Competing with larger businesses can sometimes be a challenge for small business owners. This is echoed by a lot of small businesses that I have mentored. Its hard enough to get a foothold in this industry never mind having to compete against large businesses with deeper pockets. What we need to remember is that they areall small once. Adopting some of thecertain strategies can make your business look more professional as well as leave the impression you can match the services being offered by your bigger competitors. So with some soul searching, each small business owner can consider the following ideas to assist and enlarge the appearance and presence of their small business.
Build your brand
Successful big businesses realize the importance of having a strong brand and making full use of its potential. Branding is much more than your choice of brand colours, typefaces or catchy tagline. Branding is best defined as the experience customers have when they engage with your business, so it extends to such things as how you dress and how you answer the phone or communicate by email. Your business might be small, but that doesn’t mean you should have limited ambitions. Having a brilliant brand can help you to punch above your weight.
“If you don't talk big game, you never get anywhere. If you don't think big, you don't get big. Some people call it egotistical, some people call it high hopes, some people call it confidence.” Vanilla Ice
Consider your name
Having a business name that screams ‘sole proprietor’ or small local firm can hamper your ambitions. Changing your business name isn’t a decision to be taken lightly, because it can have serious implications for the reputation you have established. While changing your business name is easy enough, the hard and costly part can be making sure existing customers remain loyal. Changing the name of a corporation also is not difficult or expensive, but you need to pick a name that makes you appear to be a bigger business.
Incorporate your business
Being a limited corporation can also make your business look bigger. Incorporation can be an inexpensive and relatively easy task – it might even enable you to pay less tax and take more out of your business. Working out roughly whether you would be better off incorporated is simple enough to do although you should seek tailored advice from your accountant, financial planner and lawyer before making definite plans to change the structure of your business.
Get a central business address
If you’re running your business from home, it can be dangerous to list that address online. Whether you pay for virtual office space or simply opt to get a box from your local UPS store, you’ll have a standard street address you can use to receive mail.Many of these services also allow you to receive couriered packages so you can separate home and business purchases with ease. Some services will also scan your mail and send it to you via email, to make it easier to keep up with what’s coming in so you don’t have to physically go pick up your mail every day.
Drop your title
If you’re the only employee of your business, consider leaving your title off your business cards and e-mail signatures. Yes, technically, you’re the CEO. But it’s not very CEOish to answer the phone, take all of the orders, ship products or perform services, and field tech support. Until your company grows, it may be easier not to use a formal title.
“Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.” David Joseph Schwartz
Speak in plural terms
Use “we” instead of “I.” Set up separate e-mail addresses for departments like administration, sales, and service even if they all forward to the same person. If you have a partner who works in a different location, list it on your website, if appropriate. Multiple locations give the impression of a thriving business.
Use larger numbers
If you’re sending out quotes and invoices to clients, start with higher numbers. This gives the appearance that you’ve been in business longer than you have been and facilitates buyer trust and confidence. If you use a small invoice number like 12 or 20, it may make the customer feel like you just opened your business last week. Even if you did just open your business last week, you don’t want to project that image to your customers.Many invoicing solutions, such as PayPal and Quickbooks,allow you to choose your starting invoice number so you can keep things organized for your accounting and bookkeeping needs.
Use a virtual receptionist
There’s nothing wrong with being the ownermanager of a oneperson business but having to take care of all tasks isn’t ideal and it can mean not being able to answer phone calls you could convert into sales. Paying a monthly fee can mean you have someone answering your calls promptly and professionally and then notifying you by email or text. Freeing up your time can also create the perception of a bigger business with administrative staff.
Use a virtual PBX
A Private Branch Exchange (PBX) is a telephone system that allows you to switch calls between various lines while allowing all employees to share the same single phone system. Instead of investing in a physical PBX system, turn to a cloud-based option that uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) like Skype. You’ll get to choose your own phone number, or port an existing number over, and you’ll be able to provide multiple extensions for extension dialling within your company. With a virtual PBX, you can also back your business with a toll-free number and have a virtual answering service direct users to the right area to address their issues.
Keep your small-business attitude
If you hope to sign a contract with a big customer, everything you say and do has to be polished and professional. However, the advantage you have over larger businesses lies in another p-word: personal. Delivering quality work is important, but even the largest companies are full of people who want to enjoy their workday. Dealing with a pleasant person who makes their life easy and enjoyable will always set you apart from your larger competitors.
“It takes the same effort to think small than to think big. But to think big frees you from the insignificant details.” Jorge Paulo Lemann
Social Media and Marketing
The one key benefit to being a smaller business is the ability to adapt to change quickly and taking advantage of opportunities expediently. One of the first ways to do so is to consider providing mobile accessibility to clients and prospects. Its a must in our age of smartphones. It was something that was one of the important underpinnings of Northern River Financial.
People are using their devices to do research, find directions to your business, access prices and make purchases so make sure your layout is suited to mobile technologies. If you don't have the technical expertise, hiring a mobile designer can help you add the functionality you may require. Social media provides a huge competitive advantage to sall businesses. Some social media strategies that your business could adopt are:
- Reviewing and updating your website - Give customers a positive impression of your business by having an easy to navigate website that also provides, if applicable, simple access to purchasing and secure payment pages. If you’re using a template that looks like a template, hire somebody to give your website a customized look. With free platforms like WordPress, you can invest a small amount of money into your domain, hosting, and a premium theme.If your sell physical products or services, one way to make your company look bigger is to include an online store option. This is also affordable and easy to do with a number of solutions online. Just make sure you have the tools you need to ship orders in a timely manner.
- Offering professional videos and blogs, whichallow you to share your expert information about your industry, may help boost your business' visibility
- Building up your social media channels through regular, current and informative posts and interactions may increase the number of customers that follow your business
- Keep the same name across all channels to increase brand recognition
- Get testimonials and reviews to help build trust with your customers
At this point, I know some people will say that they are not savvy with social media, it take too much time, they don’t have the time or that it is not as usable for their business. While I beg to differ, other ways that your business can increase its presence in the marketplace are by:
- Join trade associations- network with other business owners and attend meetings regularly so that your business is recognized among your industry peers
- Organize networking events- sending out press releases and handing out professional looking business cards may lead to increased awareness of your business
- Add your business information to business directories– this allows other suppliers and customers to find and contact you
Small businesses regularly find themselves competing against much larger companies for clients and contracts. And while they may deliver a superior level of service or provide better products, smaller businesses are often at a disadvantage because of their size. Risk-averse buyers regard size and an established market presence as bywords for credibility and reliability. You don’t have to be a big business to appear that way to prospective customers.
Its also important to mention that you can take steps to make yourself look bigger without pretending to be something you’re not. Including false information in your marketing materials will eventually come back to hurt you and your business. It can kill your brand and reputation that you have worked so had to build very quickly. It’s better to be small and credible than large and unethical.
Finding fiscal efficiencies in today’s world is becoming more challenging. Our children, as students, need to put on their thinking caps and become a sleuth to find savings and moderate their spending. Parents are a good mentor. Working with a Financial Life Planner can also add to that equation. They can help in Keeping Life Current.
Steve is the SBCN Canada Community Mentor and can be reached at steve@NorthernRiverFinancial.ca
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