Yesterday I had a call with a reporter who was doing an article for the New York Times. The topic was how to make yourself look big. Apperance is important when you are selling your products / services because most people do judge a book by its cover.
Here are some suggestions for you to make yourself look professional and potentially bigger than you actually are:
Create a fantastic website – If you have a great looking website people will assume that you are an established, reputable business. You no longer need to spend the big money on the marketing fliers and brochures as long as you have a fantastic website that you can reference. Spend your money where it counts!
Hire people to work part time – The first person I hired was for one hour per day. As I grew I could afford more hours and I could also tell my customers, partners, media, etc that I had people working for me (I just did not say full time). You do not need to make the leap to full time right away, especially if money is tight, hiring part time can be a great way to get some of the tasks you hate doing done.
Share an office – If you do not have the money to rent an office yourself, share it with another business. If that is not feasible and you need an office to entertain a client, borrow one from a friend. Especially in the B2B businesses, customers will often want to meet with you at your office before making a purchasing decision so you have to look good!
Align yourself with experts – For one of my businesses I contacted all the top people in my industry and asked them to contribute one article for a Guide to Professional Success. I also wrote an article and put it all together into an ebook. I immediately became associated with all of these experts and it was a huge credibility boost for my new business.
Bring in friends – I once did a media interview with a television station in my early years and only had one person working with me at the time. I wanted the place to look busy so I brought in my friends. They dressed up in suits and pretended to work behind me while I was on camera doing the interview.
Have professional business cards – Do not print your own business cards on the tear-away sheets. It makes you look like an amateur and people will not take you seriously. Through companies like VistaPrint you can now get very nice looking business cards for practically nothing. You no longer have an excuse for not having a good business card.
These are just some of the things that I did when I was first getting started to look bigger than I was. I hope the New York Times uses the material from the interview!
Do you have any additional tips that have worked for you?
Evan Carmichael
