Is your invoice template making your business look like a joke? Here’s what to do

 Appearances are everything, even in business. If you are perceived to be an expert in your field, people will respect your opinion, you can charge more and you will be in more demand.

Of course, you need to deliver excellently because that is the proof of all that you say about yourself.

But even when you deliver an excellent service, appearances are important. Delivering excellently alone won’t help you get very far if you are failing in the appearance department.

Imagine you have a huge garden badly in need of timing you are right home one day to find that it’s all trimmed and beautifully landscaped and you immediately demand to know who the skilled garderner behind this work is, so that you can hire him to tend to the upkeep of your gardens from now on.

Upon your request, the gardener turns up and he turns out to be hideous, unkempt, smelly, and worse.

What do you do?

It’s very hard to overcome our natural instincts and reason with logic when we are repulsed in some way about the situation.

Just like you wouldn’t buy cheaper from your enemy, because you don’t like him, you pass up on great service from somebody you feel repulsed by.

This is just the way of things.

Suffice it to say that appearances matter.

In fact, appearances can make or break a business.

How to arrive at where you want to be: a useful timelines of goals and events

Here’s a simply blueprint of doing things in the right order when it comes to your business:

  1. Focus first on getting the skill set and the tools you need to perform excellently
  2. Master performing excellently
  3. Focus on your appearance: in other words, your professionalism.
  4. Repeat 1 and 2. It’s part of a cycle that never ends.

One thing most small business owners have in common is that – lacking in the resources department – things have to be learnt and implemented quickly.

One area where I see this happen all the time is in invoicing. More specifically, with the invoice template.

I also made this mistake. I spent the time, effort and money on aquiring the skill set necessary to perform excellently in one area of my field. I then mastered my skill so I could deliver excellent results in this one area. 

Eager to set up quickly, I chose MS Excel as my invoicing software, chose a standard template and created my own logo.

I then moved on, having ticked this area.

Starting off in business is hard enough, especially for the first time, and things can get costly. Setting up a very simple and basic invoicing system is just fine. But you have to make a note to return to this system and review it at a later stage, when you are performing excellently, because failing to do so means failing to create an excellent impression.

Well, you can assume a lot about somebody’s company based on how their invoice looks.

If your invoices can be created by a 12-year-old with access to excel, then you failed the test. All your great service will be overshadowed by your tacky finishing touches.
People generally remember the worst bits.

What to do to fix this

If you haven’t done so already, make it at rarity to review your invoicing system – or more to the point, how your invoices look.

 It doesn’t cost you much, and give your business you have no excuse not to look professional. 

Is your invoice template ‘nice’?

Subjectivity aside, does your invoice template look crap? Does it look like a 12 year old put it together in a rush? If so, invest in a professional template or shift things up a gear and invest in some simple invoicing software that produces a nice, easy to read invoice.

The bottom line

Delivering excellent results and looking good whilst doing it is the key to creating a powerful positive impression.

When you are easy to deal with, produce the work fast and deliver an excellent service and support, your client will be pleased.

When your professional invoice arrives, your client will be reminded of how excellent you are and what a joyful experience it is to deal with you.
It’s this kind of result that creates a viral effect with word-of-mouth and personal recommendations from your happy clients.

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