How to Build your Brand as a Contractor

As a contractor in Canada, you need to present yourself as the ideal candidate more frequently than in permanent roles. To do this effectively, it’s crucial to build a strong personal brand. 

Creating a brand that highlights your unique strengths requires consistent and deliberate effort. You’ll want to showcase your expertise, reliability, and experience so that clients and peers can trust and depend on you. 

Let’s explore the key reasons for developing a contractor brand and how to achieve this effectively, ensuring your professional presence stands out in the Canadian market.

Three reasons to build a strong contractor brand

Have the right publicity

Even if you have the right skills, you’ll struggle to find clients without the right image and reputation. Branding isn’t just about the logo or the website – it's to make sure you come across as professional, established and trustworthy. In short, people need to know exactly what they’re getting when they involve you in their projects. 

Protect your contractor status

At Hays, we work with contractors across a number of industries every day. Our advice to them is to set up their services under a company. 

Why? In many countries, specifically in the United States, this brings financial benefits that aren’t afforded to an individual in employment. As such, it’s best to have a logo, website and associated materials that indicate that you’re managing a business, rather than your own work. 

Prepare for future evolution

Think about how many large businesses started as just one person as a contractor before expanding. 

Your business could become something big, so why not start with a structure that can scale? Defining a brand will help to incorporate further services, or even employees, later down the line. Even if it’s not something that interests you now, there’s no reason to make it harder for yourself later. 

Three ways to build your brand as a contractor

Perfect your online presence 

LinkedIn

You shouldn’t need telling but having a complete and up-to-date LinkedIn profile is non-negotiable. This includes: 

• Having a photo, which leads to 21x the number of views on your profile and 9x the number of requests to connect. It doesn’t need to be a studio shot, but make sure it’s professional and reasonably recent. 
• At the start and end of your projects, update your work experience with an overview of your responsibilities and achievements. 
• Add any certifications you’ve earned, not just those you’ve done through LinkedIn. 
• Ask past colleagues, managers and project managers for recommendations that you can showcase. 

Get more in-depth tips here.

Website

Beyond LinkedIn, make a dedicated website for interested parties to discover more about your services beyond your profile and applications. It doesn’t need to be anything special, but should involve: 

• An ‘About You’ section, containing keywords that tell the reader who you are and what you do
• A portfolio of past work, including extra-curricular projects
• An updated list of your certifications
• Testimonials from clients
• Links to your profiles on other channels
• A blog (more on that later)

This might sound daunting, but with the right tools it can be very straightforward. If you don’t have any technical knowledge or experience in building a site, I recommend a user-friendly platform like Wix or GoDaddy that allow you to use templates and existing components. 

Network proactively 

Keeping your online profile current is important, but you need to get it out there, so people find it. Although networking doesn’t come naturally to many of us, it's something you’ll need to get used to as a contractor. 

I recommend starting out virtually. Leave comments on other people’s LinkedIn posts that relate to your area of expertise. Approach this with the attitude of being helpful or sharing an insight you’ve found useful, rather than dominating the discourse. Apply this to relevant forums, where you can contribute to conversations or start your own. Start slow and get a feel for what you have to offer before increasing the frequency. It can be time-consuming to juggle this with your workload during a project, but it’s worth continuing to keep your name in people’s minds. In time, your peers will recognize you as someone to contact for advice or experience. 

If you’re finishing up in a permanent role or your current contract is coming to an end, note the details of anybody who might be a useful contact in future. Make sure you leave them with a good impression of yourself so that they remember you positively. 

Once you’re more confident in connecting with people online and having conversations with stakeholders in person, it’s a good idea to explore in-person events where possible. Think about what you have to offer and start conversations with that in mind. You won’t be helpful to everybody you speak to with, nor will they be a useful contact to you. However, coming away with one or two names you can continue the conversation with is a great result. 

Create content that showcases your expertise

Producing content will help you stand out among your peers as a thought leader with valuable insights. There are two primary audiences for this: 

• Potential clients: By sharing insights that not only demonstrate your knowledge but also touch on relevant business challenges, you’ll position yourself as an expert. 
• Other contractors: Becoming a trustworthy voice among your peers will help you to expand your network and strengthen existing relationships. It’s also more likely for a contact to recommend you for a project if they’re unable to take it. 

Topics for your content:

• Commentary on trending news that impacts your field 
• In-depth exploration on relevant challenges and solutions 
• Advice for professionals and businesses 
• Updates on your projects and learning 

Formats for your content

Choosing the right format for your content will depend on what you want to say, as well as your strengths and resources. 

For quick tips and advice, a social media post or a short speech to camera works best. LinkedIn is your best bet for reaching a professional network and prospective clients, so discuss trends there through posts, articles (which you can publish from your account) or longer videos. 

To access a wider audience, you might also consider working with somebody else to record an interview or conversation. Start out with pre-recorded videos that can be uploaded to YouTube or LinkedIn, with shorter clips on other platforms. After that, you might experiment with live streams or webinars where you can interact with the viewers. 

Don’t feel obliged to pick one of these and continue with it – find which ones works best for you as a creator, and which ones your target audiences engage with most. Invite people to comment or submit questions and publish polls which they can respond to easily. Once you settle on your preferred topics and formats, you can be consistent, which in turn reinforces your brand. 

Building your contractor brand

As a contractor, you shouldn’t underestimate the power of a consistent brand that tells clients and peers what you do. This starts with an online profile that’s not only easy to find, but also lets people know about your skills, experience and reputation. After this, building a network of fellow contract workers, clients and former colleagues will allow you to get the word out about your business even further. Even if you’re not yet comfortable with writing or recording content, these steps will help you enjoy continued success in your contractor career. 

Interested in more contractor content?

• Learn how contractors can benefit your organization 
• Contractor CV Tips