Potential clients want to know that they’ll be taken care of, and the only way to have that sense of security is to seek out credible companies. One way to instantly build credibility is to make your business seem bigger than it is. How do you do that inexpensively? Well, here are a few ideas.
The foundation of credibility is your name
When you see a business like “Fred’s Computer Repair”, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? If you answered something to the effect of – “A place where I would never take my computer, but would prbably see my grandma there” – you are not alone. The name of your business is represents your company’s entire persona.
Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, Target – these names lend themselves to a large company ideal.
37Signals, Threadless, DropBox – Small, efficient, and very focused niche companies.
Anderson Consulting, Sally’s IT Services, Jeff’s Bagels - Names that may, or may not, be one man shows.
Pick a name that fits your credibility goals. As I said before, if you want to build trust, choose a name that makes you look larger than a one-person venture.
Have a decent web site built
Nothing can kill your credibility faster than sporting a website that looks like it was made on GeoCities. You don’t need a website, but a bad one can do more harm than good. There are inexpensive and easy ways to make professional looking websites using WordPress, Joomla, and other content platforms. If your website sucks, it’s better to get rid of it than to let it destroy your reputation.
Have your own email domain
Grab a domain name (they are usually less than $10 a year) and use a service like Google Apps (the standard version is free!). There is no reason in this day and age for you to have @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, or @hotmail.com at the end of your business email address.
Start using cloud applications
Because of advancing technology, you no longer need to spend big money on business applications. Every day there is another web-based alternative to the high-priced software of yesteryear. For the love of all that is holy, invest time (rather than loads of money) in learning how to use web-based services like Google Apps, Mailchimp, Zoho, and so on. They are a cheap (and free for the most part) way to make your one-person business look bigger, and act bigger, than it is!
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Thomas Sinfield
June 24, 2010 at 4:38 pmI am surprised by the amount of businesses that have websites (with the own domain) and still use a hotmail or ISP email address. This just reeks of unprofessionalism to me.
It really isn't that hard to look like you have it all together. Great article Dean!