Creating,Professional,Image,Fo DIY Creating a Professional Image For Your Home-Based Business


Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and


Like it or not, there is still a segment of the population who will erroneously conclude that you and your business are less than professional and competent just because you run your business out of your home. Dumb? Obviously. Narrow-minded? Yes. Wrong? Absolutely. Unfair? No question. Want their business? Well ... yes. OK, then you're going to have to play the game and beat them at it. Here's how to do it. It's a little sneaky, but hey, all's fair in love and home-based business.HARMLESS FICTIONSThe name of the game is creating the right image ... employing a few harmless fictions, in other words. First off, incorporate or register a fictitious business name. Nothing screams "PROFESSIONAL!" to Potential Client as an honest-to- goodness corporate or business name on your letterhead and business cards. Never mind that anyone can spend ten bucks and register a DBA, it at least *looks* professional, and that's what counts.OFFICE ADDRESS The next problem you have with Potential Client is that you don't want your home address to give you away. What do you think looks more professional in Potential Client's eyes: 123 Cherryblossom Way, Apt. 103, Suburbia or 123 Major Blvd, Level 37, Big City? The answer is a serviced office. These don't have to cost a lot of money if you use them pretty much as a post office but they CAN give your business all the big-city prestige your potential client is looking for. You can also use a post office box for this purpose but many a Potential Client will be on to you in a flash. They didn't just fall off the turnip truck, you know. (Right.)An additional advantage is that you can use your serviced office to meet with Potential Client. After all, the last thing you want is to have him coming to your REAL office. Heaven forbid! Most serviced offices will make meeting rooms available for a flat fee. TELEPHONES This is probably the trickiest part of all. How do you know it's safe to answer the phone in your home office even though the sounds of your young children playing just outside your office door will be heard by the caller? You simply don't. There is a simple way of dealing with this. Only give your home office number to existing clients. They already know you are professional and competent and should therefore have no issue with the fact that you work from home. For anyone else, give out the number of an answering service that will answer the call in your business name and can tell callers that you're in a meeting with another client and take a message. Your serviced office will offer this service as well. You can then return the call at a time when you know tell-tale background noise won't give you away. In fact, a trick some people who work from home use when returning calls is to run a tape of office background noise. This both gives the impression you are working in a large office AND it masks any slight tell-tale household noises that may, despite your best efforts, give you away. Once Potential Client becomes an actual client and you've proved to his satisfaction that you are professional and competent, you can tell him that you've decided to start working out of your home to reduce unnecessary overheads and give him your direct phone number. No matter how enlightened your client-base is as a general rule, it is imperative that the telephone be answered in a businesslike manner. I don't care how sympathetic, supportive and admiring your clients are of your decision to balance your work and family commitments by running a successful business from home, there is nothing cute about a five year old answering your business line. It's unprofessional, not to mention downright annoying. So have a separate phone line for your business and lay down the law to your household that no-one, NO-ONE, is to answer it but you (unless, of course, you're employing your teenage children in your business in which case they should be instructed on how to answer the telephone in a professional manner). If you're away from your office, divert your calls to your answering service. EMAIL Something else to think about is the image of your email address. Which is Potential Client to consider more corporate/professional: [email protected] or [email protected]? It's worth spending $35 a year on your own domain name just for the professional email address, even if you never intend to create a website. Mind you if you're going to have your own domain why NOT create your own website? But that's another article ... STATIONERY AND PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS It goes without saying that your stationery, business cards and other promotional materials should reflect a professional image. If you have incorporated your business or registered a fictitious business name as recommended earlier, this is a good start. A company or business name on letterhead and business cards can't fail to convey a professional image provided they are professionally printed on quality stationery stock. OFFICE EQUIPMENT There's no point having quality stationery if you're going to use a cheap and cheerful inkjet printer for your correspondence. Invest in a medium quality laser printer instead. They don't cost a lot of money these days and you can get a unit that triples as a fax machine and photocopier for only a few hundred dollars. So, what do you think? You may be thinking "I wonder whether it's really worth the effort to try and please just a small number of potential clients". Is it worth it? Well, look at it this way. Are these suggestions really anything more than basic, common sense, professional business practices? Regardless of what your potential and existing clients may think about the concept of businesses run out of their owners' homes, first impressions DO count. Article Tags: Professional Image, You're Going, Business Name, Potential Client, Business Cards, Serviced Office, From Home

Creating,Professional,Image,Fo

DIY

Soil testing as important as oil changes are for engines

When you have a vehicle that you are driving a lot, you know that oil changes are something that you need to do on a regular basis to keep your vehicle in good condition. This is the same as soil testing. Soil testing ensures that your soil ...

