How to Make Your Small Business Seem Bigger
Now small businesses have the technological tools to compete with bigger companies.
Corbis
Embracing the fact that you have a small business doesn't mean it's bad to aspire to be bigger.
Ramon Ray, journalist and editor at Smallbiztechnology.com, sums it up perfectly: "Small businesses can do BIG things using low-cost technology and readily available expertise." It doesn't matter if you're running a business out of your home, the local Starbucks (free Internet), or an abandoned warehouse, if you have the right tools to reel in a large consumer base, it's not necessarily important how small your business is because it's doing big things. With all of the technology tools out there, small businesses are now in a better position to compete.
"With the rise of social media and ubiquity of online software the time is NOW for small businesses to reach a big business audience," Ray says.
Now is also a good time to understand that it's not necessarily about appearing bigger—and leading your customers to believe your company is something that it's not—it's about identifying the advantages your company has from being a proverbial small fish in your market and leveraging that to your benefit. Phil Simon, author of The New Small: How a New Breed of Small Businesses is Harnessing the Power of Emerging Technologies, explains in his book how small companies are using technology to do cutting edge things and becoming leading competitors in their industry.
Simon notes that with today's technology, smaller businesses now have the capability of being just as powerful as larger companies. "In fact," he says, "you can argue they're more powerful because they've got less stuff clogging the technological artery. So, smaller companies can turn on a dime...[and are] able to do things that big companies can't, not because those big companies don't see the value but because they are, for example, contractually obligated to an antiquated software vendor for the next 10 years or politically it's not possible to move in a different direction, or financially the cost for such a move would be prohibited."
Embracing the fact that you have a small business doesn't mean it's bad to aspire to be bigger. There's nothing wrong with that at all Simon says, but even to accomplish that goal you need to have a firm understanding about which tools you can use to become a big player in the market.
How to Make Your Small Business Seem Bigger: Start With the Basics
So you run a small business, maybe even a business of one, and you feel like it's time to take it to the next level. Here are three must-have items to get you started:
- Professional Business Cards - Cutting cost can be a great thing, but your business card represents you and your company when you're not present. So it should not be "some flimflam, two bit piece of yellowing paper," Ray says. This is not to say that you HAVE to invest in over-the-top, pricey metallic business cards—though, if you've got the means go for it—but perhaps relying on your self-printed paper cards is not the best idea.
There are companies that will make, print, and deliver your cards to you for a reasonable cost including VistaPrint, UPrinting, and PrintPlace. It's important to take the style and design of your business cards seriously or no one else will. How many times have you thrown away a card because they don't look professional?
- Company E-mail Address - "Clearly if you're giving somebody a business card and you've got philsimon88@gmail.com listed as your business e-mail then that just doesn't connote the same professionalism," Simon says. "It doesn't take a lot of technical know how to register a domain."
Go Daddy, iPage, and JustHost.com are good places to start. Leave your Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo accounts for personal use.
- Updated Website - "You can't be taken seriously as a business if you have no website or an ugly website. In the book I call them 90s sites, sites that look like they were built 15 years ago," Simon says. "They have a Home, About, Contact, Directions, Testimonials, but there's no meat, no compelling content, there's never a reason to come back. That's a huge mistake."
You can create a basic, yet effective, website for a modest price. Do your research, read reviews, and ask around before deciding which web hosting tool is right for you. Sites such as Fat Cow, Blue Host, Go Daddy, and Inmotion are good places to start.
Dig Deeper: How to Choose the Best Business Card for Your Company
