ATHLETES' PERSONAL BRAND AS A SUCCESS FACTOR FOR START-UP

The main aim of the paper is to discuss the possibility to benefit from former athlete's personal brand and to identify athlete's key attributes of personal sport branding that facilitate the transition from sport career to entrepreneurship. Sport personal brand is based on managing the brand image providing it with the athlete's personal values, projected to the future, so that it can be used by the athlete, even after their professional career of a sportsman. In this paper we have suggested an idea that athlete with strong personal brands can succeed in entrepreneurship. Further on, we decline that athlete's-personal brand could be a successful variable in an early stage of entrepreneurial companies. Strong personal brand of former athlete entrepreneur can help to attract the people for business start-up.