If you are a one-woman operation, you will spend a lot of time putting an incredible amount of effort into being as professional as possible, both in your actions and your interactions. After all, the success of your company is paramount to you, as you have put much time and effort into establishing it. However, there may be other aspects of your operation that are letting you down in this respect, something you can find out how to change in my post below, so then your business will have the most professional image possible that should help to boost your success.
Business postal addresses
What’s in a business address, you may well ask? Well, quite a lot actually, because it will be fairly evident to any customers and clients if you are working out of your own home because you will have a private address. The question that you need to ask here is, does this look professional enough?
If the answer that comes up is probably not, then it may be worth considering another option instead. Luckily, there are some solutions you can apply to this problem.
One is to rent a post office box (PO Box) as this means that official correspondence will not go to your home address. However, these do not always seem utterly trustworthy to customers, as they have a certain level of privacy attached to them.
Another possibility is to pursue the opportunity of leasing a professional business address for correspondence only. This is, in fact, something that is relatively cheap as easy to do, and because such addresses are usually situated in prime city locations, it certainly will give that added sense of success, and professionalism to your enterprise.
Answering services
Another way to make your one-woman-show as professional as possible is to use an answering service for your inbound business calls. In fact, there are several advantages to doing this.
First, it always looks more professional to have someone else answer your calls and take messages than to do it yourself. Then there is the opportunity to have bilingual phone operators on hand that can help you expand your business into a new geographical market, as well as the fact that you won’t end up missing any inbound calls and still be free to get on with the tasks you have in front of you.
Of course, many entrepreneurs are put off or signing up for this sort of service, because they wonder how much answering services cost to put in place. Luckily, the price is often much more reasonable than you would expect, and if you can find a way to compare providers you will find it easy to select the one that offers you the best value while making your business look super professional.
Offices
An downtown address can give and air of professionalism to your business.
Once again the lack of professional premises can work against the entrepreneur, but in this case, it relates to when you are holding meetings and client visits.
After all, it will always look far more professional if you have a smart business premise complete with all the fixtures and fitting. In fact, this can often help to convince potential clients that you are a safer investment because you have a physical presence and that shows you have invested in your business long term.
However, if you are in a position where buying or building a fully functional professional office building isn’t cost effective, there is something else that you can do, and it’s too lease fully furnished office space.
In fact, there is two way of doing this. The first is to rent the whole shebang on a month to month basis, which will give you a more permanent space in which to be based and to show your clients.
The second is to use flexible workspaces that allow you to hire meeting rooms for only the duration in which they are needed. OK, your customers will know that this isn’t your company’s permanent building, but it will still look a great deal more professional than offering them a cup of tea in your living room.
Branding
Effective branding is vital for any entrepreneur that wants their business to be as professional as possible, and they are a lot more to it than just getting a good logo. In fact, in the current business climate branding isn’t just about the visual side of things, but it’s also about your story, your personality, and what you as a business stand for as well.
What this means is that instead of just being another faceless company among millions of others online, you need to ensure that you know where your niche is and do your best to stand out.
One way of doing this is to embrace your entrepreneur’s story and relate how you have worked hard to start up your company, as well as the motivation behind it.
It can also be hugely useful to get a cohesive idea of what your brand represents and ensure that this is a message that you are disseminating across all channels and in all content. Then your potential customers will have a clear idea of what they can expect from you if they use your services or buy your product.
Website
Websites are a crucial tool for entrepreneurs when it comes to projecting a professional image to their customers. Although, just like branding successfully and professionally, it’s not just about the visual here. In fact, your website needs to be user experience (UX) friendly, as well as built with decent wireframes, and functionality as well. All things that need to are things that need to work seamlessly behind the scenes.
Of course, unless your specialism is website creation, it may be much more useful to outsource the production of your website to a design professional. Something you can do by using freelancing sites. After all, it’s their job to make your business look as eye-catching and professional as possible, something that you will need to succeed in your entrepreneurial ventures as a one-woman operation.