Potential clients and customers can be critical when fact checking your business. With so much competition and a hyper-aware consumer, it is more important than ever that you build confidence in your prospects from the minute they cross your path.
In short: people want to know they can trust you with their business. They want to know you're real. They want to trust you’re a reliable place or service to spend their money. They want to know you’ll be in business in a year from now. I mean, who wants to go to all the trouble to build a relationship, just to find out the business they trusted has gone belly-up? No one!
At EasyBizStart, one of the ways we help entrepreneurs is to look for weak spots in your business to help you make it stronger. Where are your weak spots? How does your business present itself? Do you look legit?
There are many ways the critical eye will vet the “realness” of your business. And, funny enough, just about every one of those crucial components can be found on….
Your Business Card.
Yes, we still use them. It is often the first piece of your business a contact sees. Think about it - have you ever been at a networking event where you met someone very appealing, only to be turned off the minute they hand off a card? To a recipient, a business cards can reveal much more than a phone number.
The question is: is a bad business card better than no business card at all?
So, let's start with the obvious: do you have a business card? Does it look good? Does it feel good? Is the information pertinent and complete? Will you make a positive first impression based on that little piece of paper?
If you use business cards, and, yes, you still should, make certain that your imagery matches the level of excitement you have for your business. Also make sure the information on the card represents what you're promoting. Nothing is more annoying than getting a card for a new contact's photography business after talking too them about their graphic design company. Yeah, that's memorable...
Since there's just no denying the significance of how your card looks, here's a few tips on how we evaluate the information on the card itself:
- Show that you are a corporation or an LLC.
If not, we assume that you are a startup that has not finished setting up your business. This leaves the consumer to decide if they want to be your first customer and whether they can trust you're in for the "long haul."
- Don't let your business look homeless!
Your business won't fit in a P.O. Box. We all want a real address, a location, and - again, in the day and age of hyper-online awareness, they'll likely Google it to see if you have a legit (i.e. commercial vs residential)location.
- What do you mean, you don't have a website?
It doesn't have to be a masterpiece. A clean simple site that is complete is better than a complicated but unfinished one. No website is essentially no longer an option in our digital age.
- A logo is worth a thousand words.
Our world today is more image based than it is has ever been. Even a simple logo makes your business appear more professional.
- Ditch the “Free” Email service?
No offense to Gmail and Yahoo - hey, we love (and use) them too! - but for business, you have to step it up with an email address that is @yourbusinessnamedomain.com.
- Quit using your cell phone number.
Even if your business card has passed flying colors so far, chances are we caught you on this one. Even if it forwards to your cell phone, having a dedicated business phone number makes your business seem more professional. Bonus? You can also set up your phones for ads, operating hours, virtual assistants, extensions, and specific voicemail greetings!
In Summary
While in many ways the current use of business cards is ironic, there's no doubting their importance. Make sure yours is useful. Most of all, what we want to know - and what the world wants to know - is…is your business real? Will you be here tomorrow? Can a client trust you with their money? Can you do what you say you can?
You already know your business is awesome, capable, and legit. Would the world agree?
We're just scratching the service when talking about the contents of your business card. We get it - thinking about all the facets of your business can be a lot to handle. This is the entire reason we created EasyBizStart. We've been where you are going. We want to help you and your business grow to the fullest potential.
At EasyBizStart, we have solutions for every one of the "legit" bullet points above - along with so much more, and we're excited to help you take your business (card?) to the next level. For more information, please contact us at startnow@easybizstart,com or 775-800-5507.