How to Make Your Home Based Business Look Professional
>> Thursday, February 16, 2012
Summary: People will assume that your home-based business is less professional, but only if they know that it is home-based. Here is how to create the illusion of professionalism.
Whether you like it or not, people will assume that your home-based business is less professional than other businesses, regardless of the quality that you provide them with. Making a home based business appear more professional is a bit sneaky but it is the only way in which you will be able to get the big contracts and make a real impact on the market. It is just as important for small businesses to have a professional looking external face as it is to ensure accurate small business bookkeeping at all times.
Harmless Tricks
All that is necessary is that your business looks important. Even though it takes only 5 minutes and practically no requirements, registering your business with an honest sounding corporate name will immediately make your business look more professional. Having a professional name and a professional letterhead will make your customers assume that your business is bigger than it is.
Office Address
Having an address in a suburban area will immediately scream home business to potential customers. It does not have to be expensive to get an office address, especially if you mainly use it like a post-office for your business. The added benefit is that you could potentially use the serviced office address to meet with potential clients to negotiate work.
Telephones
Telephones can cause real problems for home businesses for the simple reason that you are in a home environment and there will therefore often be noise. Calling a business (other than a nursery) and hearing children in the background immediately screams unprofessionalism. Similarly an answering machine which is clearly for family home use as well as a business use, will look unprofessional.
The first stage in making your phone line more professional is to get a dedicated 1300 number for your business which is separate from your home phone line. It is then also important to have an area within your home where you can answer the phone without being disturbed by children, radios or televisions. It is essential to treat all business phone calls as if you are in an office environment and remain professional throughout.
Email
The email address that you use to communicate for business is very important. Having a generic gmail or yahoo email address looks unprofessional for the simple reason that anyone can get one. Paying a reasonable fee of $35 a year for a domain is completely worth it because it will generate a greater impression of professionalism for your business.
Stationery
It is important to take every possible opportunity to promote your business through the correspondence that you send out. All invoices, emails and letters should be on headed paper with a professional logo and obvious contact details. Everything that leaves your home office should look like it came from a big city office, so be sure to invest in a quality printer and decent stationery.
The Office
The office itself needs to be either never seen or very professional. If you need to talk to clients on skype then it is not ok for you to be in your lounge room in a dressing gown. Make sure you are in a professional setting, free from children’s detritus, and are properly dressed whenever you are communicating with clients. Even if you are hidden from their view, wearing a suit to work each day will help you to focus on your work far better.
By following a few simple steps it’s easy to project the appearance of being a larger business than what you really are. Doing this might be just what you need to land that big client you’ve been pitching to for ages.
Search Terms: small business bookkeeping, 1300 number, home-based business
Whether you like it or not, people will assume that your home-based business is less professional than other businesses, regardless of the quality that you provide them with. Making a home based business appear more professional is a bit sneaky but it is the only way in which you will be able to get the big contracts and make a real impact on the market. It is just as important for small businesses to have a professional looking external face as it is to ensure accurate small business bookkeeping at all times.
Harmless Tricks
All that is necessary is that your business looks important. Even though it takes only 5 minutes and practically no requirements, registering your business with an honest sounding corporate name will immediately make your business look more professional. Having a professional name and a professional letterhead will make your customers assume that your business is bigger than it is.
Office Address
Having an address in a suburban area will immediately scream home business to potential customers. It does not have to be expensive to get an office address, especially if you mainly use it like a post-office for your business. The added benefit is that you could potentially use the serviced office address to meet with potential clients to negotiate work.
Telephones
Telephones can cause real problems for home businesses for the simple reason that you are in a home environment and there will therefore often be noise. Calling a business (other than a nursery) and hearing children in the background immediately screams unprofessionalism. Similarly an answering machine which is clearly for family home use as well as a business use, will look unprofessional.
The first stage in making your phone line more professional is to get a dedicated 1300 number for your business which is separate from your home phone line. It is then also important to have an area within your home where you can answer the phone without being disturbed by children, radios or televisions. It is essential to treat all business phone calls as if you are in an office environment and remain professional throughout.
The email address that you use to communicate for business is very important. Having a generic gmail or yahoo email address looks unprofessional for the simple reason that anyone can get one. Paying a reasonable fee of $35 a year for a domain is completely worth it because it will generate a greater impression of professionalism for your business.
Stationery
It is important to take every possible opportunity to promote your business through the correspondence that you send out. All invoices, emails and letters should be on headed paper with a professional logo and obvious contact details. Everything that leaves your home office should look like it came from a big city office, so be sure to invest in a quality printer and decent stationery.
The Office
The office itself needs to be either never seen or very professional. If you need to talk to clients on skype then it is not ok for you to be in your lounge room in a dressing gown. Make sure you are in a professional setting, free from children’s detritus, and are properly dressed whenever you are communicating with clients. Even if you are hidden from their view, wearing a suit to work each day will help you to focus on your work far better.
By following a few simple steps it’s easy to project the appearance of being a larger business than what you really are. Doing this might be just what you need to land that big client you’ve been pitching to for ages.
Search Terms: small business bookkeeping, 1300 number, home-based business
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1 comments:
Whether to supplement your income, or launch the business that will take you to the top, the work from home industry is rich with opportunity and possibilities. Thanks for the great blog! ^_^
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