8 Steps to Create Your Business Identity

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

From Randy Duermyer,

Your Guide to Home Business.

FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

Create a Business Identity and Hang Out Your Shingle

Creating a business identity is an essential task to open your doors for business, or "hang out your shingle", if you prefer. Here's an orderly and logical sequence of steps you can take to get your home business up and running by creating its identity.

Step 1: Establish a Business Address and Phone Numbers

The first step I recommend in establishing a business identity is to set up an address and phone number for your new business. You'll also want to decide how you want to handle faxes. You can accomplish this first step even before you decide on a name or register your new business with your state. Completing this step early means that your home address and phone number won't become public record when you do register your business.

You'll also need this business contact information when it comes time to order your business cards and when you set up your web site (if you're going to have one), which are later steps in the business identity process. That's why I suggest taking this step first.

If you initially register your business using your home phone number and address, changing your registration later with your state's Secretary of State's office may not be as easy as you might think. And, it's something you might forget to do later. I've been trying to get my business address changed for over a year. From personal experience, I've found it's easier just to update your mailbox or telephone billing information to include your business name once you know it.

Your Business Address is Part of Your Business Identity

If you're going to operate your business from your home, the basic choices for a U.S. business address are:

• Open a post office box with the US Postal Service
  
• Use a private mail service, like the UPS Store

PO boxes are onsiderably less expensive than private mail boxes. However, your decision may in part depend on the image you're trying to project for your business. Some prospects may view your use of a PO box address for your business as meaning it's small or not fully established, or that you operate a "fly by night" company from your garage. If that's going to be a problem for the type of business you want to engage in, private mail services can give you a more distinctive address, like 504 Main Street, Suite 1640, Anytown, USA 99999, which implies to those who don't know that your business has a legitimate public location.

I started with a private mail service and switched to a PO box, primarily for cost reasons. I never regretted it and don't plan to switch back any time soon. Since my clients typically assume I'm a one-person business operating from home, image isn't an issue for me.

Your Business Phone

If your home business is small and you're starting on a shoestring as most of us have, consider using a cell phone as your business phone, at least when you're first starting out. If you already have a cell phone, you can use its number or buy a second phone for your business line.

Getting a cell phone with a prepaid wireless plan like TracFone works well because you don't have to pay a monthly service fee and you won't have any surprises when it comes time to pay the bill. The downside is you won't get a business listing in the local phone book, but you can always get that later if you feel it's an important part of your business identity. Again, you don't need to know your business name to complete this step in the business identity process.

Whether you have an additional land line installed for your business or you decide to use a cell phone as your primary business number, the biggest benefit of having a separate phone number is that whenever that phone rings, you'll know it's a business call. Additionally, your children and spouse will know not to answer the phone when you get an incoming business call if you don't want them to answer your business calls.

Your Business Fax Number

Whether or not you need a separate fax line strictly depends on your volume of faxes sent and received. If your home business depends on sending or receiving faxes and you want to keep your voice line available, a separate line is pretty much a necessity. In my case, I have a low volume of both incoming and outgoing faxes and I can use the same phone line for my DSL Internet connection and faxes. My fax line is never busy, even though I'm online for the better part of every day. Using an online fax service or a switchable voice/fax setup are other options.

Using Long Distance Calling Cards

I buy prepaid long distance calling cards for business long distance. I use the card whenever I need to make a business-related long distance call from a land line - regardless of where I am when I need to make the call. In my opinion, it's hard to beat the incredibly low cost per minute of my prepaid calling card. I also use the calling card for sending long distance faxes. I never get any surprises with unexpected long distance charges using this method.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Step 2: Brainstorm Your Business Name and Tagline

The next step in creating your business identity is to decide on a business name if you haven't already done so. You can operate your business under your own name, a name you create, or a combination of the two.

Try to pick a name that's easy to remember, easy to pronounce, and that relates to the product or service you're selling. Scott Allen's article, How to Create a Great Business Name can help you with this step.

Along with your name, a tagline can be an important part of your business identity. A tagline is a word or phrase that helps people readily identify with what you do or what you sell. "You're in good hands with Allstate" or GE's "We bring good things to life" are two examples.

A tagline is part of your unique business identity and is meant to be used for a very long time.

You can differentiate between a tagline and a "slogan" by remembering that a slogan is typically used with a single marketing campaign, whereas a tagline should be considered permanent.

You'll want to develop your tagline early on in the life of your business so you can incorporate it into your logo, business cards, letterhead, and web site from the very beginning. While you can add it later, you'll have to have designs redone and stationery and business cards reprinted, which can mean unnecessary expense.

