[Closed] 1 man bands - do you market yourself as We or I?

Are you good at your (technical) job ?

Getting "you" as opposed to a random subbie might be a marketable benefit - if you're extra-well qualified or have a ded high profile for some reason, even better.

(faceless public servant here, FWIW)

Is the name of the company just your name, or something like Weyland-Yutani Corp?

Depends partly on your industry and set-up. I use 'me' - I'm a freelance copywriter and clients are looking for personality and originality that carries through into creative work (in theory, at least). No need to portray myself as a bigger entity. Different in other industries though, where scale or resources might be more of a selling point. I write stuff for businesses and organisations of all shapes and sizes, and this is one of the key decisions we make together when I'm articulating their brand.

I suppose it depends on what industry you're in as well. When I was sound recording pretty much everyone was a one man band, so it never occurred to me to pretend otherwise.

I'm in the same boat. Having left a big-4 firm and set up on my own it seemed cheeky saying "We".

I stuck to "I" because that's what my clients have been buying - my skills and experience.

If successful, then clearly you are exploiting your niche. If you're exploiting your niche then there is no issue with being "I".

'We' suggests a larger operation, if it's important to come across as anything other than a one man band then use we, otherwise 'I'.

I'm planning to use 'we' for my new business as many of my clients will want to know/think they're dealing with a reasonably sized business.

The company name is not my name. The sector is retail marketing services / POS / display fixtures.
My clients are buying my skills and experience and I will be client facing but I plan to outsource some design, technical, and manufacturing.
I'm designing out a website at the moment and have done a I and we version. Perhaps it's just the copywriting (not my forte) but the I version just reads as 'me, me, me I'm so great'

the I version just reads as 'me, me, me I'm so great'

But you are though, right? 🙂

I used both I and we, it never caused any issues.

The 'We' bit was myself and the business, 2 become 1...... wasn't that a spice girls tune? 😉

As a client, if I find someone presenting themselves as a 'we' when they're a one-man band or a one-man band 'plus associates' (ie: a gang of random one-man bands) I'm already concerned about their integrity and also ability to deliver.

Maybe I'm scarred from working in marketing but there's a lot of 'consultants' in my experience who have lying as their new business strategy.

I was a contractor for 4 years and always made a point of honesty and integrity, knowing that it was a point of competitive advantage in a world of blaggers

I do use freelancers when required.
... but neither to I want to appear that it's just me.

I'm going to go with WE (even if it is just the royal one for know).
I've not intention on trying to pull the wool over clients eyes but at least we indicates correctly that there is more resource than just me.
Thanks all

The last two services I have looked in to procuring have been for some training and web design (not for the same thing)

I am a cynical bugger so will try and dig as much as I can. I don't like the websites or sales calls that say 'we' can do this, 'our' technical team can do that, contact our head of bull @ generic email.com, when in fact its just one person sat in the room doing it all.

Much prefer people to be honest.

Now If they turn up in a big expensive car, that's different, they must be good 😕

Couldn't you just use the company name and kind of work round using it too much, e.g. "[x] has been active in the sector for x number of years with previous projects including blah blah blah"... that type of thing - so don't use "we" or "I" at all?

I use 'We', as I used to employ a small team but at the moment it's just me, but that could change again very quickly.
If you use 'we' then you can use 'I' for the personal touch ('I'll look after this personally')

I think it partly depends who you're market is. If you're dealing with the public I think 'I' is better but if you're working for another company then 'we' would be better.

Definitely 'We' for the simple reason that dealing with a one man band is never ideal for a Business. Why? Because you can't rely on it as illness, holidays etc make it unreliable.

You'll be selling [i]your[/i] experience and skill. I outsource design to a sole trader. If he had a team who did his work, he might not get it. he gets our work because I know [i]he's[/i] good.

Use your company name rather than either "we" or "I" perhaps?

Failing that I'd go with "we," if only to avoid having to rewrite all your marketing material should you take someone else on.

I generally use we. I make it pretty clear 'we' are a small company as there is no point anyone think otherwise. I do work with others and employ subbies on certain jobs so it's pretty honest. Some people want small some want big so best to represent what you actually are.

I avoid we or I but state that the business offers a freelance service blah blah.

Being a developer I then also link to my own LinkedIn profile and other things (GitHub etc, though I must make more effort to build some kind of portfolio there).

Generally everything I get is through connections, word of mouth, rather than any advert I have online. Those who do contact me that way seem to know I'm a one man band though. It doesn't work too well. I get contacted by small companies who want something technical done but generally don't have a clue what they really want or what they want isn't achievable for a tiny sum of money, or it's a job too big for just myself. It's far better if the company is used to software development and the freelance/contract business.