How,Will,Your,Business,Judged, DIY How Will Your Business be Judged?
When starting a new work at home business it is very easy to become consumed by it. We spend so much time trying to get the business up and running that we may end up becoming burned out and lose our motivation. There is so much to learn and Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in
Like it or not, people DO judge a book by its cover. It'sjust a fact of life. Everything having to do with yourbusiness that is presented to the outside world is one morejudging opportunity. How do you measure up?You've probably heard it said, "You only have one chance tomake a good first impression". There is a reason why it isan old adage; it's true!There are so many ways that your business presents itselffor that first impression. The first one that comes to mindis YOU, which can be either in person or on the phone. Inperson, you must look the part that you play. For example,if you portray yourself as someone who can help a businessbe successful, you must look successful. If you own arestaurant and you greet your guests, you should look clean,friendly, and inviting. The owner of a restaurant greetedus in a grease-stained T-shirt. Wrong! Not veryappetizing, is it?On the phone, you need to sound like you care about thecaller and their problems. What kind of an impression wouldit make if you (or an employee) answered the phone soundingannoyed at the interruption?Printed materials also make an impression, for better orworse. Is your business card professionally done, or doesit look cheesy? Are your brochures professional looking orare they made on a copier? If they were made on a copier,you may get away with it if they are clean and neat, withgood toner saturation. A sloppily made copy that is toofaint, uneven, and/or crooked on the page will do you moreharm than good. I am reminded of a man who approached me ata trade show and wanted to work together giving seminars.He handed me his 'brochure', which consisted of about 10pages of poorly copied pages, most of which were crooked,and all of which were bent, crumpled, or torn. I could notbelieve my eyes. I was appalled, but our parrot didn't seemto mind when I used it to line his cage.While we're on the subject of brochures, let me vent one ofmy pet peeves: grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.Aaaaggghhh! Maybe it's just me, but if you want to make abad impression, bad punctuation is a good way to do it,especially a misused apostrophe. For example, a localrestaurant used "tomato's" as the plural for "tomato", andmade that mistake throughout its entire menu. I cancertainly understand a typo once in a while, but geez.You can only imagine how I reacted to this one: large,block letters, in neon, above a pet store that read "Pet's,Fish, and More". How many people saw that and didn'trealize that there should be no apostrophe??I don't mean to make you paranoid. Wait a minute, yes I do!Be very careful how you present yourself to the world.Little things can mean a lot, whether your customers thinkso or not.Remember that you only get one chance for that firstimpression. Make it a good one.
How,Will,Your,Business,Judged,