Many business owners feel stuck between a rock and hard place when it comes to the appearance of their business or organization. They work so hard to provide great service to their customers that little time is left at the end of the day to ensure their own business sparkles.
We’ve created a list of five quick things you can do today to make your business shine:
1. Create your own letterhead.
No room in the budget to order letterhead? You are not alone. In the meantime, create your own letterhead in your favourite word processing program. Add your logo and contact information to the header or footer of your document. Save the document as a template file. Next time you go to open your word processing program, open it by double clicking the template file and ta-da! Your fresh document will have your letterhead built in. When you print or create a PDF, your letterhead will output as part of the document.
2. Add a signature to your email.
Email signatures are a great way to add polish to your correspondence. Add your name, title, website address and other important information. It’s easier than you think and there are lots of online instructions that can show you how. Remember, less is more and keep it professional; no background images or fuchsia text!
3. Make sure your email address matches your domain name.
In the same way both your socks should match, so should your domain and email address. Addresses provided by your internet service provider like Shaw, Telus or free email addresses like Gmail or Hotmail lack professionalism and if you ever change providers you will be forced to change your email address. If you own your own domain, you can have a matching email address for as long as you own that domain, regardless of who provides your internet.
Depending on your website hosting package, you may be entitled to a certain amount of free email hosting. Call your website host provider to see what your options are. Alternatively, you can route your email through Google and still keep your matching domain email address. You may have to pay a small setup fee, but using Google is free, easy to use, accessible anywhere.
4. Use good grammar, spelling and punctuation.
While we’re on the topic of emails, proper grammar, capitalization and spelling is a must! Thanks to intuitive email software, most spelling and grammar is easily cleaned up but reread your emails and other correspondence. It’s not being marked by your grade 7 English teacher but the impression you make is being evaluated by your recipient.
5. Visit your voicemail recording
Is it clear? Do you state your business name? Can you give any indication of when you’ll be able to return messages? Perhaps leave a tip your users may find useful.
It’s hard finding time during the day to evaluate the impression your business makes on the world but by knowing where you want to go and by making changes as best you can, you will eventually get there.