How to Look Fortune 500 When You’re a Small Biz
The 4 Hour Work Week is just crammed with great practical info – more so than any other book I have read. What I like most about Tim Ferriss’s style is that you can literally read a chapter and then walk away and implement the advice.
One problem every small business faces just by its nature is its size. And though size doesn’t matter so much when dealing with even smaller businesses than our own of those of similar size, it can pose a problem when you’re going after business from bigger companies.
Instead of waiting to grow your business larger, Tim offers some sound, practical advice about how to look larger with 4 simple steps:
Don’t give yourself the title of CEO or founder
Ferriss says these titles scream “small business.†Instead, go for Director of xyz.
Publish multiple email addresses on your contact us page
In the beginning all of these email addresses will probably forward to you. But as you grow your business, they’ll eventually forward to the people responsible for handling each of the duties. I think that this is a great subconscious way to train yourself to think bigger as well.
Set up an interactive voice response (IVR) system
An IVR system gives callers the option to press a number to reach different people in the company. I personally use Got VMail and couldn’t be happier. I pay 10 bucks a month and a few cents per minute for an 800 number and the ability to assign multiple departments. Their service is amazingly feature rich and gives you many of the benefits of an expensive PBX system for a fraction of the price.
Never use your home address
Many people have offered the advice of getting a PO Box, but Ferriss takes it a step further. Instead of using the “PO Box†in your address, use the street name of the post office and label the box number as the suite.
Share Your Opinion
Do you think that being perceived as a small business has ever kept you from getting a contract or a customer? What strategies do you use to give your small business the appearance of a larger business? What are some definite things to avoid that make a small business look unprofessional?
What I would be interested in hearing is how much it really matters to customers to think that the company they are dealing with is big…
Somehow to me sneaky things like these give a bad taste in my mouth. I’d like to think that there’s real power in being small - and that the customers would appreciate it. That they would see that “hey, this is a small business - but proud of it” instead of “hey, this guy is trying to make his business look big…”
What do you think? Do we really need to pretend to be big, or could we instead try to show off our smallness as a strength and not a weakness?
Why should you create this sort of false image?
Do you honestly believe these immature antics will get us business from large corporates?
If found out, which is 100 % likely, you lose your reputation as a legitimate business.
This may sound revolutionary for fly by night operators.
I have had many businesses over a 25 year history, so I can speak about this from real world experience.
My very first experience was having a business with my name in the title which DID keep me from getting contracts that I was after. As soon as I changed my business name to make me sound big and added an 800#, the business took off.
There is nothing wrong with sounding big but letting them know that you are a small company. The problem with being and acting to small is that everyone vendors, freelancers, employee’s, etc. come to you or think they have to talk personally to you to make things happened. This has also hindered my business on numerous occasions.
Giving the perception of BIG doesn’t mean that you have to try to act like you have 100,000 employee’s. It simply means managing your business in a way that is more productive than many small business owners do.
Most small business owner’s I know work long weeks, don’t take vacation, never relax and burn themselves out. Believing in your mind that you don’t have to be there 24/7 and giving a perception of being bigger than you are to accomplish that will make a difference. Trust me, I have 25 years of hard knocks and being hard headed to prove it.
That’s an excellent question and one I’ve thought a lot about. When I first started in business for myself, I wanted to appear larger than I was and hated the feeling that I was trying to be something I was not. Now I’m proud of the fact that I operate a small business and do think there is power in this.
More than looking “big” I think these strategies make a business look more professional. I would personally feel more comfortable dealing with a company that had an 800 number and a mailing address that was not a home address.
I don’t think we need to pretend to be big, but I think that if we want to capture the respect of solid businesses, we need to appear professional.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing Ottayan! I don’t think that having an 800 number or a PO box is giving a false image. I don’t that I’d feel comfortable making up names of people in different departments or on a phone system. Though my 800 number has the option to add different voice mail boxes, I only have one for myself. I agree with you on that part for sure!
As for the title… well, I’m not sure about that one… what should the owner of a small business call themselves when they handle just about everything?
Thanks again for sharing!
These are EXCELLENT points and observations David - thanks!
That makes sense: As you say there needs to be a middle ground where you don’t try to look big (creating a bunch of imaginary employees and so on) but don’t look like operating from your living room either.
In that context, the tips make a lot of sense. By following them in a more open, and small way you can actually still maintain your image as a small business, just a professional one.
Especially the one about having a title other than CEO is a great idea! But then again I guess we should make sure not to fill our web pages with our own names. It’s funny how in some freeware games people put their names all over the place. Okay, they made the whole thing, but maybe they shouldn’t try to look so much like a team then. Something like this would look rather funny:
CEO: Jarkko Laine
Producer: Jarkko Laine
Programmer: Jarkko Laine
Lead artist: Jarkko Laine
Music: Jarkko Laine
Testing: