Three easy steps to creating a Fortune 500 company on a startup budget
As move coordinators, we’ve been asked many times to setup a new office for our clients. Most of our clients are larger-sized businesses with large budgets, but as a small-sized firm ourselves, we can definitely understand the need to create a Fortune 500 image without spending a lot of money.
Here are some inexpensive ideas on bootstrapping your way into creating the look of a multi-national corporation on a startup’s budget:
1. Get somebody to answer your phones This is more realistic than you might think. Companies like RingCentral.com offer an auto-receptionist to answer your phone calls and give people the option of pressing “1″ for sales, “2″ for customer service and “3″ for accounting. Your callers don’t need to know that all options lead back to you or any contractors you’ve hired to handle, say, the accounting. There’s no hardware to buy and nothing to maintain. And it’s really inexpensive – plans start at only $9.99 per month. RingCentral even offers a free trial so you can play with the system to make sure you like it before committing.
2. Create a website This may sound obvious but many people get caught up in paying a web designer lots of money to create a gorgeous website with all the bells and whistles. This is totally unnecessary for most companies starting out. When purchasing a hosting plan, Super Green Hosting will throw in free site building software that’s as simple as point and click. They’ll also throw in a free domain name for life, unlimited email accounts, unlimited hosting space and instant setup. All this for only $3.95 per month. Yes, you heard right – $3.95 per month. If you already have a website, they’ll transfer your domain for free so you can take advantage of their great pricing. And on top of it all, Super Green Hosting is a green hosting service. So don’t pay a web designer tons of money when your website can be up and running in a week for the cost of a latte.
3. Purchase high-quality marketing materials Nothing is worse than being handed a business card that somebody printed out on their home computer (ok, there are lots of things that are worse but this is pretty bad). Your business card and brochure are one of the first impressions another person has of your company and you really need to put your best foot forward. We’ve worked with PSPrints many times when ordering move announcements, new business cards and stationary for our clients. They’ve worked out really well. Not only do they offer high-quality but low prices. According to their website, they are even offering 50% off business cards until July 15th – so there couldn’t be a better time to go for it! Having started and run my own company for the past 6 years, I certainly know the challenges of a business owner. From our experience working with Fortune 500 companies, we’ve taken cues from them on how to create the look of a large corporation without the expense.
