Every single business owner wants to make an impression with their home business. As a newbie to the business world, you want to know that you are dipping your toe into a world in which you will fit perfectly. The problem is that working from home doesn’t look as professional as working in an established office. You want to make sure that your home business looks good so that you can maintain an air of credibility for your customers. With that in mind, let’s take a look at six ways you can start to inject a little professionalism into your business – even when you work from home.
- Start with your website if you want to maintain that professional air. You need to have a website if you want your business to be one that is recognized and followed by the right audience. You can set up many websites for free, but if you don’t have a custom domain, you’re not going to be taken seriously by clients. Pay for your website to have a domain that is unique to you – you won’t regret it.
- You may not have the money to brand everything, but you need to think about being consistent. You need the right UX designer to come in and give people the best experience possible via your website, and you want to make sure that you use this same branding across every social media site and website.
- It’s important that you don’t use your personal address on correspondence. You may be working at home, but you can use websites like www.virtualaddress.com.au to set up an address for your business that doesn’t involve where you actually live. You want professionalism, and a PO box or a virtual address is so much more professional than your personal street name.
- Speaking of using personal things, the same could be said for your personal email address. You need to think about setting up a business email address if you want your company to be taken seriously. There is no business in the world that looks professional with a Hotmail account or GMail!
- Where possible, you should have a second phone line attached to your house. You may be working from home, but it doesn’t have to look that way. You can still have a business telephone number for people to contact you rather than a personal one, and they don’t take very long to install, either. Check with your mortgage terms and conditions about business activity at your property before you go for it.
- Lastly, you need to utilise a good meeting space. If you plan to network and meet with potential clients, you need a place to do so without inviting them to the spare bedroom in your home. Find a local hotel or shared desking space that will allow you to hire out their meeting rooms by the hour. This way, you can keep the costs down and not have to rent a permanent space to use.