The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) says perceptions can be a great friend to small businesses, or a true enemy. Whilst ‘small is beautiful’, being pigeon-holed as ‘too small’ can see you missing out on work or orders and deter the customers you were confident your skills could attract.
To help you over this obstacle, FSB has some tips to help your start-up seem bigger or click here for the full article.
- Email addresses
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Always opt for an email address containing your business name. Having a Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail business email address will not elicit trust in your organisation. Invest in professional email footers and even adopt a firstname.lastname@ email format, to avoid being a joe@, if customers would expect to deal with more than one Joe within a supplier organisation.
- Telephony
Avoid being pigeon-holed geographically by getting an 033 number, or buying numbers with different town and city codes, which all redirect back to your main number. Using your mobile number as your main point of contact can again create an impression of being small, so if you want to answer calls on your smartphone, tablet or laptop, consider buying a Skype number.
- Office address
If using your home address as your business address could deter clients from employing your services, consider renting a virtual office. For just a small monthly outlay, you could access an address, mail forwarding, call handling and even hot desk facilities. Alternatively, buy a PO Box address.
Established over 40 years ago, to help members succeed in business, FSB is a non-profit making and non-party political organisation led by members, for members. Its mission is to help smaller businesses achieve their ambitions so head to www.fsb.org.uk to discover more.
SBGN are FSB members and support start ups and new businesses – give us a call! or come along to our ideas4business sessions…
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