Now, more people than ever are discovering that not only can they happily work from home (with a few adjustments) but they can also run their own business from home. While running a home business might not affect the quality of services you can offer, it will affect the first impression that clients and customers might have of your business. As such, there are different ways to fight the stigma that comes as part of the package. We’re going to look at a few here.
Make the right impression
How do you first make contact with your leads? Whether it’s through the net or in-person, you need to work on making that approach as professional, as possible. For instance, if you’re building a website for your services, then you might want to work with a professional designer like https://www.stevesims.com/web-design/small-business-website-design.htm who can help sharpen your online image. Just as, if you were meeting leads in real life, you would ensure that you were professionally dressed, had a business card, and were both polite and engaging in conversation.
Be responsive and be professional
One of the benefits that people expect from a more established business is that they have a support team that can be there as soon as they need any help. You might not have a team that can offer support as quickly as you need, but you can at least make sure you have an efficient contact system that allows customers to address questions and concerns. A professional email system for your business can include auto-responses, while you can also use virtual receptionists who can take messages for you and even answer some simple questions.
Don’t let them know you’re a home business
The simplest way to avoid the stigma is to let clients and customers assume you’re not a home business. You don’t want to lie to them, of course, but you can let them come to their own conclusions. For instance, with a service like https://physicaladdress.com/virtual-business-address/, you can create an address tied to your business that isn’t based from your own home. This way, they can assume that they’re getting in touch with a bigger business that’s based in an office building.
Underpromise and overdeliver
One of the big dangers of running a small business is that you’re so eager to win the approval of your clients and to retain them, that you might get into the habit of overpromising. Work on developing a realistic scope of what you can achieve on every service level that you offer. Make sure that you don’t promise beyond what that scope covers. This way, if you do end up going over that scope, it becomes a much more positive experience, since you’ve outperformed your client’s expectations.
Unfortunately, as common as it might become, the stigma of running a home business is likely to last for some time. For that reason, you should take into account the strategies to fight it mentioned above.
