The Tony Samuels Studio

Find out now if your business is professional

Seven (7) tips advising you to change some things today to be professional.

1. Your email address ends with yahoo, gmail or hotmail. Ex. Your business should not have wellsfargo@yahoo.com. Why? Because emails are user-friendly and free. Hosting provides the option of a free email address with the purchase. If you cannot afford, for your business a personal domain or email address, potential clients may assume that you cannot provide to them a professional service for their business. Another reason is the difficulty of someone locating your company if you operate under gmail account. An organizations’ email address usually ends with the organizations’ name, not at the beginning. (i.e.. wellsfargo@yahoo.com vs. jane.doe@wellsfargo.com)

2. An organization’s domain should not start with a number. Ex. 4youinterior.com. Why? The internet speaks a language much like people and numbers are a part of its communication. Starting a domain with a number tells google and other systems to perform a string, so your SEO becomes lost in the system and not recognized.

3. Your business card should be appealing and not display on the back of you’re printing company you’ve used. Why? Nothing is worst than receiving a business card from a professional who purchased the FREE 500 business card package.

4. Never have a template design. Why? Let me give you a short story. Someone gave me a business card that was from a template design. The business was about an investment opportunity. Took it serious at the start and even invested. A month later, on the news, this company was charged with fraud. Now about 2 months later, someone else presents a card similar in design to the past company and I never even read it because the similarities made me think that he was associated with the same company. Come to find out it was a construction company, still I didn’t pay any attention. Templates are used by many. It is not personally branded by your company so the visuality of these template can cost you your business.

5. Your website was created using yahoo or godaddy. Immediately this tells true professionals that you are cheap. A quote of mine, “If you don’t look like you will spend money on your business, why should I spend money on your business”.

6. Back to your website! If your website looks good on your computer doesn’t mean it looks good on another computer .(i.e.. the shirt may look good on you but not on your friend). Only professionals can create sites that can provide versatility and fit to your business image. Templates have limitations, that’s why they are so cheap translation to a potential clients, your cheap and unprofessional.

7. Your logo doesn’t work in black or white. Your logo should be versatile. If your logo (right now) converted to black and white is not visible or readable, then you do not have a logo. Your logo should be provided to you in vector (points) form only. Professional logos are not done in jpeg, png, bmp. They are formatted into these other media’s from eps or ai formats.

Please, don’t take it to heart. Tips provided are self taught lessons learned throughout the years. Can you add to the list or ask. Questioned welcomed.