New businesses come with a disadvantage over older established ones due to a lack of customer faith and trust. A new business will not have the benefit of a trusted and respected public image that an established company will have. With years of trading comes either a positive or negative public image that can help or hinder a business. A new or very small business does not have the benefit of positive feedback from years of satisfied customers and in most cases will not have the marketing budget available to create a strong brand image through traditional media outlets. Prospective customers are happy to deal with big business for a number of reasons. They recognise and trust the corporate identity and feel safer knowing that the business is not going anywhere and can be trusted not to rip them off.

A start up business needs the phone to start ringing today so what can be done to help things along. With odds stacked against them new businesses need to gain every advantage they can. Gaining the trust of clients and customers is crucial if the business is to be a success but this can be a slow process. By emulating the bigger more established brands it can be possible to convince more customers that the new business is trustworthy and going to be around for a long time to come.

By creating an ‘established’ business presence it is possible to gain prospective customers trust a lot quicker. The main components of a professional business presence are:

1. A City Centre Business Address

2. City Centre Telephone and Fax Numbers

3. Professional Reception Staff

4. After Hours Business Voicemail

These four items are crucially important in creating a professional and trustworthy business presence. If a new business has these four services in place they will be giving customers and clients what is expected from a professional company. Customers will be asking themselves the following questions when deciding on whether or not to use services from a business. Does the company trade from a registered business area? Does the phone number match the address? Does the business have professional reception staff as its first point of contact? Either subconsciously or not the customers of a new business will ask themselves these questions.

To create a professional business image can be a costly undertaking if a company goes for a traditional office set up. The most cost effective way of achieving a genuine business presence is to opt for a virtual office service. A competitively priced virtual office costs in the region of £70 a month and would provide a new business with all of the ingredients necessary to create a professional business presence.