Your small business could be losing money simply because it's a small business.  Many will refuse to do business with smaller companies because they fear that smaller businesses don’t have the resources to live up to their commitments or will not be around very long.  It is vital that you strive to make your small business look bigger than it actually is.  It’s about the bottom line.  There are steps you can take to make your business look bigger that are very inexpensive.

These are the top 10 things you can do to make your small business look bigger.

1.  INCORPORATE:  Larger companies are incorporated, so if you want to look like a larger company you should incorporate.  Take your business from sole proprietor to incorporation.  When people see the “Inc.” at the end of your business name it removes the idea of a business operating in someone’s basement with limited resources.  Your customers and business partners want to know that they’re interacting with an established business that will be around for some time.  Learn more about Incorporation.

2.  USE VIRTUAL RECEPTIONIST:  A virtual receptionist is a service you subscribe to whereby you pay a monthly fee to have a receptionist answer the phone professionally, screen your calls and notify you via email, text or voicemail.  A virtual receptionist can also make your company look big by enabling callers to navigate to a specific department (such as sales, marketing, customer service, etc.) within your organization by offering the caller prompts to select to go directly to a specific department.  Big companies can afford to hire a staff of receptionist to answer their phones.  This service is now available to smaller businesses virtually.  It is inexpensive and you can afford it.  See the Virtual Receptionist page.

3.  CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS:  Larger businesses have addresses that is either a physical address in a commercial part of town or a P.O. Box address.  If you use your home address as your small business address it makes it easier for someone to determine that your entity is a small business.  Change your address to a P.O. Box address or lease a shared office space that is located in the commercial part of town.  These are very inexpensive options that will give your small business the look of a big business.  Find a P.O. Box.

4.  IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE:  The first impression about your business will be made from your website.  Most of your customers interactions will come through your website.  Create a professional looking website.  Take a look at some of the websites of larger companies and see how yours stack up.  If you don’t have the skillset to develop a professional looking website on your own it is ok to hire a webmaster to do it for you.  You can hire a webmaster without breaking the bank.  These services are very inexpensive.  Ask others (customers, friends, etc.) to look at your website and give you feedback.  Take their feedback and use it to improve your website.  See the Improving Your Website page.

5.  BRAND THE BUSINESS:  Big businesses have the resources to run tv commercials, radio and magazine ads, etc. to brand their business.  They build credibility with consumers by constantly putting their brand before the public.  Even though you’re a small business and don’t have the resources of larger companies you should still focus on branding your business.  There are inexpensive ways to go about branding your small business.  You brand your business inexpensively by using social media, the Internet, Word-of-Mouth advertising, Guerrilla marketing, PR, etc.  See the Branding page.

6.  USE PROPER DOMAIN NAME:  Your domain name says a lot about your business.  A domain name looks like this for Dell…www.dell.com.  Imagine if their domain name looked like this…www.de-l-l.com.  A domain name that does not closely reflect the name of the business is indicative of a smaller business that does not have the resources to obtain proper domain name. 

7.  USE PROPER EMAIL ADDRESS:  Your email address should reflect your domain name.  If your domain name is…www.dell.com, then your email address should be…sandra@dell.com, or customerservice@dell.com, etc.  If your email address looks like this…sandra@gmail.com, and your domain name is….www.dell.com, you can see the disconnect immediately.  How can I trust that you work for Dell if your email address says “gmail.com”.  This is indicative of a smaller company that does not have the knowledge or resources to recognize and make the correction.

8.  TEAM UP:  Find opportunities to team up with larger companies.  Seek subcontracting opportunities with larger companies.  Use this relationship to promote your small business.  See Collaborative Marketing page.

9.  SPONSOR EVENTS:  Sponsor events that have lots of media attention.  This will bring a lot of attention to your business.  It  will show that your business is capable of looking beyond it self and helping others, which is indicative of larger businesses.  Use these resources to find events to sponsor:

- Event Geek
- Hello Sponsor
- IAB
- Sponsor List
- Sponsor Match
- SponsorMyEvent
- Star Events

10. GET PRESS:  Want to make your small business look big, get as much media attention as possible.  One of the ways you can do this is by offering yourself as an expert on a specific topic (whatever the nature of your business is) and make your self available to the media on demand to answer questions and provide information.  Offer to write featured articles.  See the Press Release page.