3 Things That Make Your Business Look Unprofessional
Image is important in business and if you don’t give the right impression to customers, you will find it hard to get things off the ground. It’s all about inspiring confidence and building trust, and customers tend to trust a business that looks professional. You want to be a company that looks like it knows what it’s doing, not one that is completely new to the business world and doesn’t have a clue (even if that is the case). Delivering the goods is important, and you won’t get anywhere without an amazing product, but if the professional image isn’t sorted first, people will never buy the product in the first place. So many new businesses let themselves down with a few small slip-ups that really shatter the confidence of their potential customers. These are some of the things that are making your business look unprofessional.
Image Source – Pexels CCO License
Working From Home
It’s easy to set up a business from home these days, and it’s usually the best choice because the overheads are much lower, which means less financial risk. Unfortunately, it does cause an image problem sometimes. If you are going up against a big business with a flashy office and hundreds of employees, customers will naturally question whether you can really compete. But with a few simple changes, you can make a home business more professional. Make sure that you have separate phone lines for the business, and set up a professional office. If you are meeting clients, it may be best to meet in a coworking space rather than inviting people to your home. Some people will always be against working with smaller businesses like this but most people will be fine as long as you make the right adjustments and present yourself in the right way.
A Bad Website
The first contact that most people have with a business is through their website. It’s like a digital version of a shop window, and if you don’t get it right, you may mess up your one chance with a customer. People don’t hang around on websites for long, they will give you a few seconds and if you haven’t done something to grab their attention yet, they’ll leave and never come back. You need to pay particular attention to the navigation and layout of the site and make sure that you pay a professional web design company to build it for you. If the site is overcrowded and clumsy to use, that screams unprofessional and customers will click off and never come back.
Troublesome Employees
When you hire employees, it’s important to remember that, whatever their role, they are ambassadors for your company. This is true even when they are out of the office, so think about the kind of person that you are hiring. Dealing with difficult employees is tough and if they are behaving in a way that doesn’t add up with your company values, that can seriously damage your image. Consider this while hiring, and if you do have troublesome employees, you need to tackle it immediately.
These simple issues can make your business look incredibly unprofessional, so it’s important that you stay on top of them.
