One of the biggest barriers that startup businesses face is the perception of their credibility. If they are a new operation and they’re still finding their feet, then not only will most people not have heard of them, but they probably won’t have a fancy marketing campaign that everyone’s seen, nor will they have a prestigious office space in the best part of town.
This can, unfairly, lead to customers and clients shunning them in favor of a better established business, which probably goes some way to explaining why 80 percent of startups don’t even make it past the 12-month mark.
Are you in this boat? Do you want to know what you can do about it? Disguise your startup as a big business that’s what! There are numerous things you can do to ensure that your startup has the look, feel, and most importantly appeal, of a much larger organization. Here are some of them:
Act Important
You shouldn’t be arrogant or walk around like you’re better than everyone else, but if you want people to believe that your business is bigger than it really is, you need to act how the CEOs of big businesses act. They are confident; they walk the talk, say what they want and generally behave like they’ve made it. If you can act like them, then people will start to believe that you are similarly important and that will have an affect on how they perceive your business to be too. It might not be easy at first, but practice makes perfect.
Use Virtual Headquarters
The first and simplest thing you can do to make your startup appear more professional is to get a better business address. Don’t panic – that doesn’t mean that you’re going to have to spend thousands of dollars a month renting some prime office space – all you need to do is pay for virtual headquarters, where you will get a prestigious address in your city, or the city of your choice, so you can stop using your home address for business. Not only that but when you have a virtual headquarters, you also have the option of having a virtual receptionist, phone services etc., too – all of which can make your little company seem much more like the big business you know it will be one day.
Make Your Invoice Numbers Bigger
If you’re sending out invoices with numbers in double digits, then it is going to be really obvious that you’re green around the gills and you haven’t been doing this very long. So, find an invoicing solution such as Quickbooks or Paypal that enables you to choose a high starting number and use that to ‘inflate’ the number on the invoices you send out. It won’t matter for bookkeeping purposes as long as you’re consistent and there is a log of everything that you need to log.
Use a Virtual Telephone System
Using a PBX, or a virtual private branch exchange to give it its full name, is a great way of running a ‘switchboard’ system like the ones the big businesses have, without having multiple phone lines or an actual switchboard, which are pretty expensive, as I’m sure you’ll know if you’ve looked into them. Again, doing this gives a stronger impression that you are a bigger operation than you really are and that perception could be enough to increase your business’ cache with clients.
Don’t Let Your Business Cards Give You Away
If you’re a one-man band, and you’re doing everything from running the phones to liaising with clients and possibly even cleaning the office (if you have one), then handing over a business card to a potential client that clearly states you’re the CEO will immediately give away the fact that you’re a startup because why else would the top guy or gal be doing all of the work when they should be busy with important meetings and executive lunches?
Launch a really Great Website
If you’ve made your business website for free using Weebly and you didn’t even bother to pay for your own domain, using a subdomain instead, then you are not only clearly new to this, but you will immediately be pegged as an amateur,. So. buy your own domain and pay for your own hosting package.
Then, hire a good web designer to create a professional, responsive website that looks like similar websites made by big businesses in your niche (but with your own branding, obviously), and hire a content writer to ensure that your content is not only interesting but also word perfect. Bad websites are a real giveaway that your business is new or just bad, so don’t let yours be your downfall.
Incorporate
If any of your clients where to check you out, should they find that you are the sole proprietor of your business, it would be obvious to them that you’re startup, probably working on a shoestring budget. By becoming a Limited Liability Company, you will immediately elevate the perceived status of your business, and you will actually get more legal protections for you and your business too.
If you do plan to incorporate your business, it’s important that you get professional legal advice before you do so and you might want to talk with your accountant too because it will now be possible for you to file your taxes as a corporation rather than an individual and you’ll need to work out what is best for you.
Although it might seem that you’re being a little less than honest, none of these things are anywhere close to being illegal, and many of them are sensible not just for the impression they will give, but for the benefits, you will get from them too. Not only that, but when your company inevitably does start to grow, you’ll have taken care of a lot of things that need to be taken care of already, which will enable you to concentrate on the more important aspects of your business.
