18 Tips to Make Your Small Business Look Big

It doesn’t mean you have a small business you will not already think bigger and do better. Having a tiny company with a little invested capital should not be a hindrance to making a big difference in the business world. It should not be an excuse to do your best in providing quality and satisfaction to customers. It should not also be an alibi to lose in a fair business competition.

Small businesses have the power to stand out from the crowd despite of their size. They can even prevail over their bigger competitors if they will be driven to the right path. Small business owners and entrepreneurs just need to be creative, determined, consistent and updated to look bigger and to be actually tougher.

Remember that the true size of a business is not only measured by its financial assets or equity. Hence, you can actually make your small business look bigger and be actually greater than the rest of your competition. Here are 18 tips that will help you do that.


1. Have an updated company website

It will give you an online presence which is accessible online by billions of Internet users anytime and anywhere. Through a website, you can showcase your products and interact with your customers online. Website development can be affordable for small businesses. You can use a free CMS (content management system) script like WordPress. Here are reasons why you should use WordPress for your small business website.

You may also create a blog as an integrated part of your website. You can use it to publish regular and fresh contents that are relevant to your brand and are useful to your audience. You may read our post why you should blog about your business. Blogging isn’t costly when it comes to money spent. However, you should invest more time to update it and maintain connection with your followers or customers.


2. Get a customized email address

If you will build a website and register your own domain name, you may also setup your own customized company email address. Instead of using contactyourcompanyname@gmail.com or contactyourcompanyname@yahoo.com, you may use a more professional email address like contact@yourcompanyname.com.


3. Create a Facebook business page

Creating a Facebook page for your business is free. Hence, there is no reason why you shouldn’t build one on the world’s largest social networking site to promote your brand to hundreds of millions of Facebook users online. You can also target specific audience, based on specific location and demographics for a better marketing campaign. Here are a number of benefits you can gain on creating a Facebook Page for your small business.


4. Create other social media business profile

If you want to make your small business look bigger, don’t just limit your presence on Facebook, but also expand to other top social media sites, like Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Youtube, Linkedin and Foursquare.


5. Optimize the Internet search engines

Small business owners, especially those who are skilled Internet marketers or SEO (search engine optimizers), can dominate the search engines. Google alone have billions of users or people who are using the search engine to search information. If you want to make your small business big, learn how to do SEO or consider hiring a SEO specialist. Here’s a post to give you an idea on how to make your business show up on Google.


6. Professionalize and build a brand

Invest some few bucks and spend some time on designing and creating your business card, letterhead, and other professional business and communication documents. A company logo and slogan are also vital in promoting your brand. If you sell goods, you may consider creating a package with your logo and slogan. Remember, that you don’t need to be a giant corporation to add a brand on every product or service you provide to your customers.


7. Rent an office space if you can

If you regularly meet up with your clients, making coffee shops and restaurants as your meeting place can be a hassle. Consider renting an office space if you have extra fund or extra revenue to cover the corresponding expense. It will save you from transportation and representation expense. Furthermore, having a dedicated office or place of business makes your business look bigger.


8. Invest on dedicated telephone line

If you’re running a home office, having a telephone line and a fax machine exclusively for your business can facilitate your business communications and transactions. Never ever use your home telephone for your business.


9. Don’t be a one-man company

You don’t need to hire hundreds of employees to look bigger. You can hire a few competitive people to be part of your business team. Also consider delegating and outsourcing some of your tasks to third parties or experts so that you can focus on your core business activities, which generate more income. Remember that to make your small business bigger, you need to disclose your team, either on your company profile or company website. Hence, consider assembling fulltime or part-time co-workers whom you will introduce to the public or to specific people.


10. Incorporate

Corporations are more likely to earn bigger impression from potential customers than partnerships or sole proprietorship. Incorporation may require additional costs on formation and complying with reportorial requirements. However, having a corporate business may earn more respect and confidence from the public and other related sectors. Depending on the corporate laws of a country, the minimum paid-up capital may actually be affordable for small business owners. In the Philippines, the minimum paid up capital requirement for starting a corporation is only Php 5,000, which should be not less than 25% of the subscribed capital, and the subscribed capital should not also be less than 25% of the authorized capital stock.


11. Be affiliated

Join business and professional associations or organizations depending on your industry. For example, if you are an advertising agency in the Philippines, you may join for membership in the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies (4AS) in the Philippines. For other industries, you may visit and check the directory of associations in the Philippines. Once you become a member or affiliated on certain associations, you may include them on your business card, website, and letterhead as additional strength that may increase the confidence of your customers.


12. Dress professionally

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s cofounder and CEO, is always seen at his casual dress and even at his sandals while working. But of course, if you are the president and CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, you can freely choose your signature outfit while on the work. Although a formal dress is not required for small business owners, it will add up to your professional look and impression from your clients. It will also make your client feel important. Remember that Zuckerberg chose to wear coat when he had a meeting with a very important person – the president of the United States of America, Barack Obama.


13. Have a lot of friends

Don’t just promote and advertise your products offline, online, and particularly, on social media… but create lasting relationships. Good friends are priceless assets of a business. That is why we should strive to look and retain them. Big companies, especially those who become monopolists in the eyes of consumers, may become enemies of the public. Small businesses are closer to the masses. Thus, make it an opportunity to befriend the community.


14. Make yourself bigger and better

Do you want to make your business look bigger? Then make first its owner bigger and better. As the owner of your own business, don’t stop learning. You may continue your professional education by attending seminars, trainings, short courses or post-graduate courses to get certifications and further increase your professional value.


15. Collect a list of good testimonials

Business and professional certifications can help your business increase its value. But actual testimonials from satisfied customers can do better since it shows one of your ultimate business goals – customer loyalty and satisfaction. So if you want your business to look bigger and more trustworthy than the rest of your competition, strive to serve your best and get a long list of positive testimonials from truly satisfied customers.


16. Be a speaker

Consider making proposals for speakerships, or, if you have invitations for speakership, accept them. It will help yourself and your business be promoted to more audience. Educating and inspiring people can also be part of your social responsibility. Remember that the more exposure you have and the more responsibility you fulfill, the bigger your business will be.


17. Be a writer

If you’re good at writing or have great and useful ideas to write, you may intensify your blogging activities and achieve more exposure online. The more unique and useful blog posts you’ll write, the more your business blog will grow. You may also write and submit guest posts to top blogs that are relevant to your business to earn more exposure and authority.


18. Be a big help to your community

The true size of a business isn’t measured through the size of its financial assets or equity. No matter how big your business is… if it’s useless to the community, it still can’t be considered a really big enterprise. Thus, if you want to make your small business look bigger, and actually greater in the minds of many people… be helpful and be a solution. Make your business more socially responsible. Make a difference and do something to change the world into a better place to live. There are many ways to help your community as a business person, such as protecting our environment, promoting health and education, preserving your local culture and heritage, and many others.


Final thoughts

The greatest and most admired businesses in the world are those which have the greatest impact on the lives of many people. They are the ones who give the biggest customers’ satisfaction and the most moving inspiration. These acts aren’t only doable by giant companies, but also by small and medium enterprises. Thus, having a small business is not a valid reason to ignore and escape these feats. Therefore, make a big plan, do your best, and accomplish greatness!

 

Photo Credit: Woman With Magnifying Glass by Petr Kratochvil