Top 7 ways to give your start-up a professional image

Competition is tough in the start-up world, whether you’re hoping to become an ecommerce giant or a global fashion brand. In every meeting and every email, remember that you’re projecting an image of your business, and if those messages you’re sending out aren’t the right ones, here are our top 7 ways to inject some professionalism into your start-up.

1. Bespoke branding

This is an absolute must; personal branding that’s been well-crafted by a professional is essential to your success, or people won’t take you seriously. It shouldn’t cost you more than a few hundred pounds either for a start-up.

2. Business cards

While you ask the designer to create your logo, ask them to mock-up some business cards for you too. It can be difficult when networking to stop the flow of conversation to ask for a number, so being able to slide one of these across a table is a much subtler way of promoting yourself.

3. Professional email

It would be pretty embarrassing if your humorous email address from 10 years ago was the one you had to use on your business cards. Setting up a business email address takes no time at all, but it could make a huge difference to how many clients see you. You can then add your new logo to your business email signature.

4. Strong website

Given the costly task that it is, both financially and time-wise, it’s unlikely that you’ll re-design a website for at least a few years after you’ve created one. You want to build a brand, so having a sleek, contemporary site that easy to use and mobile-friendly, will make a huge difference when it comes to drawing site traffic and keeping those users on your pages.

5. Office space

It’s always better to have a designated office space, so if you’re not dead set on working from home, consider renting an areain an office block. Due to the rise in freelancers in recent years, there are many of these spaces now available in major city centres, where young professionals can use the meeting rooms and other facilities to entertain major clients.

6. Virtual office

If you can’t have a real office, consider investing a little money per month for a virtual office. Put simply, you will pay to have a business address and number for clients to ring you on, with a virtual receptionist to put them through over the phone. Again, many of these services have real premises where you can take clients for meetings too.

7. Top delivery services

The delivery stage of your business can leave a lasting impression with a customer, so make sure it’s the right one by enlisting a professional courier. Whether it’s private documents you want to be able to track, or the fact that you can send customer updates, all of this could make or break your brand.

How do you maintain a professional image in your start-up? Leave me a comment…