The business world is highly competitive, and competing against well-established brands may seem like an impossible task in the early days as a small start-up corporation. As such, you may be fearful of being overlooked in an already overcrowded market and fail to secure loyal customers that keep your business afloat.
In this regard, it’s essential to give your business the professional edge to prove to clients that your brand is reliable, expert, and, most importantly, on par with some of the biggest corporations on the market.
Here are some simple ways to make your business appear more professional:

Have a business website

A website acts as your business’s public image to an online audience.

With the majority of businesses now pushing for global customers, those without a website may instantly ring alarm bells in a customer’s mind. Before purchasing from you, they may wish to get an insight into your company’s backstory and reviews to ensure that you’re trustworthy and reputable.

It is easy to create a basic website using platforms such as WordPress, but it would be well worth investing the money in a professionally built and designed site that can be achieved with godaddy website builder. It is not just about being user-friendly but the quality of images and content you include on each page. The more professional your website looks, the more likely you will influence new customers to take action.

Have professional photographs taken

Whenever customers contact or purchase from a business, they are keen to know the people behind the brand. Whether creating an ‘About Us’ on your website or setting up LinkedIn profiles for your staff, you would be advised to use professional headshots of your employees by booking a Chicago corporate photographer. Company images show a more human side to your brand, which goes a long way toward the success of any business.

Be consistent with branding

Branding is the way in which a company visually expresses itself to the public so that it becomes instantaneously identifiable. There will always be businesses that offer the same products and services that you do, so it’s about defining yourself against the competition.

Don’t take your eye off the ball when it comes to delivering coherent branding. This may include using a solid tone of voice, use of color, and values and culture.

Set up a business domain email address

Have you ever emailed a business with a generalized domain, such as @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com? The likelihood is that you questioned the corporation’s authority, and it made you second-guess whether to go ahead with a purchase. Although you may use a general domain to get your business up and running, do not rely on it once your company starts to grow. Change your domain to reflect your brand name, as it can give the impression of a larger and more established company. An email domain can easily be changed by using a standard web hosting platform.

California lures scores of people every year. After all, the Golden State has plenty going for it, including lovely weather and an overall good quality of life. But you’re going to pay a pretty penny to live there. That’s just a fact. Add to that an inflationary economy that’s still reeling from the pandemic, and many residents are in trouble.

The good news is that there are legal protections in place that govern how debt collectors can try to get you to pay up. Keep reading for debtors rights in California.

The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA)

The FDCPA is a federal law under which debt collectors must conduct themselves in a certain way while attempting to collect on a debt you purportedly owe.

The law covers agencies that are collecting debts for another person or entity, and sometimes debt buyers.

Among other things, the Act:

* Requires collectors to cease contacting you if you ask them in writing not to. Note that this doesn’t absolve you of the debt, however.
* Regulates the time of a day a collector can contact you.
* Prohibits debt collectors from using unfair and deceptive tactics to get you to pay. It also bars them from using abusive, profane, intimidating, or threatening language in their business dealings with you.

The Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

Californians are also protected by the Rosenthal FDCPA, which pertains to even more kinds of collectors and provides extra protections. If you live in California and a collector breaches the Rosenthal Act, your options include filing a complaint, suing the collector, or using their transgressions as leverage in debt settlement.

The difference between the federal debt collection law and California’s law is that the former doesn’t apply to original creditors – just collectors and debt buyers. By contrast, the California law does cover original creditors. This is important as residents increasingly seek debt consolidation in California to deal with mounting financial woes. It’s simply a fact that, these days, debt consolidation companies in California are plenty busy.

Specifically, the term “debt collector” under the Rosenthal Act includes:

* Collectors
* Original creditors
* Those who collect consumer debts for a living
* Those who produce and sell letters, forms, and other materials to be used for debt collection

Note that collection lawyers in the state must comply with the Rosenthal Act as well as some planks of the federal law. Also under the Rosenthal law, a debt collector must tell you if the statute of limitations has passed for a certain debt.

What Collectors Cannot Do Under Rosenthal

In California, a collector may not:

* Threaten to garnish your wages, seize assets, or threaten to arrest you. In most situations, a collector must first file suit against you garner a judgment.
* Wrongly threaten to forward the debt to another person and inform you that you have no recourse.
* Make derogatory statements about your indebtedness to other people or threaten to do so.
* Attempt to intimidate you by telling you that not paying your debt means you’re a criminal.
* Use or threaten to use criminal tactics or physicality to hurt you, your assets, or your reputation.

Ultimately, debtors rights in California shield you from a plethora of activities when it comes to debt collection. If you’re not in that situation yet but are close to it, you may need debt settlement, a strategy that may allow you to pay your creditors less than what you owe. We recommend enlisting the help of Freedom Debt Relief.