In this business, if you want to succeed, you need to present a professional image to your potential customers. You have to stand out amongst your competition! How do you do this?
Get yourself a website! - It doesn't have to be a big fancy online shopping cart (though what a good way to increase your sales potential!) but you should at least have a nice, simple, user-friendly website, complete with pictures, and your operating hours and contact information. However, the BIGGEST mistake made by new business owners: Setting up a website on a FREE hosting site. Homestead, Geocities, Webs.com, Bravenet, etc. DON'T DO IT! Unless you ENJOY shooting yourself in the foot. You can get a professionally hosted website for about $5 a month, maybe LESS depending on who you get it through. You can also get a domain for less than $10 a year through most any domain registration company (such as GoDaddy who is reliable and easy to work with!).
Use quality images on your website! - Another mistake people make is to use free clip-art for to decorate their websites. NOT a good idea. These images are low quality, poorly made, and will make your site look like a teenager's personal homepage. For very little money you can have some very nice quality graphics made up to use on your website, or purchase a pre-made website layout from many different places!
DON'T Hide Your Contact Information! - This is huge! So many people make a nice website, yet, when people visit their site, they can't find the hours of operation, contact information, address or any other important information. You may think you're exposing yourself for all kinds of weirdness if you post your personal information on your website like that, but really now... freaky people will track down whoever they want, it's what they do... but those not-so-freaky (or maybe they are) people who might want to do business with you, well, they probably aren't going to put in a lot of effort to find you, and if someone else is easier to find, then that's where their business is going to go.
Post PICTURES! - Potential customers want to see what you've got to offer! Post pictures of the outside of your business (so they know what to look for, or may recognize you if they've driven by!), as well as the inside (so they can get an idea of the "feel" and if they are interested in stopping by to see more!). You should also post some pictures of actual items you have, or have had, in stock. Give your website visitors a taste of what you have to offer!
What's on your "must do" list for presenting a professional image online?
