I remember being fascinated with the working world as I repeatedly watched the Working Girl in the ’80s. One of the lines that I remember vividly to this day is when Melanie Griffith’s character says to her best friend, “If you want to be taken seriously, you have to have serious hair.”
I am not saying that everyone who starts a new business has to go out and get a fancy, new haircut. Well actually, that will help too if you end up getting an in-person meeting :) But first thing first. Do not pitch to store owners and retail buyers using a janky email. NO MORE sexymama1985@yahoo.com. None of that! If you want to be taken seriously, you have to take your business seriously.
Here is a quick and simple tip that you can apply to your business right away.
Once you have your domain name (you can register one at godaddy.com for about ten bucks!), you can sign up for a Google apps account and setup up to 10 email accounts for free. Did I mention that it’s FREE? So even if you’re a ONE-man operation, you can setup email accounts such as: yourname@mycompany.com; info@mycompany.com; wholesale@mycompany.com; press@mycompany.com and have it all forwarded to you. You get the picture? This simple change can make your company look 100% more professional than sending out an email using your personal email account.
Are you guilty of using your personal email account for your business? No worries, take action now!
Here’s to making your product (and company) retail-ready!
xoxo
Grace Kang
Your Retail Product Mentor
p.s. A BIG, warm welcome to all of the new readers who joined our community! You are going to love the resources you will find here to help you make your product retail-ready… Enjoy!
p.s.s. Be sure to drop by Oh My! Handmade blog tomorrow as I will be answering a juicy question on our monthly Ask Grace Q&A; column.
