From CIO to consultant: First impressions count

Even if you're a one-man shop with a tight budget you don't have to let your clients know that. Mike Barrett explains how consultants can come off looking sharp from the start.

From my former life as an IT director, I know from the number of good and bad supplier presentations I've seen that first impressions count.

Now as a consultant I'm on the other side of the fence, presenting my services to potential clients - and I've learned a lot about how to make sure those first minutes work in your favour.

Luckily, thanks to the web, it's possible to look as professional (if not more) than the big boys with little outlay and a moderate amount of effort.

By far your most important marketing tool is your business card. However, what's on the card is as important as any fancy design so first let's take a look at how to make sure when you give a client your card, it doesn't end up in the nearest recycling bin.

Phone numbers

Whatever people say, there is an unwritten stigma associated with running your business from home. So if, like me, you are plying your trade in and around London, an 0207 phone number is an essential item. Luckily Skype allows me to not only have a London phone number but for an extra £10, voicemail and call-forwarding to my mobile. It also allows me to have free calls to other Skype users and very cheap local and international call rates.

For the first time ever I also include my mobile number on my business card. I used to avoid giving out my mobile number when I was trying to avoid supplier calls but now that I'm a supplier I give it out.

I also have my Skype ID on my business card. I'm in an industry that understands this technology and more and more clients are becoming web savvy enough to think it's a cool new way to communicate.

Domain name

One of the most difficult decisions you will face is what to call your company. With the importance of being online increasing every day, this can actually be driven by the available domains.

Choose something that is distinctive and as unique as possible. People will Google you to find your website rather than type it from memory. When they do, you need to be right at the top of page one so that they get to you straight away. You can try this out before you commit to a domain and then register at any one of a myriad of different registration sites. Registering a dot-com and .co.uk domain shouldn't cost you more than £6 per year to own.

Once registered, use the domain as your email address - nothing looks worse than a Gmail or Yahoo! address on a business card.

Website/blog

To an extent it depends on your industry but if you are consulting I would advise you to start a blog. This is not necessarily to rant about things that annoy you on a daily/hourly basis as the really avid bloggers do (you should be working anyway) but it's a great marketing tool.

I post around one piece of content per week, sometimes less, but each piece is written specifically to be used as a reference. I now have a stock of around 20 snippets of useful information that I can send to clients either before or after I've met them on a wide range of topics.

The power of being able to advertise your blog on your business card - and then send a link to your ideas after a meeting can't be underestimated. Up to half the traffic on my blog is generated by people who have either clicked on a link I sent them or Googled my name or company name.

There are a number of free blogging platforms you can use, the best advice I can give is to try them out and see which you like best. My blog is hosted on Wordpress but Blogger is equally easy to set up and use and there are a multitude of other services out there.

I spent around £100 to add design changes to my blog to differentiate it from the rest of the blogs hosted by Wordpress.

Design

Your business card should be the most professional piece of collateral you produce. Don't get them from the motorway services machines! Pay a designer to create something you are proud to give to clients. It shouldn't cost you more than £250 and let's face it, if you are embarrassed to hand it out, the client will probably be binning it as you walk out the door.

While you've got the designer on board, have him/her create you a memorable logo. And make sure you get a digital version of it so you can integrate the logo into your presentations, quotes, invoices and other materials.

So, for less than £500 to set up and around £25 per month, you can be as professional as anybody out there without any of the associated costs - all of which means more of your fees go into your pocket.

Mike Barrett was until recently COO for CNET Networks UK, the publisher of silicon.com and other online publications. He now consults on strategy and development for the online publishing industry and assists tech start-ups in building products for the web 2.0 world. You can read his blog at www.compoundmedia.co.uk.