Look the part, be the part, so they say. Appearances matter, especially first impressions.

You can be very successful at what you do, but if the appearance of the business is ineffective, then this will reflect poorly on the business.

The opposite is true too. Some people can have all the right gear but have no idea, yet they still get the sale, contact, or promotion.

Checkout Ten Crucial Steps Of Managing Both Business And Side Hustle:

If you operate a small business or are running a little side hustle in your spare time, you need to look like a bigger company if you are going to compete in the marketplace and win.

Here are ten simple and cost-effective ways for a small business to punch above its weight and challenge the big businesses.

1. Create A Brand

Brands are more than a business; they are an identity. You could be operating your business from the corner of a bedroom or an app on your phone, but if your brand has a big presence your company will appear massive.

Merchandising is a short and sweet way to increase your brand presence. You will be amazed at how far branded t-shirts will go towards making your business look big.

Bolt Printing has cheap t-shirt printing that will suit the budget of a small business while not compromising on quality.

2. Promote Your Opinions

Blogging is a great marketing tool and a great way of making your business look bigger than it is.

You can establish yourself and your company as a ‘thought leader’ in the marketplace, asking big questions about the future of your business sector and supplying answers.

If you are not a creative writer, you can hire people to generate the content for you. Having a blog on your company website that is well-maintained with fresh content gives the impression that many more people are behind the scenes than there really are.

3. Invest In Your Social Media Presence

Never underestimate the power of social media for business. You do not have to use it as an advertising venue to turn it into a marketing tool for your business.

In fact, keeping ads on your company’s social media accounts and using them for engagement is much more effective.

Invest some time in managing your company’s social media accounts. You can use them to engage with existing customers, potential customers, and even competitors and complementary businesses. This will give the impression that your business is much bigger than it is.

4. Outsource An Assistant

Any small business or side hustle can gain a more professional presence with an assistant to answer calls and emails. This does not mean you have to hire full-time staff, you can outsource this cost-effectively.

Though it does require a little investment, the amount of presence you are buying makes it worth it.

Your calls can be answered by a trained professional, who will communicate with your customers and suppliers as if they work for you directly even though you may never meet them.

They can hold your calls or route them to you as if they were sitting outside your corner office in a skyscraper, even though you are in the corner office space of a bedroom.

5. Build Up Your Website

The modern storefront or office building is no longer on the main street, it is online. Your company’s website will be somewhere that your customers are likely to visit when they find out more about you, your business, and the products and services you offer.

Giving your company website an overhaul and making it look more professional and more expensive will make people think that your business is bigger than it is. It does not have to cost much either.

There are many companies online that give you the tools to develop a professional website yourself without having to pay for costly coding.

6. Create Your Own Commercials

Thanks to social media and streaming sites like YouTube, anyone can upload and share videos and create links to them to share across online platforms and even in-person thanks to QR codes.

Though it takes planning and some investment, you can make professional quality videos to promote your business.

This puts you in the same league as big business, competing for customers on a level playing field with household names. Viral videos are the greatest advertising tool in the world right now, though creating something that ‘goes viral’ can be a challenge.

7. Hire An Intern

This is the perfect way for a small business to grow its staff without growing its wage budget. Students are always looking for work experience, often for college credit. Just because you operate a side hustle or small business doesn’t mean you have nothing to offer an intern, in fact, the opposite is true.

Many young people in college today have entrepreneurial aspirations of their own and would be happy to have the chance to learn from you and your business.

They get experience, and you get a member of staff to help increase productivity and your presence in the marketplace.

8. Build A Corporate Email Address Book

You may be the only one running the show, but people do not need to know that. Create lots of email addresses for different departments in your business, even if they all ultimately lead to you.

You can have a human resources department, accounting, and marketing, all by creating an email address.

Potential clients or customers will get the impression that your company is a hive of human activity, even though the truth is you are answering all the emails from all these different accounts. This can take minutes to do but it makes your small business seem massive.

9. Give Yourself A Title

You are not someone working a side hustle, you are a CEO. Having a proper title that people are used to seeing in other companies makes you seem more legitimate, not just as a business but also as an individual.

You may have many roles within your business, but make sure your official title is at the top of the food chain, even if you are the only employee.

Create a profile of yourself for the website and have a mission statement for your business. Speak about your company as if it is bigger than it is, and people will see it that way.

10. Supersize Your Social Media

To project a bigger image into the digital space, use multiple social media accounts for different departments of your business, and engage with consumers from different viewpoints.

Create customer care and service-focused account to help address any problems and contain the conversation in that account.

Have a marketing-focused account that shares interesting online articles or your own blog posts that discuss the industry you are in or the types of products you sell.

Never get caught up in conversations or threads with your multiple accounts, always keep them separate from each other.

The hard work is never over for a successful entrepreneur. Getting your business going took a lot of courage and determination, as well as effort. Now is the time to level up and turn your small business into a big one.

When you look like a business, people will think you are one. The sales and contracts will quickly follow, and so will the growth you need to continue your success.

Read Also:

• Why Digital Marketing Is Important For Businesses?
• Top 10 Best Email Marketing Tools Of 2022 – Must Read!
• How to Improve Your Online Presence to Benefit Your Business