Big companies always outshine smaller bootstrapped startups for a lot of reasons. While the quality of their services and products might not be so distinct from the smaller ones, the impression a bigger brand gives consumers is that of confidence and assurance. When you're starting your small business, you might be intimidated by the amount of work you would be required to put in just to convince your first customer that you're worth the shot.
This feeling alone prevents a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs from running their own businesses. It goes without saying that most of the high performing employees at bigger successful companies such as PR agencies have what it takes to stay on their own.
What if you have a strategy that could help your small business feel like a bigger one? With the confidence of a mature business person, you will definitely be killing more deals than you're used to. Here' I'm sharing three non-expensive strategies you can implement to make your business feel big.
Invest in Appearance
This is the first rule of business: never leave room for doubts. If you say your company is a multi-million dollar business, you better look the part. This means you need to invest in your appearance by donning high-quality suits and bags that executives of large businesses are often known for.
If you think this is ostentatious and pretentious, consider what statistics and years of research on appearance have proven. In a Forbes piece, we're shown how weight gain can lead to wage drop, and another piece on Business Insider shows that your clothing can indeed contribute to how you're perceived.
High-quality doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. This cosmopolitan piece shares tips on how to make cheap clothing look expensive. However, if you have the cash, go for the real thing.
Be Busy
While being busy is what most people claim to be always, the fact is there's quite a difference between actually being busy and telling people that you are busy.
For example, when people ring you up - you might pick up the phone and end up telling them you're busy because what they're telling you doesn't seem important after all. This is you telling them you're busy. On the other hand, if this same person calls you and your assistant picks up, asks them their purpose of calling before she determines whether the call is what you want to answer, then you're actually busy.
Think this strategy would cost you a fortune? It actually won't. A recommendation is to get a business VoIP, then hire a virtual assistant for less than 50 bucks a month.
Be Efficient
Apart from the glamor and show part, one thing big businesses have to their advantage is efficiency. A large work-force, several years of experience and the needed tools help bigger companies work more efficiently. A startup, on the other hand, can use the advantage of not having to deal with bureaucracy and slow decision-making process, which again is typical of bigger entities, to pull this off.
How to achieve efficiency is to cut the unnecessary aspect of any job and get to the basics real quick.
If the first two strategies are the part that makes you appear like a big business, this point is the part where you live up to that impression.