Running a business from home can be absolutely fantastic. You have control over your hours; you don’t have to answer to other people; you get to work in a comfortable environment, the list goes on! Of course, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t also come with its own set of drawbacks. One of the biggest drawbacks is that people often hear the term “home business” and assume that it isn’t legitimate. They assume that it must simply be a hobby or side-project at best, instead of the genuine business endeavor that it is. Not only can this be incredibly frustrating but it can also cause genuine problems. It might seem extremely shallow, but customer simply isn’t as inclined to trust a business that seems like it isn’t very well established. If your business looks amateurish, then customers are going to treat it as such. The important thing is to make your business look as legitimate as possible. Here are two different tactics that you can use in order to make the most of your home business.
Make it seem bigger
One thing that you can do is to simply present your business differently. It may be run from your spare room, but that doesn’t mean that’s how you need to present it to the world. An online mail service allows you to have a dedicated office address that customers and clients can send correspondences to. And there are even simpler things that you can do. Look at the writing on your website and social media. Do you say “I have…. I do… etc.” a lot? Well just change that to “we.” It might sound like to smallest point ever, but it really can make a huge difference to the way that your company is perceived.
Own it
Of course, you could always go in the complete opposite direction and use the size of your business to your advantage. One of the biggest issues that many customers today have is that they feel as though big companies are out of touch with their personal needs. It’s hard to provide that personal feeling when you have a customer base that is up in the hundreds of thousands. But when you’re running a small home business then you can provide a far more personal, one-on-one service to your customers. Not only does this allow for a much more unique product for them but it also makes it much easier to help your customer deal with any problems that they may have. It’s also far easier for your customers to become emotionally invested in your business when they can clear see the person behind it.
Both of these are valid strategies but which one you choose will entirely depend on exactly what kind of business you’re running and what kind of customers you’re trying to attract. Make sure that you choose the right method for your business and you’ll no longer have to feel restricted by your status as a “home business” owner.
