How To Make Your Home Business Appear More Professional

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Running a business from home can save huge costs. It can also save the stressful and tedious task of commuting – you can roll out of bed and you’re straight in the office! There are lots of advantages to running a business from home, however there’s also the big disadvantage of being seen as unprofessional by certain clients. The best way to get over this stigma is to hide it and make people think that you’re actually operating from aof vibrant office block in the city centre. Here are just a few ways to make your home business appear more professional.

Have a designated office space

If you can, try to create an office space in your home that’s free of distractions. Ideally this should be a separate room. If you’re talking to a client on the phone and they can hear your kids in the background or your washing machine, they may assume that your business is less professional. Having a designated office space is also useful for your own benefit, allowing you to more easily separate work and home life (in other words, no working from your bed!).

Use a virtual mailing address

If you need to receive physical mail from clients, you might not want to disclose your home address – it could be a giveaway as to where you’re based. More importantly, you don’t want clients or other unwanted visitors coming to your home. A virtual mailing address gives you a city centre address for people to send mail to. Someone at this mailing centre then redirects the mail to you, so that your home address doesn’t have to be disclosed to clients.

Use a separate phone to your home landline

If your home landline is also used for personal calls, it could damage your professionalism if your family pick up the phone to talk to a client. Separate personal and business calls by having two separate phones with different numbers. The cheapest way of doing this is to use a cloud phone number. This contacted via your computer so that you don’t have to set up a whole new landline system.

Outsource a telephone answering service

It’s also possible to outsource a phone answering service. All phonecalls go through this service, helping to filter out sales calls and phonecalls of minor importance. Only the most important calls are directed to you allowing you to get on with your core job without having to constantly answer the phone. As well as saving you time, this can help aid your professionalism by making people think that you have your own secretary team rather than you answering the phone in each instance.  

Get creative with meetings

You most likely don’t want to invite clients round your home. However, there may be times when you want to host a physical meeting and a phonecall won’t do. Video-communication can allow face-to-face communication, which could be a cheap and easy form of correspondence for both of you. For something more personal, you could always meet in a coffee bar or a restaurant. These are popular meeting places in which you can talk business over a coffee or some food.