They should reflect what you are trying to portray with your décor and choice of furnishings. This doesn’t always mean you want them to look expensive, as you may not want people to think they are paying for your luxury premises.

Use posters and blow-ups of adverts and press articles about you inside the building.

Your premises need to be tidy both inside and out. An untidy premises infers an untidy disorganised business. How often do you see the team at McDonalds tidying up outside – they know it matters.  Tax Inspectors are trained to interview people in rooms without any other files. What this does is create an impression they have all the time in the world to look into your affairs. Take a look at how tidy your premises look and whether it conveys the impression you want.

Not all businesses need special premises, and many self-employed people can work from home, creating convenience and cost savings. You may need to notify your house insurers as working from home can change the risk and your mortgage company. However, they are not normally a major obstacle. You could also look at using a shed in your garden and there are many suppliers of garden offices and workshops. Insurance for these will be a bit higher because of there being less security.

Serviced offices are also a very flexible way to take premises without any long-term commitment, often taking a licence for just one month at a time. They also offer services such as typing, reception, furniture, phone lines, etc.

If renting, get a solicitor with commercial experience to look at the lease. Areas to consider include…

• Length of the lease.
• Rent level.
• How often and the terms of rent reviews.
• Restrictions on use of the property.
• Can it be sub-let?
• Can you sell the lease on?
• Who is responsible for repairs and renewals?
• Who is responsible for internal decorating?
• Who pays the legal fees in connection with the lease?
• Consider the need for a survey, especially if it is a full repairing lease.
• What are the rates?

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If your prospects don’t believe you, you won’t make the sale.

This is where the power of testimonials and case studies comes in. It’s praise from your existing customers, the media, other experts or even a celebrity. They are extremely powerful.

You must have systems to collect them and then leverage the power of them by using them in all your marketing materials.

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The customer is the most important person in the world, right? If there were two people left in the world and one has to die, you or the customer, who would it be?

Now, we’re agreed you are the most important person in the world.

The problem is that the customer thinks they are and that’s why you have to treat them that way if your business is to be successful.

Would you believe that if your customers are satisfied, you’re in trouble? That’s right, you read it correctly…

Let’s say you have a 95% customer satisfaction rating. Sounds great, but what it means is that you have 5% going round telling everyone how awful you are. The other 95% felt ok about you so they may shop with you but they could shop anywhere – they don’t have any special loyalty to you.

What’s more, a dissatisfied customer is 20 times more likely to tell someone. So if 95% of your customers are happy, you’ll have more negative than positive message out in the market place.

It’s loyalty you should be after, not just satisfaction. For example, the typical customer satisfaction question may ask “did you enjoy your stay?” or  “were we friendly?” The only answers these give are ones of satisfaction, not designed to find out if the customer felt great and had a memorable experience that creates loyalty. You must use questions designed to find out how loyal your customers are.

Here are typical examples of how most businesses treat their customers and why their customers will never be anything more than just satisfied…

“We’ve done all we can…”

“You’ll have to…”

“That’s not my job…”

“The person who deals with that is on holiday”

“Our policy says…”

“We’re out of stock, I don’t know when we’ll have some more”

“What seems to be the problem”

“Let me transfer you”

“I’ll have to check if that’s OK”

“Sorry, that offer ended yesterday”

“Why didn’t you…”

An insincere “Sorry about that”

“You don’t have to be rude about it”

“I’m just doing my job”

And aren’t those computerised phone systems great for customer service, not!

The list is endless. So many people seem to act like they’re doing the customer a favour.

The best rule to follow is…

If you wouldn’t like it done to you, don’t do it to someone else.

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