4 Ways to Give Off Big Company Vibes as a Tiny Startup

As a young startup speaking to customers for the first time, there are some questions that are best avoided. If you’re a team of three, for example, with a bank account just skating above overdraft territory, questions around company size or funding are generally best preempted by some skillful positioning.

This is especially true for startups selling to enterprise customers, who often expect a vast pool of resources from their vendors. When we started SevenRooms, a hospitality platform for restaurants, nightlife and hotels, we did everything we could to give the appearance that we were larger and more established than we were. It turns out, we were pretty good at it. Our big company aura enabled us to sign some serious enterprise deals early on, without navigating questions around our headcount or funding. Six years later, we can now call many of the largest names in hospitality our clients.

Here are some of the tactics that we recommend employing in the early days to give off that global conglomerate vibe: 

5 Proven Strategies to Break Out With Your New Business

Before customers buy your idea over (or in addition to) another company’s, you must show them why your product or service is different and/or better. If you can show why you’re unique, you’ll attract just the right customers who are perfect for your business. They are the clients who will buy from you time and again, and continually refer you to their friends.

This point of difference between you and your competition is called a USP, short for “Unique Sales Proposition.” Here are five examples of how to stand out with a Unique Sales Position:

5 Rookie Branding Mistakes Every Entrepreneur Makes But Shouldn't

When I started my etiquette business 20 years ago, I hired a college student named Ed to design my logo and website. It was a quick, easy and inexpensive way to get my name out into the world. However, when it came time to update my materials, Ed was nowhere to be found. He left town and did not provide me with his new contact information. I ended up hiring a more expensive and reputable company to design all of my marketing materials and it made all the difference in the world. Even today, my website is my number one marketing tool. It establishes me as "The Etiquette Expert." It's my brand.

Your brand is equally important. It is the first symbol people see, it is the last thing they remember, and it is the theme that runs throughout your entire marketing strategy. Big corporations like Coca-Cola, Google, and Apple spend large sums of money and time determining and establishing their brand. So why shouldn’t it be that important to a smaller, more entrepreneurial company? It should be.

If you are just starting out on a shoestring budget or if you have created a business in random chunks, without a formal brand strategy determination, it’s never too late to put a brand in place.

But before you do, you must first be aware of the most common branding mistakes many entrepreneurs make.