Make Sure What You Want is Available

Once you've decided on several (say, at least five) names and taglines, you'll want to research them to make sure they're available. You don't want to use them if they're already being used, especially if that business is one of your competitors or is located in your area. You certainly don't want to infringe on someone else's trademark or service mark.

You can check on the availability of a business name within your state through your state's Secretary of State's office. Mark Minassian's Contacting Your Secretary of State and Department of Revenue provides links for accessing these offices for each state.

Your state's web site will usually have a search box where you can type your proposed business name and see if it's already registered. Don't register yet, because if you're going to do business with out of state customers, you'll need to make sure you're not treading on someone else's trademark before you register the business name.

It's also a good idea, and a necessity if you plan to do business outside of your state, to conduct an Internet search using both your proposed names and taglines to see who else might be using them. Is the user active in your area? Do they do the same type of work you do? Do they show a trademark ™ or service mark (SM) next to the name and/or tagline? If so, select an alternate. While you don't register a tagline, you should consider using a trademark or service mark as soon as you can. Of course, if you can consider hiring an attorney to help you with this.

Research Domain Names

If you're planning to have a web site, you'll also want to see which domain names are available that match your business name, tag line, or that relate to what you do or sell. Search Network Solutions' WHOIS database to check domain name availability. Try to use short, easy-to-remember and easy-to-spell names for your domain name.

If the domain name is available you'll be encouraged to reserve it, but shop around for the best price you can get on a domain name registration before you actually reserve it. The domain name registration business is highly competitive and there are great deals to be had if you shop around.

Register Your Name Now

If the business name you want is available and you don't find any conflicts, go back to the Secretary of State and Department of Revenue links for your state and register your business name. Keep your business name secret until it's registered. While you may be tempted to share your great name with everyone you know, someone may overhear you and register the name or use your tagline before you get the chance.

Step 3: Check into an Employer ID Number with the IRS

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service can issue an Employer's Identification Number (EIN) for your business. In some cases, getting an EIN is not optional. For example, if you're going to have employees or operate as a corporation or partnership, you must get an EIN. There are other situations that apply as well, and you can quickly check to see if you must have an EIN to do business by checking Do You Need an EIN? on the IRS web site. You can access the form to request an EIN from the same article.

Even if you're not required to have an EIN, getting one is often a good idea. For one thing, it makes it easier to open a bank account in your business name and it will help keep your social security number private. Finally, if you want your clients to hire you as an independent contractor, it's another layer of protection for your clients so that the IRS won't classify you as an employee.

Step 4: Open a Business Bank Account

Part of having a business identity is to keep your business finances separate from your personal finances. There's just no better way to do that than to open a business checking account.

While free business checking isn't as common for business as it is for personal accounts, some banks now offer it. I switched to free business checking after I got tired of paying $35 for my low-volume checking account at a competing bank.

Many credit unions also offer business accounts, typically at lower rates than commercial banks. In some states, you don't have to be an employer or a member of an organization to join. You only have to be a resident in the state where the credit union is chartered.

While you're comparing financial institutions, don't forget to include the cost of checks and endorsement stamps in your comparison.

Some banks offer low or no fees, only to stick you with a ridiculous fee for your first set of checks or gouge you on an endorsement stamp.

Step 5: Create Your Business Logo

A good logo goes a long way in establishing your business identity. Your logo should reflect what your business does. It should be unique, eye-catching and easy to identify.

There are a number of software tools to help you create your own logo if you have some artistic talent or your initial logo is going to be very simple and you want to save money. If you're going to do it on you own though, you'll want to know what your printing service demands in the way of formatting requirements and file types that you submit to them for printing your business cards and brochures.

I've noticed in comparing a number of corporate logos that it's common to include the business name, and often the tagline, too as part of the logo. By combining them your logo is readily identifiable to your prospective customers.

Hiring an experienced graphic designer to create your logo is a relatively affordable process. Shop around - the web is a good place to start - for a good price and be sure to see some samples of prior work. While art students are an inexpensive option, experienced designers know what printers are looking for in the way of resolution, file format and any limitations on the number of colors used. Another option is to visit a local printing shop or mailbox services store. Both frequently offer logo design services.

Step 6: Order Your Business Cards

Another important business identity component is your business card. Once you have your business name, tagline, address, phone number, and logo, designing your business card should be fairly easy.

You can design your own business card if you have some artistic talent and know what resolution to use, if there are any color limitations, and the file formats that are accepted by your print vendor.

You can also use business card templates provided by design software tools, like Microsoft's Publisher. Just be sure to watch your output requirements and the file types supported by your printing service.

I originally created my own business cards and printed them on perforated business card stock from a local office supply store. After all, I have a decent printer and a fairly good eye for layout and color. They still looked cheap.

