Starting a small business has never been easier. Depending on what your idea is for a new startup, you may need nothing more than a computer and an online connection to get things up and running.
Of course, anyone can start a business, but not everybody can do it successfully, and most startups fail within a year of being founded. There are many reasons why this could be, from an absence of vision to an absence of capital, but in this post, we’ll focus on another big issue that can make or break a startup – first impressions.
A business only gets one chance to make a positive first impression, and if it fails, likelihood is the potential customers who took the time to find it will go elsewhere.
When you are starting out, the key to making an amazing first impression lies in making your business appear fully professional. Here are some things that can help you do this:
Create a Professional Website
Today, most people browse online for the products they want to buy and the services they want to use, even if they plan to buy from a brick and mortar company rather than an online company. That’s why it is so important for any serious startup to start with a website.
If you want your website to appear professional, it should at a minimum look clean and easy, be optimized for mobile, and contain important information such as your business address, opening hours, service menu and phone number. You can use virtual services to get yourself a phone number and business address if you do not want to use your personal details during the initial stages, but you need to have something in there to give consumers confidence that you’re the real deal.
Use a Business Email Address
Another thing that you absolutely need if you want to appear professional is business e-mail address, not personal. Email addresses ending in dotgmail.com or something similar are fine for the average professional, but not for the business owner. Customers are much more confident working with a business that has their own domain name e-mail address, and since most website hosting plans include at least one business e-mail address in the package, it should be fairly easy to set it up together with your website.
Create Professional Invoices
Many customers will be willing to provide you with the benefit of the doubt to make their initial purchase with you, but if you fail to impress them, they may not come back. One thing you can do to increase your chances of turning your one-time customer into a repeat customer is to use software to create professional-looking invoices that are easy to read and show that you mean business. You should also be sure that you send invoices on time because professional companies aren’t late.
Create Buzz on Social Media
Right or wrong, many people associate large number of followers on social media successfully. So one very effective way to make your business look more professional, not to mention much more popular, is to build a following on social media. The way you do this is by posting as much solid information in as many forms of media as you can. Posts should be tailor-made to your target group, and contain relevant information or entertainment. Interesting and interesting enough to share.
Building a Solid Network
Another way that businesses can create a robust first impression is with associations. If you can relate to other major players in your field or related fields, then customers are more likely to put you in the same bracket and believe that you can deliver on whatever you may must offer. I mean, if you are developing software and you are pictured talking to Bill Gates, then people aren’t going to disregard you that easily, are they?
Then all you need to do is get out there and attend talks, conferences, trade events and conventions, where you can meet the right people and build the right relationships.
Get Yourself in the Media
In that same vein, if you can get yourself on television or arrange to be interviewed by a popular podcast in your niche, for example, people will perceive your business as one of the major players in the field. Often, we believe that people who are interviewed in popular media are there because their numbers are known and they really know their stuff. This does not at all times occur, but that is what people think, so look for any opportunity to get your name out there; ensure you have something smart to say when you do because looks will only get you so far.
Hire a Receptionist
Having a receptionist is a straightforward way to group yourself with more established companies. If you cannot afford someone to answer the phone for you, check virtual service companies, many of which offer virtual admissions services for a fraction of the cost. These types of companies can even provide you with a very important business address and phone number, which will be more impressive than your home address.
There are lots of pretty simple ways to make your startup look more professional, as you can see above. The key is to implement as many of them as possible in the shortest amount of time possible if you want to build your reputation and convince more people to become your customers when there are too many established businesses already up and running for them to select from. . If you can implement all the strategies above from day one, you’ll have a far better chance of staying in business a year from now than many of your peers who may struggle more in those critical early days.
