The best news, ever, is that “small” businesses have the opportunity to have a level playing field with much bigger companies. I say opportunity, but you have to be willing to recognize it and take it.
Here’s the deal, you can be a hobby business and look like you have an empire. But if you have an empire you can also look small and disconnected.
Before someone even visits your business in person they start with your website. As I’ve said before, the first place a customer visits is often the last place you update. So break that habit now. Make sure to keep links and dates updated. It’s silly to visit a site and see an out of date deadline. I visited a site yesterday that had the year wrong… by two years! Oh boy. For the record, I’ve been negligent of expired dates, but not two years… yikes!
Here’s another quick hint… update your email. If it’s business related, please don’t use gmail or yahoo… get a domain that matches your business… it just screams “lack of experience”. Your image online needs all the help it can get to express creditability.
Use real photos. You want people to come visit you! Stock photos have a time and place… but on your website it’s time to show you. For example, if you have a hotel and show stock photos of a room and not your room, you’ll have some very disappointed customers.
Finally, represent yourself as a subject matter expert. Read my article on my website and start featuring your experiences, awards, honors and education. It’s the way to separate yourself and build your online creditability. When in doubt of representing yourself as a subject matter expert, just ask yourself, would you rather buy something from an order taker or from a subject matter expert?
When you level up your game with your website you will level the playing field. It really is a special time in commerce that you have the opportunity to compete on a world market AND you can represent yourself just like bigger companies.
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Action Step
1- Find your trouble spots, repetitive questions, and areas of tasks you do over and over…. make the lists
2- Analyze the lists and develop solutions to farm out, enhance the FAQ page, or automate your marketing!
3- Install my free app! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)
Listen to Episode #137 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast
Love this inspirational quote? View it on a 12″ x 12″ Canvas “Social Square” wall hanging!
Two ways to get more Small Business Tips …
A- Install our Free App (SmallBusinessClubApp.com –Apple or Android )
B- Subscribe to my blog at BigFishIdeas.com
