Even though a small business is tremendously respected by many people for their innovation and adaptability to the market, the one thing they lack is size. Now wait a minute, that’s quite obvious. Of course you’ll have fewer employees, you won’t need much office space and your budget is going to be pretty small. It’s not just in physical size but your strength and power regarding services, logistics, outreach scope, scalability and influence in the industry in general. All of these things are what you might term soft and hard power. Soft power is the ability to leave a mark on an industry or sector. Hard power is when you have the physical presence in a city or region which gets you noticed. You have a lot of power in some respects but altogether you will still seem small.
The big city office
To have confidence emanate from your brand, you need to have some kind of large presence. People flock to companies that have such size because they figure that there is muscle and safety in them. The thousands of employees are the muscle and the safety is the massive budget they have for their operations. One of the other aspects of large businesses is that they have big city offices. Having an address in a major city gives off the impression that you are rubbing elbows with the big dogs. Even if you’re a small business you can improve your brand by having an address in a city like New York. Look at these cheap New York office addresses, with many of them lower than $20 a month. Of course it’s a virtual office which you can use to have mail forwarded to you. It gives off a more professional appearance to your clients and customers which again will improve the confidence within your brand.
Make an appearance
As much as you might fear it, making a great appearance at a business exhibition or conference would really help springboard your brand image. It’s crucial that you behave in a manner that doesn’t shine a light on the size of your business. Many times small businesses will actually wait until they believe they have a sizable customer base before setting up an exhibition stall. The fear is that no one will know who they are and in a sea of names they will be the odd one out. Nonsense, you have to act like you belong and put yourself out there to be seen and heard. It’s a great to force yourself onto the scene and get noticed. Steal the show with a live presentation so attendees pay more attention to you than your bigger rivals.
Reflection on small business
Acting like a pufferfish in business simply means you’re pushing out your chest and not behaving like a small fish in a big pond. You can show this by having a professional office in a major city for your clients to contact you by. Making appearances at business exhibitions and confidently showing the industry and the world who you are should not be something you wait to do.
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