{"id":1139,"date":"2018-11-26T14:43:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T19:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/?p=1139"},"modified":"2018-11-26T14:43:16","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T19:43:16","slug":"how-to-make-your-business-look-professional-on-a-shoestring-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/how-to-make-your-business-look-professional-on-a-shoestring-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Your Business Look Professional on a Shoestring Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Gates, Sophia Amoruso, and Daymond John all have one thing in common. They all <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbiztrends.com\/2016\/03\/entrepreneurs-who-bootstrapped.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">started their\u00a0successful businesses<\/a>\u00a0with very little capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While money is important, it&#8217;s not everything. People buy from people they like and trust. Learning how to look professional helps build up likability and trust.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Learning how to make a business look professional, even when you&#8217;re working from home in your pajamas is easy. All it takes is a little know-how.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s where we come in. Keep reading to learn the steps you can take to make you and your business stand out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>How to Look Professional Answering the Phone<\/h2>\n<p>When a potential or existing customer calls your\u00a0phone, it&#8217;s the first impression they have of you and your business. Whether you have an office or work from home, there are ways to make that first impression a good one.<\/p>\n<p>Having a live person answer your phone makes a great first impression. At<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoxtonmix.com\/receivr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Receivr<\/a>, they can take a message or forward the call to you if it&#8217;s important.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/voice.google.com\/u\/0\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Voice<\/a> is another option. It&#8217;s a free number that you can use for professional purposes. And you can forward your calls to any number. That way, you&#8217;ll always know whether it&#8217;s a personal or professional call and you can answer accordingly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>How to Make a Website Look Professional<\/h2>\n<p>When you&#8217;re on a shoestring budget, every penny counts. But there are some things you really need to invest money in and your website is one of them.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, there are free websites out there. But your customers also know you&#8217;re using a free website. Which doesn&#8217;t exactly send the message that you&#8217;re a well-established company.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pay for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/denispinsky\/2017\/04\/10\/domain\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">domain name for your website<\/a>. Create a name that&#8217;s easy to remember and spell so people can find you easily.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While you&#8217;re at it, consider investing in an SSL. You&#8217;ll provide yourself and your customer with additional safety online.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Invest in Quality Marketing Materials<\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;re looking for ways for how to make your home business look professional, consider investing in quality marketing materials. Many marketing materials don&#8217;t cost a ton of money but can go a long way towards improving your business image.<\/p>\n<p>Business cards are a must. They&#8217;re also inexpensive. Use decent quality card stock and always have plenty on hand.<\/p>\n<p>Create a logo that helps brand your business. There are plenty of sites to help you create a free logo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Get a Business Mailing Address<\/h2>\n<p>If you work from home, it&#8217;s a good idea not to let your customers know where you live. You don&#8217;t want them stopping by unexpectedly and it&#8217;s safer for you to keep your home address private.<\/p>\n<p>And <a href=\"http:\/\/www.administrativeconsultantsassoc.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/19\/5-options-for-getting-a-business-mailing-address\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">you have some options<\/a>. A business mailing address is great because they let you use their address but then forward your mail to your home.<\/p>\n<p>You can also get a PO box or use a service like a UPS store or Mailboxes, etc. You&#8217;ll receive your professional address and they&#8217;ll keep your mail safe until you can stop in to pick it up. These places are also handy if you do a lot of .\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>We Can Help<\/h2>\n<p>Learning how to look professional takes time. But recognizing that everything you put out there represents your business helps.<\/p>\n<p>Even the forms and templates you use can help you look more professional. And we can help with that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Click here to .\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Gates, Sophia Amoruso, and Daymond John all have one thing in common. They all started their\u00a0successful businesses\u00a0with very little capital.\u00a0 While money is important, it&#8217;s not everything. People buy from people they like and trust. Learning how to look professional helps build up likability and trust.\u00a0 Learning how to make a business look professional, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1141,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions\/1141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}