Going From Start-Up To Professional In Few Easy Steps
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When you first decide to work from home, most people start out small, with one or two clients and most of the time you don’t have to make too much of an effort to manage your workload. But as time goes on, and the workload increases – things get more complicated. There might be meetings involved, or at least skype calls. It can feel a little intimidating to make the changes, and it can come with a lot of time constraints.
When is a one-person business, creating the appearance of a polished and established brand can sometimes feel overwhelming because more prominent companies put plenty of money into their presence. You don’t have to lie about the number of people that work at your company, but you can present yourself in a slick way.
Photo by Jealous Weekends on Unsplash
Portfolio
An online portfolio is a window into your work. You might feel like you have to fill the portfolio with everything you’ve ever done. But really, you should select your best work, and a good mix too. It should show your style and the high quality of your work. If you are in the very early days, you might not think you have enough work to showcase. A great way to show off your talent is to create multiple samples. Potential clients will still have a good view of your style and know if you are for them.
Remember to include information about who you really are, not just blurb and jargon related to what you do. Be clear about what you are strongest in, and take care for each piece you add to the portfolio and tell a story with each one.
Business Email
If you are rocking a great website, but your email address is still a Gmail, then that doesn’t always look great. Many people are hesitant to book work or hire people who don’t have the branding across everything that they do. It is worth the investment to get the email address to match your business name and website.
By doing this, you will create the impression that time and care has gone into taking care of your branding and that you will give the same attention to their commission as you have here. The little details are what people notice when they are hiring for projects.
Calls
You might be hesitant to have your mobile number on a website that anyone can access. It does open you up personally to unwanted calls. There are two ways to handle this. If you get a lot of calls and you will need to have the answers professionally, then, Virtual HQ is your answer. And the second way, which is advisable anyway, is to have a second mobile phone that is purely for business. You should remember that you can write the costs off on your taxes.
Reviews
If you haven’t yet worked with any clients, talk to some of your friends who run businesses and see if they can throw some requests your way. They don’t need to be paid, although that would be great, you are looking for the experience, something for the portfolio and a few testimonials. Highlight your best ones on your website in the form of a slide show. Recent customer experiences really matter when it comes to new clients. They want to see you have a good track record. So show them.
Don’t be tempted to lie though.
Brand
Your brand should look sleek and well thought out. All of you social media, website, stationery and even you need to all tie in with that. All of your images should be the right size, with nothing stretched or too manipulated. Spend time to make sure that everything you do with your logo and branding on is of a high standard.
Getting your logo right might cost you some time, and some money too if you are looking for a professional to do it for you. If you rush anything when it comes to your branding, you will miss the mark for you personally, and it will give the impression it has been rushed.
Social Media
Pretty much all of your future clients can be found on social media. It is the best place to engage and connect with people. If you have followed the basics of getting your social media slick, then you are ready to roll. You won’t be able to handle all of the platforms in the same way, but one of them will be your most active, so work on that one as often as you can.
Remember that some platforms are better than others for different media. Videos will do better on YouTube and Instagram, while texts or short, witty pieces will work on Facebook and Twitter. You will need to create something different for each platform, and if you need help, then check out buffer to help you automate – and perhaps consider a virtual assistant for a few hours a month to handle the extras.
When you are sharing on social media, you might be tempted to keep pushing your own links to your own content, your products, and so on. Don’t do this. Look for people in a similar field that you can share content from too. Engage with hashtags for local businesses in your area, and try to stick with the rule that 20% of your social output is going to be your own products and services. This will mean you are engaging with other people they are likely to return the favour and reshare or engage with you too.
Tools
There is pretty much a tool for everything when it comes to design, marketing, social media and even invoicing. So use them. Othe the free version will be enough to keep everything running smoothly, and if you want to upgrade after a while then great.
- Canva is great for design work
- Buffer is ideal for social media management
- MissingLettr prepares great year-long drip feed campaigns
- WordPress for your blog or website
- Pomodoro to keep you on track
You can look professional, and be professional relatively quickly – it takes some time to lay the groundwork, but is always worth it.
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