DIY

Foam bitumen - Sustainable Eco-friendly Roads

Dont you think it will be great if we have eco-friendly roads that will be sustainable and durable as well? If there are roads that are not harming the environment anymore? This isnt just something that is for the future. There are countrie ...

DIY

Soil Testing: It’s all about that soil

Soil testing. The success of your harvest is all about the quality of the soil. And, the only way to ensure that you have the best soil, is to know what your soil needs.Many dont think that soil testing is needed. They are only adding nutrie ...

DIY

Mobile Work and Aluminum Platforms That Fit Your Needs

There are many domestic, trade and industrial applications where an extension ladder is the best and safest choice. Although many people try to make do with tall stepladders, most don't know it's hazardous to stand on the top work platform o ...

DIY

Truck Access Platforms That suitable for you

Looking to plan and specialist a few kinds of platforms that give your workers safe access to single or multiple hatches on an assortment of Tank Trucks. In the event that your administrators are as of now getting to the highest points of tr ...

DIY

How to Choose a Custom T-shirt Printing Company?

Be it a family event, a noble cause, company event, or personal interest, wearing custom t-shirts gives importance to it. The fame of personalized shirts is soaring high with this. More and more men and women are wearing custom shirts while ...

DIY

Moving Jurney By Interm Packers and Movers

They perceive the ins and outs of transferring so it's a protected option to allow them to deal with your whole belongings as a result of they'll do it proper and do it with care. When you might be in a predicament corresponding to not havin ...

DIY

Use a Vacuum Excavation for an Unearthing Project

You may very well get yourself that you have to utilise a vacuum excavation for an uncovering venture. This can be anything from disposing of a channel that is blocked or to penetrate a gap in the ground without harming the encompassing zone ...

DIY

Detailed Information about Non-Destructive Digging

At the point when you consider digging a gap in the ground, the principal thing that rings a bell is this ordinarily winds up a total wreckage around the gap.Be that as it may, there is one technique called non-destructive digging. This is t ...

DIY

A Complete Guide to buying a Vacuum Truck

Buying a vacuum truck are something that you should consider on the off chance that you are searching for another business opportunity. There are a few advantages to having this sort of business in the event that you have a completely prepar ...

DIY

Best Methods of Underground Cable Detection!

While we are continually fabricating and remolding properties, unearthing is unavoidable and can be attempted for an assortment of reason. What we are going to discover right now while playing out an exhuming, you should discover any undergr ...

DIY

Vacuum Trucks Can Deal with Exact Unearthing Needs!

Some intriguing data about vacuum trucks. That it will have the option to give in your precise excavation and drilling needs. You may imagine that those enormous trucks won't have the option to penetrate precisely, without harming anything a ...

DIY

Utility Locators - Locating Underground Cable

There are numerous reasons why it is imperative to locate underground cables. Also, if the Cables can't be found effectively, the fiasco will be immense and can be destroying.This is the reason you have to ensure that you know however much a ...

DIY

Important Information about Hydro Excavation

Hydro excavation is the way toward expelling or moving soil with pressurized water. An air movement or vacuum is then used to move the dirt or trash to a garbage tank. This takes into account a non-damaging and progressively exact approach t ...

DIY

Foam Bitumen - Lab Tests for Pavement Construction

Foam Bitumen. Something that you probably won't have found out about. All in all, for what reason would it be advisable for you to consider what the different lab tests on bitumen for asphalt development are? But on the off chance that you a ...

DIY

Soil Testing & analysing Is Worth the Effort

There's nothing of the sort as a free lunch, even in the nursery. Contingent upon your soil's local ripeness and what you develop, your plants may perform for quite a long time without requiring extra manure. Be that as it may, at some point ...

DIY

Soil Testing For Construction

Soil testing is a significant piece of building and street development. Truth be told, no development task can continue without first ensuring the soil can bolster the heap. Subsequently, the reason for soil testing for construction is to de ...

DIY

Soil Testing Services for Construction Projects

Regardless of whether you are building your fantasy home, making an expansion to your current home or building up a business property, there is one thing that is of most extreme significance, soil testing. There are various building consulta ...

DIY

Property Insurance

Property is Peoples HopeIt is not wrong to say that property is a hope and main aim of every person. People put all their efforts and then purchase some property for time ahead reliability and safety. This property is result of a long term s ...