Zoom In, Zoom Out: Making Your Small Business Look Bigger and Better than Your Competition

It can be difficult to gain credibility and trust in an industry, especially when you’re competing with much bigger companies. However, there are ways you can make your company appear larger than it is, even if you’ve only got a small budget. By investing in the right services and products, you can feel and look like a corporation, even though your business is still small.

Here are just some of the ways you can do this:

Get a Business Address that’s Central

Having your address listed online when you’re running a business from your own home can be dangerous. Instead, you may want to consider getting a standard street address by opting into a postal box at your nearest UPS store or paying for a virtual office space nearby.

A lot of these services will enable you to receive parcels from UPS and FedEx, so you can still easily manage both business and personal purchases. You may find some services that will scan your mail too, so you don’t have to go and physically pick up your mail each day as they’ll send it to you via email. This makes it much easier for you to keep on top of your mail but without having to take time out of your day to go and pick it up.

Start with Higher Invoice Numbers

When you’re sending an invoice or quote to a client, make sure you’re using a larger number to do this. This helps to give the impression you’ve sent far more invoices than you actually have and that you’ve been in business for a longer period of time.

If you use small invoice numbers, such as 9 or 20, your customer may lose their trust or confidence in you, as it looks as though you only set up your business last week (which, you maybe have, but you don’t want your customer to know this)!

A lot of invoicing solutions, e.g. Quickbooks or PayPal, will let you choose the invoice number you’re starting with.

Create a Professional Website

Your website runs 24/7 and is the face of your business. And, even if you are on a budget, there are plenty of ways you can achieve a professional, high-quality look.

If you don’t want to go to the trouble of hiring a professional web developer, there are a number of platforms you can use to build your own website to a good standard. For example, WordPress will allow you to pick a premium theme, host your website and get a domain for a few hundred dollars. And the best thing is – you can have it up and running within a few hours.

Whatever design you choose for your site, it’s crucial all of the essential information your customers may need is listed on it, including an email address, telephone number, address, opening hours and a contact form. Be sure to use plural language, too, like “we” because this will make it look like there’s a large team working behind the scenes – even if it is just you!

Equally, if you’re selling services or products online, one way to make your store look bigger than it is, is to have an online store option. This is something else that’s easy to do and doesn’t have to cost a fortune because there are a number of platforms online that will allow you to do this. Just make sure you have the tools you need to be able to fulfill orders.

Invest in Uniforms

However, if you’re not selling online and your role is more customer facing, you may want to consider investing in uniforms. This helps to give you and your employees a professional edge, and a more corporate appearance, which instantly adds to the “large” perception of your company. For example, you can find some of the best scrub brands online as well as a whole host of uniforms that you can tie in with your company’s colors and design, even incorporating your own logo.

Even though you may feel like you’re deceiving customers by making them believe you’re a larger company than you are, there’s nothing wrong with giving your company a larger appearance. You’ve already built a professional business, but to get it off the ground you need customer orders, and to gain this trust, you need to have a brand they want to invest in. Then, when your company does start to expand, you’ll already be prepared.

Matthew Greenwood has been in business much of his adult working life and enjoys helping small businesses and startups get their ideas off the ground and their business thriving. He does this through his article writing.