Small businesses actually have a number of potential advantages over larger, chain or national businesses. They can provide their clients and customers more personal service, like getting to know their likes, tastes, and preferences and even participate in social and community events with them. On the other hand, small businesses often have a harder time being seen as a legitimate option against larger competitors. Here are three tips to quickly legitimizing your small business.

Online Presence

In a digital age, an active online presence is crucial for legitimacy. At the very least, every small business should have a basic website and some form of social media presence. Establishing an online presence takes far more time than skill, and the best employees for this task are also fairly cheap.

If you happen to have a teenager or even know any responsible teenagers, this would make a great part-time job for them after school. While your social media should be tended to every day, it doesn’t always require an immediate response, just a timely one. The more active your online presence is, however, the more legitimate your business will seem.

Address

You may operate a business out of your home, but in a world of map searches, it is far better to have an address that will show up in a strip mall in an online search, rather than a subdivision. Even your website needs to be registered to a physical address, so it’s wise to be able to offer an address other than your home. If your main business is conducted out of a warehouse, you may want to find a way to list a city address so you show up for local searches. Where your business is located matters, so make sure you have a legitimate and possibly even prestigious address.

Purchase When You Can

While the cost effectiveness of purchasing versus renting is going to vary from business to business, you should own your most basic equipment. You can always supplement your equipment by renting additional equipment, but owning basic equipment like heavy lift forklifts for your warehouse is not only more cost effective but will help you establish yourself as a legitimate presence.

Just because your business may be small doesn’t mean you have to appear that way. Sometimes large companies got to be that way in the first place by doing things that made them seem more prestigious than they were when they were a small company. You may not be trying to build your small business into a global conglomerate, but if you want to compete with those global conglomerates, you may need to put some effort into making your business appear slightly more prestigious than it may actually be.