Making your small business look big
For scrappy entrepreneurs and small businesses, technology can be the great equalizer to make your company’s footprint look just like your largest competitors.
For your customers and potential customers, this enables them to feel better about dealing with a small business. If the value, selection, information, and responsiveness provided by your company matches what the big companies offer - 9 out of 10 times customers will pick the personal service that only a small company can offer.
My blog looks at technology from the perspective of making your business look and work better. At the same time, I’d like to help you keep from getting bogged down in technology experimentation to the point of your losing customers or billable hours - because you can’t get some software to run properly.
If you read one business article this week, here is the easy choice (by Leslie Taylor at Inc.com):
Want Your Start-Up to Be Successful? Appearance is Everything
The message of this article is clear as can be. Want to be a big player in your marketplace? Look like a big player. Ultimately, your customers, partners, employees, and suppliers want to work with a firm making an impact. Walk the walk and talk the talk - so that you can offer what big firms can offer… and deliver upon these promises.
After you read that article, you should listen to this podcast from TheStartupStudio - an interview with MerchantCircle founder Wayne Yamamoto. First off, the interview is inspirational and his clarity of message can teach us all about how to express our business vision in a short discussion. His company, MerchantCircle, has a selection of free and subscription tools to help a small business increase the size and quality of it’s appearance (reputation) online.
He compares MerchantCircle to “a MySpace for small businesses.” His determined effort to make web technology easy and inexpensive (or, in some cases, free) for small businesses will help you win business - no doubt about it.
While there are many other ways to build your business reputation and online presence, the Inc.com article and TheStartupStudio podcast will give you some actionable food for thought.
All is well.
