Monday, November 26, 2007

Is Your Business Legitimate?

I came across this conversation on one of my business groups this weekend and it caught my interest. The topic was on wholesale inquiries and how some viewed them as a pain in the neck. Some even wanted to remove their contact information on their websites in order to stop them.

Now…..I guess this is okay if you ONLY want to sell your stuff direct (through your website only). I mean, it’s okay if you don’t want to deal with wholesale. However I would never suggest removing your contact information from your site as a way to avoid inquiries. If you don’t sell wholesale, simply put a disclaimer on your website stating so. If you don’t mind the inquiries, but would rather retailers e-mail instead of call, then state that too and include your email link. But don’t remove your phone number.

People are very weary of frauds today and charge backs are given at the drop of a hat!
There are a couple of things you need to appear as a legitimate business and to gain the trust of your customers

  1. Have a mailing address (home address or P.O. Box)
  2. Email address (try to use a professional sounding one, not hotmamma@....)
  3. Professional website (there are good non-html site builders that are easy)
  4. Separate telephone line (whether it’s a cell phone or a 1-800 number)
  5. Voicemail (good for those tantrum moments your 3 yr. old is known for)
  6. Business checking account (co-mingling funds will get you audited)
  7. Business cards (not always, but it’s embarrassing to be caught without one)
  8. Business license/tax i.d. number (to purchase supplies wholesale)
  9. Fax number (you can get an online fax number through e-fax FREE)

Now these are the basics, there are all kinds of things you should have to run your business and I’ll expand on that in another post. Things that the customer will never know you have, but will make your life and job much easier (think printer, laptop, Blackberry).

Going back to the website ordeal. Personally, I would NEVER buy from a website that does not list an address and a phone number. You have to ask yourself, why don’t they want to be easy accessible? Now this excludes the big monopoly companies that we KNOW are legit but still refuse to make it easy to contact (a.k.a. Yahoo, Amazon and Google to name a few). However, for the typical e-tailer, these are big RED flags that you should look for when you are shopping on line. Trust me on this one!

Last Christmas my husband was purchasing what was supposed to be a very top of the line faux Louis Vuitton purse for me on a certain website, well he paid a lot for this faux purse. Christmas came and went, January passed and the purse never showed up. The on-line tracking said my purchase had not shipped, her only email to me assured me it had. There wasn’t a mailing address OR a phone number to contact her and email after email went unanswered. The whole ordeal took months to settle and resulted in a trip to the bank to deny the charge. Luckily we were refunded our money. But I learned a hard lesson.

If you are serious about your business, then prove it. Show your customers you are and let them know you are reachable.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If I may add a little bit of my own advice on this subject - I don't think you have to list an address on your site. Especially a home one - makes you sound like not so professional, and a PO Box I trust less - but a phone number at least. Better Busienss Bureu should have an address you can track company to.

I don't trust pay paypal, I don't trust e-bay either. A legit company will be able to answer questions. Ask for a refrerance from a reputable company they sell through or a past customer.

I dont' have an address listed on my website....