Unless you are an absolute expert, homemade business cards never quite come off as the real thing. Since a business card is often your first impression on a prospect, you don't want to jeopardize getting new business because you didn't bother to have your business cards professionally printed. Look for bargains.

Step 7: Create or Order Your Business Stationery

You can buy stationery or create it yourself. Again, you can use tools like Microsoft Publisher for this purpose, and plenty of design templates are provided to make creating custom stationery easy. Additionally, you can create your letterhead with just a word processor:

• Insert your logo into the header of the page.
  
• Add contact information, like your address and phone number, to the header and footer.
  
• Save the file.

Whenever you need to write a business letter using your computer, just:

• Open your letterhead file
  
• Insert your content
  
• Save the letter with a new file name
  
• Print your letter

If you decide to use this method, use a good quality paper - say a 22 or 24 pound bond or heavier - for your business letters. Once you have business stationery, you can use it for a variety of purposes, such as a fax cover letter or for invoices. This method has served me well for several years now and I haven't had to buy my business stationery.

You can do the same thing for envelopes. Create the envelope in your word processor with your business return address and save it. As long as your printer can handle printing envelopes easily, you're basically all set.

What I've found even easier is to order return address labels from my printer when I ordered my business cards. They were free with my business cards and I just affix one to my envelope.

Step 8: Establish Your Business Web Site

Depending on the nature of your business, if you are only doing business in a very local area you may not need a web site. At least, not right away. Otherwise, having a web presence is expected of nearly all legitimate businesses these days.

Web sites serve as a useful form of inexpensive advertising for most businesses. Even the most basic of web sites can work well as your online brochure.

If you're going to have a web site and you haven't registered your domain name yet, by all means do so now. That means you'll need to complete the domain name search, find a good domain name registrar at a cost you can afford and set up your web hosting account.

Most domain name providers today also offer web site hosting services, so you can accomplish both tasks with one service provider. In fact, in some cases, you can get your domain name registration for next to nothing if you also set up a web hosting account.

Designing Your Web Site

If you have any design ability you can pretty much design your own web site these days. You really don't need to know much about HTML coding anymore if you use a decent web design software tool, but it sure helps get you out of a jam. Some web hosting companies also offer tools to help you quickly design a web site or they may offer to design a basic site for you for a nominal fee. When you're first starting out, any of these options may work well for you.

Consider your web site as a brochure. It's basically a tool to tell the world you're out there by highlighting who you are, how you can be reached, and what kind of products or services you offer. It also allows you to show off your business identity. You can enhance, rebuild, redesign, and otherwise improve your site later as needed.

Content for Your Web Site

Right from the start, you'll want clear, concise, and grammatically correct writing without spelling errors. Nothing speaks louder to a lack of professionalism than a poorly written site. Your prospects won't think you're a serious contender for their business and they sure won't get a very good impression of you. If you don't have very good writing skills, consider hiring a web content writer for this purpose. Rates are often charged per page, depending on the length of the content. Providing notes, an outline, and any supporting information to your writer will save time and money. Any web content writers you select should not only have a good command of the written word, they should have some marketing savvy and some knowledge of how to get the attention of search engines to maximize your site's traffic.

If you're going to operate a business where your customers are coming mainly from the Internet, it will be even more important to have a professional design and tone to the site with content that gets search engine attention.

Even if you write your own content, hiring someone to optimize your pages for search will go a long way toward bringing more traffic to your site. While you don't need to spend an arm and a leg to do this, you'll want to use someone who knows what they're doing, so you'll need to check into their experience and results. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a lot more than just repeating the same words over and over again, and a competent SEO professional will know what tactics to use and offer other suggestions, such as getting other sites to link to you. Some SEO consultants will offer a free SEO evaluation of your site and suggestions for improving your search rankings.

Some search engines are very secretive about what they look for at any given time. No one can guarantee you a number one listing for any given word. If they do, you should be extremely skeptical. Making a mistake in this area - by using what's referred to as "Black Hat" SEO techniques, can result in one or more search engines classifying your web site as spam, and your site will be completely omitted from their results.

You need to understand that getting good search results doesn't happen overnight, and the longer you're on the web, the more relevant content you can provide on your site, and the more meaningful links you can have coming in to your site, the better your chances are of beating your competition in the search rankings. The keywords you chose on your site also have a big impact on how you'll rank.

Like the rest of your business, you should expect your web site traffic to increase over time, just as you would expect your business volume to grow over time.

Congratulations, You Have a Business Identity

Now that you've completed these basic business identity steps, you've effectively "hung out your shingle" for starting your home business.

You're bound to make adjustments from time to time - to your logo, your address and/or telephone number or to your business cards, for example. But now that you have a basic identity for your home business you can get to work making money!