Comments on: Fake it til you make it: 10 ways to make your business appear bigger than it is

By: ralph lauren polos

ralph lauren polos — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 09:45:00 +0000

We have several system in education that you can choose. You can get a formal education at school or you can get a home schooling. This is mean you dont have to go to school you just learn from your house and there will be a special teacher for you.

By: lacoste polos

lacoste polos — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 10:37:00 +0000

If you want something done, ask a busy person, they know how to get things done. The other big guiding principle is stop selling; let people buy off you.

By: Marshall

Marshall — Sun, 09 May 2010 14:47:01 +0000

I agree with many of these comments. Here are some tips I've been implementing with my business. Ill try to be kind of specific to help those new to small business.
Phone system should be set up with a good pbx provider such as freedom voice. It can cost you anywhere from just $10 a month up to $80 a month and a great asset to your company. This makes your business look just as big a even your largest competitors. Extensions, hold music, Question and answer setup for tasks like automated hiring.
Than theres toll free or custom toll free phone numbers. This can make or break some business's. For example there are many 1-877 numbers that are not yet taken. What sounds better 440-959-4932 or 1877-Attorney. Having a custom number and pbx together can do wonders for your business.
Your website is also very important and should be done by a professional. If you have a website created, you should use it wright though. For example have mini sites or landing pages created to capture your users info for further follow up. Hire someone off sites like elance or freelancer to both build your site and set it up for the search engines. Remember, no-one will find your site unless your keywords are right.
If you really want to look professional, hire a website spokesperson for about $300 to introduce your site and product to your future customers. Not only does this make you look very professional, it also doubles the rates of those joining your program.
When choosing a domain name make sure its something memorable and professional at the same time.
Following up with your customers on a timely manner is also very important. Use an automated email program like constant contact. Set it to get back to your customer within 4 hours not right away. You want to look personal and professional but not automated and faceless.
Finally if you want to look both professional and automate your business use a program like earth class mail. This program will allow you to set up P.O boxes in locations that will impress your clients. For example 2172 Santa Monica blvd instead of P.O box 13344 des moines, Iowa 43543. Doesn't the first one sound like a very professional business to be right on Santa Monica Blvd.
This program will also scan and email all of your mail and deposit your checks for you at a cost of about $40 a month.
The secret is using third parties that specialize in the parts of your business that you don't. You can't be everything at once, it just doesn't make you come of as professional.
If you set up your business this way it will cost you a few hundred dollars a month at most while saving you thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of work.
Finally, If you have the money it is a good idea to hire a personal assistant to help you on the time consuming tasks. They can cost as little as $4 an hour and do a great job helping you look big. If you want to learn more about this subject check out articles like outsource your life or the 4hour work week by timothy ferris. It will completely change the way you handle your business.

By: Grant

Grant — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 08:06:08 +0000

It is important to convey the impression that your business is well established. Many will look in your contacts section of your website to see if you have a location and where you have a location – a number of web based businesses do not even show a location!

Additionally, to expand on point 7, you may extend your reach across a metropolitan area with different virtual addresses – some people prefer to deal with businesses they perceive setup in their area; and shun businesses they perceive as being too far away to provide good service.

There is more information on the benefits of a virtual address on: http://www.gecentre.com.au/virtual-address-sydney.html.

This site provides direct contact details of virtual office centres in the Sydney Metropolitan area: http://www.serviced-offices-sydney.com.au

By: How to make your business appear smaller « Start Up Blog

How to make your business appear smaller « Start Up Blog — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:00:38 +0000

[...] by Steve Sammartino on January 7, 2010 I was inspired by a recent article from the Australian Anthill about making our business appear bigger than we are. But in the age of authenticity, do we really [...]

By: Anne-Marie Birkill

Anne-Marie Birkill — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:47:39 +0000

Or join an incubator like i.lab (ilab.com.au) – and have access to professional office space, meeting rooms, presentation equipment not to mention mentoring, coaching and business development support……

By: Rob Lawson

Rob Lawson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:42:00 +0000

Great tips – starting in a home office, I had the phone diverted to a bureau is essential, an outstanding business card, leather folder, slick web site, quality suit, smart polished shoes, fresh breath are all essential. The one aspect that has built our business has been attitude. I pretended my diary was full for 2 weeks when I first started marketing iQuantum 7 years ago. Within 3 months, my diary was booked out for 2 weeks and has remained so ever since. If you want something done, ask a busy person, they know how to get things done. The other big guiding principle is stop selling; let people buy off you. Ask loads of questions and see if they fit your profile of an ideal client. Not all business is good business.

