As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I’m doing a bunch of networking these days. Once I got used to the process and walking into rooms full of people where I may not know anyone, it’s actually turned out to be fun and very interesting.
The interesting part was finding there are two basic types of business owners. One type is the person who was technically skilled enough to start his/her own business rather than working for someone else. This person fully understands how to do the work but is often lacking in general business knowledge. The other type is the person with the business knowledge who may seek or partner with the technology his/her business idea needs. This post is dedicated to the first type … the technically skilled.
I just want to mention a few very, very basic rules of business that they (and maybe you) don’t know or have forgotten that really makes a difference in how professional or experienced you appear to other business people.
- Get a domain name that matches your company name or reflects your business. This is the "name" people type to find you on the internet (mine is www.HRjungle.com. Pay attention to how it reads so the squashed-together name doesn’t also spell something not so wonderful. Also keep it simple so people can easily remember it.
- You need a website. It doesn’t have to be big and flashy, just a 1-page site will do as long as it has basic information about what you do and how to contact you. Take a digital picture of your building, you, your team, or your logo to put on your website. People now look online for information about businesses before they’ll check the phone book. If you’re not online in even the simplest forms, you won’t appear to be current with the marketplace and you’ll miss out on customers.
- Make sure your email address uses your domain name and not some free email account. Your business looks like a hobby when your email address is sexy1234@yahoo.com rather than cj@HRjungle.com.
- Follow up that business email address by making sure you have configured Outlook or whatever email program you use to show your company name on emails. I have a client who set up Outlook to show his wife’s name (probably before they got into business) even though the actual email address uses his domain name. I thought his first email to me was spam because I didn’t recognize his wife’s name. When people get emails from me, what they see is that the email is either from "C.J. Westrick" or "HR Jungle." Remember, you want people to open your emails!
- Get an address. The lack of an address implies that you don’t have an office. It only costs $48 a year to get a small box at the Post Office so there are few excuses. I know many people work from their homes and may be internet-based, however appearances are everything and you don’t want people to think you’re not a legitimate business.
Okay, lesson over for today! Let me know if you need to know how to do any of these things at a very low cost. It doesn’t have to be expensive to look professional.
