3 min read · Written by Grant Rayner on 09 Mar 2023
Share by emailOne fear you may have of being an independent security professional is the fact that you won’t be taken seriously. Particularly in comparison to the larger and more established security companies. It’s common for people to attempt to compensate for this supposed weakness by trying to appear more professional. Unfortunately, being more professional tends to equate to being more corporate.
When considering your professional presence, there are two factors to consider. The first is your knowledge and experience, and how that knowledge and experience translates into high quality products and services that are useful and companies will be willing to pay for. This is the foundation of your business. The second factor is how your company might appear to others, particularly people that don’t know you and may not be aware of your knowledge and experience. This factor is relatively superficial, but still important if you want to attract clients.
People have differing views of what a ‘professional business’ looks like. As a result, there’s a tendency for small companies to try to appear ‘corporate’. Being ‘corporate’ does not necessarily translate to being professional. The fact is that your clients won’t care how corporate you are. They just want you to deliver high quality services for the money they’re paying you.
At the same time, first impressions count. There’s also a minimum ‘threshold’ you meet to be considered ‘in business’. You’ll find it challenging to win contracts with major companies if you’re using your personal email address and bank account.
So, as an independent security professional, there’s value in establishing a presence that is sufficiently professional to attract potential clients, without being unnecessarily corporate.
At a minimum, you’ll need the following in place to establish a viable and professional business presence:
That’s all you need to establish a professional presence.
Of course, there are other requirements to set up a business which I’ll cover in more detail later. But for now, this is the foundation and it should be your starting point.
Most of the requirements listed above can be set up in a few days. A week max.
Your website should be hosted on your company’s domain (www.yourcompany.com). Use the same domain for your email. I’ll expand on options to set up your website and email accounts in a later article.
Some of these requirements are interdependent. For example, you’ll require a physical address for company registration, domain name registration and company documents (invoices etc). Always use a business address rather than your home address. You can get a business address by using a virtual office (i.e., Regus) or by using your accountant’s office address.
Let’s move on to look at a few things you don’t need to worry about when you’re first setting up.
At the start, don’t worry about fancy logos or business cards. You also don’t need an office phone number. You can provide your mobile number to clients where needed. Typically, you’ll interact with clients via email or video call, sometimes by message (e.g., WhatsApp or Signal).
You need to have a website, because it confirms to any prospective client that your company does indeed exist. However, don’t overthink your first website. Certainly don’t invest significant amounts of time and money trying to build a complex website at the start. Instead, create a single-page website that details your products and services and includes a contact form. You can build on this website later once you have a clearer concept for your products and services.
You also don’t need to prepare business templates, such as proposal or invoice templates, in advance. Wait until you actually need to issue a proposal or invoice, then use this first document as a template for future documents. Your templates will evolve and improve over time. But don’t waste time at the beginning trying to design pretty templates.
You definitely don’t need an office. An office is a massive and completely unnecessary expense. The reality is that you’ll be meeting clients at their office, not yours. It’s also likely you’ll be spending quite a lot of your time travelling. Even a shared office arrangement (e.g., Regus, WeWork etc) is an unnecessary expense (unless you have a non-conducive home office environment).
Your sole priority at the start is to win your first few contracts (or sell your first few products). If you decide to ‘beautify’ your business at the start, you’ll end up focused inwards. Sure, it’s fun to design logos, business cards and templates, but they won’t earn you revenue. At the start, your focus must be on what’s actually important: selling services, delivering value to your clients, and earning money in the process.
An important skill to develop early on is to see yourself and your company as your clients do. By doing so, you’ll quickly realise what’s important from the perspective of your clients. That’s what matters.
In summary, don’t rush to adopt a corporate persona for your business. You can establish a professional presence by incorporating a company, purchasing a domain name, and setting up a website and work email account. That’s pretty much all you need to appear professional. The rest of it will come down to actual delivery.
This is the way.