A huge number of businesses begin as home businesses. Few people can afford to have an office or any sort of working space right away. Working from home won’t cost you anything, except for perhaps a rise in the cost of your bills. It makes perfect sense to begin your business at home, and you might even stay there for a long time. But just because it’s common to run a home business, it doesn’t mean you want people to know. Customers and clients might not take you seriously if they know you’re operating from your home office. Your business might be small, but you can still make it look legitimate.
Set Up Business Phone and Email
You need to provide your customers with ways to contact you. Before you set up the contact information on your website, think about what you use. It might seem convenient to have your personal email address and phone number, but it’s not the best idea. For one thing, your business calls and emails will get mixed up with your personal ones. You could end up missing an important email or answering your phone too casually. It also won’t look too professional to have that information on your site. Make sure you have a dedicated email and business phone number. Get a domain for your email and use a business phone service or something like Google Voice.
Pretend You’re Not a Home Business
Customers will often want to see your address too. They won’t necessarily want to use it to send you anything. However, they might just want to check your location. If they see that your address is residential, it could put them off. They might see that you’re a small business or they could even think you’re lying about your location. One of the ways to solve this is to sugarcoat your location. Getting a virtual executive address gives you a better address to receive mail. You can have anything sent to you forwarded by mail or email.
Make a Slick Website
Your website is one of the most important elements of making your home business look better. Since your main presence is online, your website needs to give you a professional image. Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to build a decent website today. You could do it yourself with a website builder, or hire a designer. Your website is like your office or store, so make sure it helps build your reputation.
Aim for an Office
Although you might start off at home, you probably don’t want to work there forever. Try to move out of your home as soon as you can afford to. There are several benefits to it, even if you’re just going to a coworking space. You’ll have somewhere to meet clients, a more professional setup, and fewer distractions. Plus you’ll be able to bring your team together instead of people working remotely.
You might keep your business small and run it out of your home for the foreseeable future. However, if you want to grow, you should work on making it more professional.
