Small business image is vital. It is the image your business portrays to the world. The old saying “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”, is never more true than with the image a small business creates for itself.
Remember you may often be competing against much larger organisations with huge budgets. So getting your image right can make a huge difference to your success.
First Impressions Count
Image matters all the time, but never more so than the very first time someone comes into contact with you. That first contact may be a letter, a chance meeting in the street, someone walking past your sign-written vehicle in a car park, a potential new customer walking into your premises, or perhaps someone stumbling across your website online.
In all of these cases, your image creates a first impression for that person, which affects how they will perceive you in the future. If that first impression is bad, poor, unprofessional, messy, or anything else negative, you should make it a priority to correct it straight away.
A Bad Impression
The damage a bad image can do to a small business is potentially fatal.
We can all think of several instances in the past where at least one small business created a bad impression in our minds. Think about an example where it happened to you… did you come away with a lasting bad impression? If you did, why was that and if you didn’t, what happened to change your mind?
Your image can sometimes be repaired if enough care is taken to do so, but it’s much easier to just get it right from the start.
Simple Steps
There a several simple steps you can take to improve your image, and most of them are not expensive.
The really simple ones include:
- Friendly staff attitude
- Tidying up
- Vacuuming
- Cleaning surfaces
- Washing vehicles regularly
- Keeping vehicle interiors tidy
- Suitable staff clothing
- Being polite to everyone (and yes that means everyone)
- Considering the needs of the general public – not blocking their access, or making their lives difficult in any way
These things may seem minor, but they are never minor to someone who is trying to decide which local supplier to use for their new purchase or project. These simple things can have a huge impact upon the way people perceive your business.
More Steps
Less simple, but equally important ways of affecting the image your small business creates include:
- Stationery
- Signage
- Vehicle livery
- Fixtures and fittings in your premises
- The condition of your tools and equipment
- Flyers, brochures, posters and leaflets
- Website
- Blog
- Directory listings
- Advertising materials
- Search engine listings
- E-mails
- Presenting a uniform, corporate image
Get any of these wrong and you’re just making things hard for yourself unnecessarily. The key to getting your image right is concentrating on the areas which will make the biggest impact on your image whilst making the least impact on your profits and then focusing on gradual improvements.
Avoid this Simple Mistake
However, this is often mistakenly interpreted as making the biggest impact for the least cost. Think about it; there is a big difference. Focusing solely on cost is a mistake because whilst two options may be similar in cost, one may produce much higher sales revenue than the other. Costs should always be balanced against the increase (or decrease) in profits that they may provide, i.e. the return on investment or ROI.
Smart, savvy entrepreneurs know this and make their decisions accordingly. They invest wisely in the areas that will have the biggest impact on ROI; remember, the better your small business image is, the better your return on investment will be.
