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Give your contracting business a professional image

Published on Apr 7, 2009 |

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Many contractors would benefit from creating a professional image for themselves / their limited companies.

This is not only essential if you are contemplating promoting your services directly to clients, but will also enable you to expand your business in other directions, and help show that your are truly 'self employed' as per the employment status rules which lie at the heart of the IR35 legislation.

Using our experience at our partner site, Bytestart, the UK's leading small business portal, we're compiled a list of ten things you can do to create the right image for your company:

Create the right image for your company

1. Create a professional-looking website, and pay a web designer to create a company logo.

2. Secure a sensible and future-proof domain name and set up a dedicated business email address. Always secure the .com and .co.uk variants of any domain name you are interested in. We've happily used easily.co.uk for over a decade.

3. Use a company letterhead and print some smart business cards. This is a rapid and inexpensive process if you set it up via an online supplier.

4. Use a 'signature' on business emails, containing your website address, and other contract details.

5. Join business social networking sites to promote yourself. The most popular example currently is linkedin. If you're feeling brave, set up a Twitter account!

6. Consider joining networking groups and organisations such as the FSB, and contractor-specific ones such as the PCG.

7. Try writing articles on subjects your are an expert in for online and offline publications, and answer questions on web bulletin boards.

8. Brush up on your web marketing skills to promote your website in Google, and the key web directories. See our dedicated web marketing section in Bytestart for tips.

9. Take time to keep your own CV up-to-date and relevant. You might even consider uploading a version of your CV to your new website.

10. You are selling yourself and your services to clients, so a professional image and good preparation can make all the difference between winning and losing that next contract!