Image is very important in business and if you don’t send the right message to customers, you’ll struggle to make any sales. Looking professional is very important because you need people to trust that you know what you’re doing and you can provide a quality product or service. This isn’t too much of a problem if you’re a big business with a large headquarters and a huge marketing department that are constantly pushing your brand. But when you’re a small business, especially one that is run from home, looking professional is a lot harder. If people perceive you as a small, unprofessional business, they won’t have that much trust in you and that means that they’re not likely to buy your products, which is obviously bad news for you. The good news is, you don’t need to be a huge company with loads of money, you just need to look like one from the outside. These are some of the simplest ways that you can make your small business look more professional.
Introduce A Unique Phone Number
If you are using your personal number for business, it can easily land you in some difficult situations. For example, you might not realize that it’s a customer calling and so you answer the phone in an unprofessional manner like you would if you were speaking to a friend. There is always the chance that you’ll get calls when you’re out and you’ll have to try to speak to a customer in a busy place with lots of noise going on in the background, and that makes you look very unprofessional.
You can avoid those situations by getting a dedicated phone number for the business that you only answer during set hours. You can either get a new mobile phone for the business or even get an 0800 number if you want to look extra professional. You could also consider using a Google Voice number which can reroute calls to all of your phones to one single number and save your voicemails online for you.
Use A Virtual Address
Your address can give away information about your business that you might not necessarily want people to know. If you’re running a business from home, for example, it doesn’t look great if somebody sees that the business address is just a residential address. They will immediately have doubts about the business and it could cause you to lose a sale. But if you use a business address service, you can register your address to a professional office building and have post sent there instead. Having your business registered to a big office building instead of your house gives the impression that the company is much larger than it is and that encourages people to trust your business more.
Invest In A Good Website
It’s important that you keep costs low when you’re first starting a business but one thing that you should invest money in is a good website. Even if you decide to build it yourself rather than hiring somebody, you need to pay for a good domain name and hosting services, such as Linux VPS hosting, and don’t just rely on free templates when designing the site either. A bad website that looks like it was made a decade ago is a big red flag for potential customers. They’re likely to click straight off the site again and they’ll see your business as amateurish and unprofessional. But if you put some time and money into creating a slick, modern website that functions well, it will make you look a lot more professional.
Having a website should be a necessity for all businesses. This is because how this platform looks and works can significantly affect its brand and image. A professionally-looking website that offers flawless customer experience will make the general public think that you’re a business that prioritizes the needs of their customers. This will surely help your business attract new customers, retain new ones, and thrive in the long run.
Aside from the appearance of your website, you should also make sure this platform contains the right keywords. This is an important factor when creating a website, so online users will easily be redirected the moment they search for your services and products. According to www.caffeinemarketing.co.uk, Search Engine Optimisation is always a must when making a business website, so make sure to spend time to do some keyword research, so you will know what words to use.
Get Some Business Cards
A lot of people think that business cards are a bit outdated but they’re actually very effective and they make you look a lot more professional. If you’re networking with people and you want to set up a meeting, for example, it doesn’t look great if you’re writing your phone number and email on the back of an old receipt and giving it to them. Having business cards on hand will help you to avoid situations like that where you might look unprofessional. They’re also a great marketing tool that you can just leave around in places where they might get picked up. You just need to make sure that you create a great design and you get them professionally printed because cheap looking business cards may have the opposite effect and make you look amateurish.
If you don’t have any experience in making business cards, it’s best if you let professionals handle the job for you. A professional graphic designer can come up with the best aesthetics for your business cards, which perfectly showcases your business’s competitive edge and image.
Sure, creating your own business cards might be cheap, but this doesn’t mean that taking this direction can provide the best results. Remember, how your business cards look can create an impression – and if it looks poorly-made, no customer or shareholder would want to do business with you.
In Conclusion
These are all simple things that you can do to make your business more professional and trustworthy to customers. These strategies can be implemented by any business, even if they are still starting their operations in the industry.
Aside from the tips presented in this article, you can do some research online and determine what strategies other businesses are using today, too. The more information you have about this matter, the easier it’ll be for you to make your business look more professional.
