Seven Keys to Crafting Your Business Image
By Dan Boudreau
Smart owners invest in creating the image they want their small business to portray.
For small owner operated businesses, the image arises directly from the owner and is within his or her control. Once an enterprise begins to grow and take on employees or contractors, it gets more difficult to manage and can quickly spin out of control. For example, a few moments of poor service behind an owner’s back can cost the business a sale, a client or much more in terms of reputation.
Here are seven keys to crafting your business image.
- Identify your customer’s values. A bookkeeper whose clients need prompt, precise information would weave timeliness and accuracy into the image. To appeal to parents, a daycare might build a reputation as an organization dedicated to providing a safe, loving and educational environment for children.
- Determine the most important things you want your customers to think of when your business name comes up. Do you want to be known as the fastest, the cheapest or the best? Do you want your business to be considered reliable, creative, or friendly? Will your image incorporate words like thorough, knowledgeable, or experienced? Early identification of your key words will enable you to communicate your image consistently through the many means you will use to market your products and services.
- Design a suitable logo. A good artistic designer will make this easy for you. Once you have a logo, you will be able to include it in designing your signage, letterhead and website. A good logo should be simple, memorable and easy to adapt to different media and situations.
- Determine how you will greet customers. Will you welcome them with a warm hello and a friendly smile? How will you answer your phone? What sort of parking will be available? Will your facilities be wheelchair accessible?
- Keep your written communications professional. Will your emails be laced with online jargon or will you uphold a level of grammatical correctness? In charting the elements of your image consider what level of professionalism you want your written communications to be, including letters, faxes and proposals.
- Establish a dress code. A cleaning business whose employees dress professionally will send a message of cleanliness and consistency, and perhaps convey an image of an organization that’s a cut above competitors whose employees wear unsightly or tattered clothes.
- Decide how your business will give back to customers and your community. Do you have a cause or two that are dear to your heart and that you’d like to help? Dedicating time, energy or money to help others can be good for your soul and your community.
The above are points to consider as you shape your business. Your image doesn’t have to be decided and determined at the start-up stage, it is sure to develop over time. As you run your business, interact with customers, and learn more about the market in which you operate – your image will strengthen and become more defined.
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“Dan Boudreau is President and CEO of Macrolink Action Plans Inc and the RiskBuster Business Plan Oasis at http://www.riskbuster.com Writing your own business plan can be easy, fast and fun! Instantly download a free copy of Dan’s popular fast-track business plan template, The Shell, when you subscribe to the RiskBuster Oasis Insider at http://www.riskbuster.com”
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