By: DigiGifts

DigiGifts — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:00:49 +0000

Yes, I agree with this comment too. Even sole traders can adopt this practice and make their company sound much larger than it is just by describing themselves and the company in the plural form. “I’ll get the technical team to look into that.”, “We will review your enquiry”, “I’ll have to consult with my business partner”, etc, etc. They all give the impress that you are much larger.

By: Walter Adamson

Walter Adamson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:37:17 +0000

The tips make sense but focus on the physical. One of the key business reasons for small businesses to use social media is to appear bigger than they are, more expert and more influential.

Walter Adamson @g2m
Social Media Academy, Australia
http://xeesm.com/walter

By: Gaurav

Gaurav — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:47:37 +0000

Excellent tips! And while these things are important, there’s also a point where you have to realize that you’re a small company and that’s what differentiates those big huge faceless heartless buildings from you. I guess Jason Cohen explains it wonderfully here: http://blog.asmartbear.com/youre-a-little-company-now-act-like-one.html

By: City Slicker

City Slicker — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:34:30 +0000

We’re proud of our office, which occupies a floor of a building in the middle of Melbourne’s CBD. We’re also proud of our PBX, which has IVR: Press 1 for Technical Support etc, queuing and redirection. This is supported by a 1300 number for users. We’ve also gone through the pain and cost of buying the .com version of our .com.au domain name (as SEEK and others had to do), and registering our trademarks.

As to dressing sharp: we wear t-shirts and jeans to the office unless we’re meeting someone outside the office. You’d probably find that other successful entrepreneurs do too (e.g. Atlassian’s founders: Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar).

We have just 2 full time people, but we have a world of support services: 2 law firms, book keeper, accountant, LAN and development environment support, hosting support (for our production server), PBX and VOIP support, security and on and on.

I don’t know that we’re out to look any bigger than we are … just be comfortable in our environment and well set up for the job we have to do.

By: Government Grant Guru

Government Grant Guru — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:34:11 +0000

Use reference numbers in proposals and invoices starting at a high number such 8373643 instead of 00000001. Makes it seem as though you have been doing business for a long time.

When sending emails for proposals etc, use the cc for another two people in the organisation (Which all come back to you anyway).

Refer to yourself as a Sales Rep, Senior Consultant etc not MD or CEO

By: David

David — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:26:56 +0000

For really first class service, never, ever meet at a coffee shop with a new client. Remember, ‘you’re here to help’ and step one is acknowledging they’re busy. Most clients prefer to meet you on their turf – at least the first few times. Believe it or not, new customers are also eager to impress and will prefer the opportunity to meet you at their office. As well, it helps you absorb the tone and style of their operation so you can tailor your relationship in the future.
I wouldn’t, as someone suggested, have the card of their competitors tucked in their portfolio – a client definitely doesn’t want potential suppliers or consultants having conflicting interests. By all means have business cards from good suppliers such as an accounting firm or even stationers – show that you only deal with quality companies.

Don’t be too eager to drop everything and go running when they ring or if you’re trying to set a meeting up. Comments such as “I’m having a meeting near you this afternoon – I can shuffle the time around to suit you” are also quite credible.

If you are asked directly where your office is or how big the company is (quite likely and reasonable questions), explain that the company is for example: “We’re a group of consultants who have joined forces to give ourselves ‘critical mass. We’ve known each other forever” In honesty and sensibly, it’s always easy to build up big and taper down with consultants who are contractually restricted from poaching your clients.

If the client wants to meet at your ‘office’, explain that you work from serviced offices. There is nothing wrong with that and in fact, serviced offices are easy to get at a moment’s notice and aren’t that expensive relatively. Most Serviced offices have a tenants directory at the front and those directories usually take a standard slip name which can be made up at reasonably short notice. Having Your name at the front is a really strong signal. The serviced office will be able to organize it or tell you where you can get one made.

By: Nobby

Nobby — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:57:34 +0000

I would suggest double checking all correspondence for mistakes.
Never send out email, letters or even blogs, just like this one, which have mistakes in them.
It diminishes the perceived professionalism of the person responsible.

By: Dean Stewart

Dean Stewart — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:50:29 +0000

Always talk in plural format. Terms such as we, us, the team etc. Use you kids, family, wifes maiden name, to make the company look larger.