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Make a Small Firm Look Bigger
Small firms are often
penalized for their size. They don’t get as much attention from
governmental authorities as bigger firms, nor are they likely to be
considered as important when it comes to matters like making capital
equipment purchases or tendering for work. In a competitive world, size
does matter.
It’s important for a small firm,
especially one that’s home-based, to appear as substantial as possible.
Fortunately there are ways to do this that can make a big difference in
how the world sees the organization.
Thanks to modern methods of communication it’s fairly easy to come
across as something other than a one-person enterprise. Even a small
home-based firm can use the same electronic tools used by bigger
organizations, and from the outside nobody’s going to be able to tell
the difference.
The first thing to do is to give the firm its own identity that’s
separate from the owner’s personal life. The firm needs its own
telephone number, for example. If one phone line shares both domestic
and business calls it’s a dead giveaway that this is a small player on
the global stage. The firm needs its own telephone.
Analyze every communications
touchpoint for the firm and work to make it appear that the enterprise
is bigger than it really is. Most really large organizations have
a ‘telephone tree’ answering system that can be adapted for a small
firm. “Welcome to Harvey Consulting. So that we can direct your call to
the most appropriate team member please select from the following three
options…”. Of course, regardless of which selection is made it will go
through to the same telephone but outside callers won’t know that.
Technology also enables a small businessperson to have calls forwarded
to them while they’re away from the office, or to be notified when the
answering machine has taken a call. Don’t use a message that tells
callers there’s nobody in the office; instead say “All of our team
members are busy helping other callers but please leave your name and
telephone number and we’ll return your call shortly”, then have the
notification sent to a cell phone or other landline telephone as
required so the message can be retrieved and responded to.
Having a separate telephone number for the facsimile machine is another
way of becoming bigger in the apparent sense. This infers a dedicated
fax line and most enterprises of any real size have one.
Now for the email address. Sad to say, using a ‘Hotmail’ address is
another giveaway that the firm isn’t using a more sophisticated system
for its emails. Make sure the address makes it sound like you’ve got a
higher level of communications than just web-based. Try and get an
address that uses all or part of the firm’s name too. ‘harveyj123@hotmail.com’
isn’t nearly as impressive as ‘jharvey@jhconsulting.com’ for obvious
reasons.
Print materials are another way a small firm can appear just the same as
a larger one. Business cards, letterheads, order forms, invoices and so
forth should all be professionally-designed and well produced using a
high-quality paper and card stock. A good quality printer in the office
also makes a big difference in the appearance of any communication.
A small firm that wants to appear larger can set up a website that’s
designed to do this. This doesn’t mean putting up photographs of phoney
team members or a ‘national headquarters’ building. It does mean going
to a professional designer and getting the right look and feel to the
site.
There may come a time when a meeting has to be scheduled and the small
firm’s premises are unsuitable. Thankfully there are many meeting
facilities that can be hired on an hourly basis in business centers or
larger hotels, often including facilities for coffee and even
sandwiches. Or just be accommodating and always go to the other party’s
premises for meetings.
A really small firm needs to be affiliated with bigger enterprises as
much as possible. This can be done by joining a Chamber of Commerce,
employer association, industry association or similar body. Their name
can be incorporated into such things as business cards letterheads and
websites (“member National Consultant’s Association”) and anyone reading
it will make the appropriate connection.
The right combination of
electronic tools, communications devices and imagination can remove many
of the signals that say ‘this is a really small firm’ and put any small
organization on equal terms with much bigger enterprises. The more a
small firm looks like a big business the more competitive its position
will be.
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