experiences and apply them. Without professional, human, and perceptual skills, people cannot develop their personal brand domain. Branding is an approach for gaining power, differentiating between competitors, and maintaining customer loyalty. In today's environment, having a professional reputation or brand is considered a very important asset. A personal brand is something that saves people from professional anonymity and exposes them in a particular circle for a specific reason. Personal branding is broader than corporate (organizational) branding, which is influenced by complex factors and conditions and is not just a professional marketing process. Accounting is one of the most organized and disciplined professions in the world. Due to the type and nature of the services it provides, it has a special reputation and trustfulness. Since accounting and auditing firms are among small and medium-sized companies, they are very much influenced by their founders and partners, and the role of branding in these firms is very important. Companies need a well-known and trustable person to do their accounting affairs (in fact, such a person can be an accounting brand) so that they can trust him/her with ease; so, the factors that affect accountants' personal branding are presented here to determine what can be done and how to turn accountants into strong brand staffs in the professional and practical field to solve the problems of companies in choosing strong accountants or financial managers. Companies need professional accountants for staying in the survival triangle. Accountants can also create a competitive advantage for themselves and outperform their counterparts by developing their own brand. In this article, the factors affecting branding in accounting are presented in a model.