Have you ever passed on the opportunity with a certain business because you felt that it lacked a professional image? Unfortunately, many of us have done this. We base our opinions of both people and businesses on the first impression we get from them. This is why it is important for home businesses to maintain a professional image.
One mistake that many home businesses often make is they fail to come up with a business name that sounds professional. They pick something cute or funny and think it will do the trick. Unfortunately, the name of the business can keep some people from making that first initial contact with you. You will also want to register your business as a DBA or Doing Business As or become incorporated. This will also make it easy when you are sending out any information to your clients as you can use this on your letterhead and envelopes. It will give your business a more professional image.
When trying to create a professional image for home businesses, it is important to also have an address that looks professional. For example, if you operate an online consulting company and you live on Pet Lane, it may look more professional to have a PO Box for your business. You can get a PO Box from your local post office for under $50 a year and it will help you to portray your business as more professional than it would if you used your home address.
As a business owner, you must also learn to be professional on the telephone. If you use your home number as your business number, you will want to make certain you do not use the answering machine message of "Hi! You've reached Mary, Larry, and Gary." You will want to change your greeting to a more business-type greeting. You will also want to make sure that children are not answering the phone. Many people who run home businesses, often feel it is well worth the cost to get a second telephone line put in that is dedicated to their businesses to prevent things like the above from happening. Another alternative is to hire an answering service to answer all of your calls.
Those who run home businesses should also consider creating a website with a professional domain name. This can be done at a very low cost and will help you to bring in more clients to your new business. Having a professional email address will also help you to portray yourself as a professional.
The fact is more home businesses fail because of a lack of professionalism than you would care to believe. Portraying yourself and your business as a professional is the most important thing you can do for the success of your business.
Dustin Heath recommends that you visit http://www.SimplifyYourProfits.com to learn how you can start your own home-based business earning multiple streams of income with a Plug-In Profit Site - Complete Money Making Site Setup FREE!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dustin_Heath