We sometimes hear, “My business or profession is not what I AM, it’s what I DO.” But is your business really some completely separate entity?

If you’re a one-person business, I will argue that your business is, at the very least, an extension of you, a reflection, a representation, of what and who you are. Your business embodies your personal value system, beliefs and principles.

Your business will never express values or principles that are significantly different from your own. Nor would you ever want it to.

And you must make sure that your business never, in the interests of making more money, violates or misrepresents your values and principles.

Of course, for one-person businesses, this is pretty easy to do. But if you have a business partner, or employees who have contact with your customers or clients, then it’s somewhat less easy to do, because your image becomes a composite of different people’s values and principles, and becomes another thing that needs to be “managed”.

In any case, everything about you, and about your business, carries an “energy signature” – a perception of what you and your business ARE. Why is it called an energy “signature”, and not just “energy”? Think of it this way – if you speak your name, it’s pretty quickly gone (assuming it wasn’t recorded). But if you SIGN your name, it’s kind of permanent. And impressions (especially first ones) tend to linger and not be forgotten very quickly.

Every part and piece of your image and persona matter, because all carry an impression, a signature, which tells people whether they want to get to know you, whether or not they will end up liking you, and whether or not it’s a safe to trust you.

So get really clear on your values and principles, and write them down. And make them the foundation of your business.

 This is a guest post by Tom Harris, Your Marketing Coach. Tom helps entrepreneurs and small businesses develop and execute marketing plans. He specializes in website usability and effectiveness.