How to Make Your Image More Professional
Designing Your Business Communication
People are constantly observing your behavior and making judgments about you, and if you’re a business owner or manager, your professional business image is very important to the success of your business.
What, exactly, is your business image? Your professional image is the set of characteristics you possess that indicate your level of competence; it is the set of qualities by which others will judge you. Your desired business image and perceived business image may be very different. Your desired professional image is what you want to portray to 
others while your perceived professional image is what they actually do think of you. It is important to keep in mind some strategies for how to make your image more professional.
Have you heard of “impression management”? If not, you may want to read a little bit about it to make your image more professional. Impression management strategies enable you to work on your business image by evaluating non-verbal behavior 
such as your appearance and demeanor, verbal cues such as tone and rate of speech, and demonstrative acts such as your job performance and general public behavior. Successful impression management can advance your career, improve customer satisfaction, improve relationships with staff and coworkers and provide a more fulfilling work experience over all.
Here are some steps you can take to make your image more professional:
- Identify characteristics and competencies that you want people to associate with you and decide what social identity you want to communicate.
- Assess how others currently perceive you.
- Decide whether or not you are able to change your business image, and are the benefits of changing your image worth the costs?
- Monitor your own behavior and monitor other people’s perceptions of your behavior.
The PaperDirect blog has posts about business strategy and how to market your business, and we are also your one-stop business supply shop for everything you need to get your business started including business cards, brochures, and postcards.