When it comes to running a successful small business there are definitely advantages to making your business look larger than it really is. Many of your potential prospects will feel more confident doing business with a larger sized company; if you’re a large business then you must be good, right? While I don’t always believe that sentiment to be true many of your prospects feel it is and so with that in mind here are several tips that will help you make your company look like a behemoth on the web.

#1 Set up your business as a Limited Liability Corporation. Doing so can make a very huge difference in how your prospects view your company. Whenever they see your company name on your website, email signatures or on any other of your communications you will be portraying your company as being larger than it really is.

#2 The next thing you can do to make your business look larger is to hire a graphic designer to create a really nice logo for your business. Doing so will certainly improve how the public perceives your business.

#3 You’ll also want to make sure your website looks clean and easy to navigate. It’s also a very good idea to pack as much content you think your prospects will find useful. Just make sure to keep your navigation clean on the site and avoid uploading clutter of any kind to it. Your website says a lot about what type of business you are running so make sure to present yourself accordingly on it.

#4 It’s important to create content related to your industry and post it on article directories as often as you can. When you do you’ll not only begin receiving traffic back to your site from the people who read your articles but you’ll make your business look like a giant in your industry because your prospects will be bumping into you at multiple locations on the web.

#5 Another really easy way to make your business seem larger to your prospects is to outsource all your customer service duties to a good virtual assistant that you trust. Your customers will pick up on the fact very quickly that you are not running a one man show and will assume you have an entire office suite full of customer service representatives.

#6 The next thing you’ll want to do is to set yourself up with an email account that uses your website’s domain in it. Doesn’t yourname@yourcompany.com look much more professional than yourname@yahoo.com? Most hosting accounts come with a free email account so get in touch with your hosting provider and ask their help setting it up if you don’t know how to do it yourself.

Making your small business seem like a large one is easy if you follow all the tips you just read. Now it’s up to you to begin implementing them and seeing them through so they begin producing bountiful returns for your business.

Isn’t it time you let some one else create the Articles For Websites content you need for your website or blog?

Melissa & Doug Sticker Collection - PinkThe Melissa and Doug Sticker Collection is great for arts and crafts, scrapbooking, storytelling, and creating original scenes! This adorable sticker book features over 500 stickers. From fashion to fairies, princesses to pets, adults and children alike will enjoy exploring the design possibilities!

I’ve always had the ‘entrepreneurial’ spirit. I remember, being 9 years old, going down to the local pottery shop and buying a dozen un-kilned coffee mugs. I drew cartoons on them (I was a wanna-be cartoonist back in the day) and brought them back to the pottery shop to have them Kilned (baked).

I’d eventually take them into my local police department or church … and sell them. I did sell a few, But I never really made a profit. The price of the actual mugs, the kilning and paint all cost much more than what I made from sales. This is the same dilemma I have in the retail world. I’ve been selling my own logo design software product in retail stores such as Fry’s Electronics and Office Depot for a few years now.

Each box will cost (roughly) $3.00 (USDollars) to design. This includes the actual box, the CD inside, the sleeve the CD is put into, burning the CD and putting in the cardboard to make the box thicker.

To design the artwork of the box, You can hire a designer. If you’re really bold, you can find one on the web. Companies like eLance.com allow you to pick and choose designers. An artist could potentially somewhere around $3,500 to $8,000 to create the artwork for the software box! Something to keep in mind, You’ll spend roughly $3,000 for 1000 boxes.

Most times, 1,000 is the smallest amount you’ll be able to print. This can really add up when a large chain (Office Depot for instance has 1200 stores nation wide). Each store may want a minimum of 5 boxes on the shelf. That’s 6,000 boxes. At $3 a pop!).

Then, you have something called “Shelf Space” to deal with.

Not all fo them, but most retail chains like you to buy this shelf space.

Sometimes, shelf space can go as high as $5,000 for one product! You need to sell a boat load of software to make up this 5k. Then, the retail chain takes it’s cut. Sometimes up to 10% …It can all get a bit nutts.

The Internet vs. Retail

This is why the internet is so terrific. NO overhead other than your time. (I use external eCommerce companies to handle my shopping cart system. They take 20% of my monthly sales. …but it’s WELL worth it I must say).

This is the great thing about creating downloadable software – or anything you can create once and sell a thousand times. An eBook for example. The Retail world used to be king, but I’m putting my money into the web.

It’s harder to market yourself on the net beign that there’s so much competition. However, that’s where your Search Engine Marketing comes in. But that’s a topic for a another article.

Marc Sylvester – Owner and operator of Laughingbird Software. Come find out more about The Logo Creator – logo design software for Mac and Windows!

Every now and then, it’s a good idea to create new graphics for your newsletter, social network club or website. In the past, I’ve personally gone looking for a few new newsletter graphics. I was amazed at the cost of getting these from other designers. I didn’t have a really large budget, I only needed to create a few page header images that I could use on my site and newsletter.

I searched all over the web and looked at the design sites of over two-dozen professional logo-design firms but found nothing even remotely appealing. The built-in graphics tools from such software products like Word or Publisher just didn’t cut it.

What I did find, however, was the idea that I could actually be my own logo design studio with the help of a few software products on the net! I could download and install logo design, business card creation and even animated logo creation software. For way less than what a designer would charge.

With these software products, I was able to create what I needed in about an hour and and get back to work writing copy for my newsletter.

Each of these tools (and there are a ton of them on the net, just GOOGLE ‘em! – offer a distinct “look,” to the graphics, such as bright colorful curves and large orbs to smaller, subtle images like alphabet letters combined with a unique font. With most of them, you select a template as a starting point, then experiment with color or fonts, and move or resize the objects as much as you like. You can replace the existing text placeholders (your company name and a separate tag line, in most templates) or add your own text.

Sometimes, I actually do use a Word template to get my ideas on paper. But when it comes to a blank PhotoShop canvas I glaze over. Software like The Logo Creator is perfect. I get a “jump off” point to get my brain working.

When you’re ready to publish your graphics file, most of these tools can create JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, and EPS files (among other formats).

The software is usually inexpensive, (when compared to what a professional designer may charge you), and the results are terrific. Most of the products are easy to use. You may find that experimenting with these tools gets addictive. The templates offer a great variety of ideas and designs. There’s also enough flexibility to let you create logos for clients! Start your own logo design service.

I’m really happy to have discovered this route. You download some of these products and play around with them. Creating quick image for your forum or newsletter is actually pretty easy. Doing it yourself is quicker, you have more control ..and it’s often far less expensive when you simply need a page header or a blog image.

Looking to find the best deal on these types of logo design studio products? Visit www.logodesignstudio.com to find examples and other do it yourself logo design ideas.

LOGO Design, Vol. 2In this follow-up to our immensely successful first volume, you ll find over 2000 logos as well as special case study features on brand identities such as MTV, CCTV, and the Metropolitan Museum s Berlin branch. Top design and branding offices featured include MetaDesign, Saffron Brand Consultants, Research Studios, Stefan Sagmeister and Studio Dumbar. With a foreword by MetaDesign s chief design officer Uli Mayer-Johanssen and introduction by branding guru Wally Olins, this collection brings an insider s prospective to the art of designing successful logos.