Being professional does not mean being stuck up and thinking you are above everyone else.
Professionalism is more about setting emotions aside, not rejecting them, but being more of service.
It is possible to stay professional and still convey emotion when necessary, just think about therapists. Medical staff always need to stay professional and polite, yet they are not like emotionless husks.
As a business owner, you need to understand what professionalism means and how you must convey it.
It is not just about calling people mister or miss and talking in a language only a few can understand mostly.
It is about sending a message that you mean business when talking to someone. A lot of business owners are swaying off and becoming chill and friendly, but is that a good trend?
Let’s see why online professional identity is essential for your business.
It’s More Convenient
Even though professionalism is associated with strict sets of rules you have to follow, as a business owner, it is actually more convenient to be professional.
Just take a look at one simple example, putting your business name out there in the world.
It’s easier to have an email hosting service tailored uniquely to your brand name than to try and use regular old Gmail or something else.
Chances of your name being taken there are huge, but with unique mail hosting, it is all yours.
And the best thing is, finding the cheapest Email hosting plan is not hard to come by.
There are a lot of cheap options out there that offer you a lot of benefits that make you look professional.
Just think about the difference between when you see a legit email address and one that looks sloppy.
Good Marketing
Being professional is great for both direct and indirect marketing, again, let’s take a look at some examples.
Being chill and all that is nice when you are hanging out with friends, but when you are doing business, it is different.
You want to be professional because you want to ooze confidence in your customers to prove your legitimacy. There is a reason why crayons are not used for signing contracts.
Great fresh examples of what nonprofessional businessmen do would be Sam Bankman Fried and Alex Mashinsky.
Sam Bankman Fried presented himself as an all-around chill dude who does not care about business, and he really did not care about it.
The company went bankrupt because he was just playing a character to promote his scam. Alex Mashinsky presented himself as a friend of the people, and he also went down under bankruptcy.
Shows You care
By showing that you are professional, you are showing your target customers that you care.
You care about small details by crossing your every t and dotting every i. It is in small details and coherency that you show that your business is truly legit and stands for what it stands for.
Customers are pretty quick now to react to such detail and to call out when the detail is not there.
If you are unprofessional and take everything lightly, people will not take you seriously.
There are some businesses and occasions which require you to be less formal, there is no denying that.
Sometimes you need to be more chill and let loose, but this is more of an exception rather than a rule regarding professional online identity.
Interaction With Your Customers
Every business requires it to be digital and stay online, which brings in the good, the bad, and the ugly.
However, one thing no one can deny, it brings you to a much larger crowd of potential customers.
People will be sharing, commenting, and discussing your business online sooner or later.
A lot of businesses really have no idea how to handle these discussions and end up ruining their image in the process.
It is integral to be ready to interact with your customers properly and professionally if you want them to stay.
Another great example of not what to do as a business owner is to act like Elon Musk and be an unprofessional clown.
His latest interactions on Twitter, a platform he owns himself, have been quite embarrassing and it just shows a lack of professionalism.
Some Things Never Go Out Of Fashion
Professionalism has always been associated with doing business for very good reasons.
There is a reason why it is called corporate language and why it should stay like that. It is uncanny when a company starts acting like your friend, it is manipulative to a new level.
Businesses are not meant to be your friend, they are meant for selling something. It is better to be upfront and show that you know your corporate language, it shows that you are honest.
If your whole gimmick is to show that you are just another human like all the rest, you will not make it.
You will just be starting a cult of personality that people can see right through now. It is better to stay professional because it never goes out of fashion and it shows who you are.
Again, sometimes it is better to tone it down, but most of the time, it is better to stay professional.
Everyone knows what a suit means and everyone knows good manners when they see them.
It is important to understand the core principles of these reasons if you truly want to implement professional practices into your business.
As a business owner, it is up to you to make the standard of your business. You are the one that other employees should look up to and be the symbol of your business.
Again, this does not mean building a cult of personality and making propaganda about yourself.
It just means staying true to your words and getting those words into action, the rest will come on its own.
Even though there is a certain trend of businesses becoming more casual, this trend will not last.
It is very important to differentiate fads from real trends, but fads do not stand the test of time.
True values always come on top, it is just a matter of time before they stand victorious.
