Maintaining your personal brand is a lot like maintaining your personal appearance, except instead of looking like a slob at the grocery store, if you don’t maintain your personal brand you won’t make money. Actually, since you need money to maintain your personal appearance, perhaps personal branding is even more important, although I guess this is where the chicken and the egg comes in…

Here are 3 branding strategies to do this week:

1) Hit the weights – While you may not work up a sweat, take a moment each week to exercise your mind and learn something new to help you build your business. Whether it is keeping up with the latest and greatest in your industry or checking in on your favorite branding agency (hint, hint) to see what new tips it has to offer, never stop learning. And when you learn something worthwhile, don’t hesitate to put it into practice immediately.

2) Check the mirror – It happens in every business overtime voicemail messages become stale, links on web sites aren’t updated, furniture becomes tattered, minor mistakes slip past… But while any single one of these items don’t mean disaster to your image, when all the little slips add up it begins to look like you don’t care enough to keep it together. Go through your business with a fine-tooth comb. Follow the path of your client and check each detail. If you don’t like what you see in the mirror, start at the beginning to set things straight.

3) Smile and say “Hi” – Never underestimate the power of staying in touch with current clients. Many marketing strategies concentrate on gaining new clients, which we all need, but it is also just as important to stay in touch with old clients. For many people, your services or products may very well be out of sight and out of mind. Don’t loose those customers you worked so hard to get in the first place. Send them an email, create an e-newsletter, place a phone call – just stay in touch with the gold mine of people you have already convinced to be your customer. They are one of your most valuable assets, don’t let them go stale.