DEVELOPING YOUR PROFESSIONAL IMAGE “Even a hare will bite when it is cornered." - Chinese Proverb
INTRODUCTION When you go into business for yourself, image is very important. Your professional image affects your reputation. Your reputation affects the number of clients you'll be able to attract. The number and the quality of the clients you attract will affect your success as a nutrition and fitness professional. The image you project on the phone, in your advertising, on your web site, and in your transactions with clients will directly influence the success of your practice. While your practice will always retain your personal touch, there are a few general guidelines and suggestions you can observe to help project a positive and respectable image to your clients and other business associates.
Be Courteous and Professional on the Phone. Project confidence, sincerity, honesty, and fairness to all who call. Your answering machine should also project confidence, sincerity, honesty, and fairness. Pay attention to your voice and make sure it is controlled and comfortable.
Make a Good First Impression. Anyone you meet is a potential client. You never know when you're going to gain another clients. So keep your antenna up. Make sure everyone you meet is favorably impressed with you. This means you need to make sure you are personable, helpful, attentive, and concerned about your prospect's needs or problems. Dress for success. Pay attention to our voice. Make sure you web site gets a favorable review from several colleagues before you launch your site. Your billboard for advertising who you are, what you can do and how well you can do it. Your professional image should be a genuine expression of who you are and the expression should be appropriate to the situation, environment or culture in which you are functioning. Professionals are adjudged by the way they present themselves. A poor image is self defeating - it affects your performance. Show how you value your self and respect others.
Strive for Excellence. Deliver when you say you will. Deliver more than you promised. Charge what you said you'd charge. Don't cut corners on quality. Spellcheck everything. Constantly strive to improve your product. Innovate. Look for new ways to do things better and/or faster. Package your products professionally. Differentiate yourself with a high-quality product and unsurpassed service. These are the foundation for the growth of a sterling reputation.
Set up your Sationery. Present a professional image by using professional stationery. Have your business cards, letterhead, envelopes, etc. designed at the same time. You can use a logo to help your clients identify with your quality services. You might consider using special paper printed with your logo and other information for use in printing your reports, invoices, statements, etc. Make sure you include contact information on your stationery so your clients can always contact you when they need to.
Set Your Working Hours. Consider indicating your hours of operation in your stationery and advertising. Letting people know when you're "open" makes them far more understanding when they get your answering machine during your non-business hours. Be available during your working hours or have phone coverage when you're in session or otherwise unavailable. You may well have to work more than your posted work hours... there are lots of rules for success, but none of them work unless you do.
Set Up Your Answering Machine or Answering Service. The message (and voice) your clients and prospects hear should represent you as professionally. Consider indicating your hours of operation in your message. Returns calls promptly. Leave a different message to indicate extended unavailability such as holidays or vacations. Some answering machines make this convenient by allowing you to store more than one out-going message.
Set up Your Advertising. Work with a professional to design a professional "look and feel" for your advertisements. Advertising need not be expensive or lavish. Start out with free or low-cost ads and work your way up as you see them bringing you results.
Set Up Your Professional Web Presence. If you're running a small nutritionrelated business, you should have a web presence. There's really no good excuse anymore. The technology you need (an image editor and the HTML markup language) are simple. And consider this: your competitors are working night and day in an effort to take your existing customers away. And to make matters even worse, your own customers are actively surfing the Web and looking for these new services. Setting up a Web presence is vitally important.
HOW TO START Begin with your attitude.! One of curiosity - use your senses to take in data and use your mind to interpret those data. You must be open - open to new ways of looking at your self and the world, to your own potentials, to taking risks and trying things, to what others can give you and letting go of old perceptions that no longer fit.
Willingness to tolerate your own ambivalence - being authentic (to express who you are) and appropriate ( having that expression fit in to your business environment). Having fun and adventure - this is a journey of knowing yourself better.
IMPROVING YOUR IMAGE Internal
Improve Attitude--Be curious, open, and adventurous. Have fun. Like your self, feel comfortable with your self.
Professional image is a composite of three perceptions : the way you see yourself from the inside, looking out; the way others see yourself from the outside looking in and the way you wish to see yourself and be seen. YOUR GOAL: the way you wish to see yourself and be seen. External Clear mental picture of who you would like to be, realistic, achievable, observable,measurable. Identify role models. Study differences between the real image and ideal image. What do you have to change? Change the tangible things people observe about you. Elements of Image
Form – size and shape. Face – communication center.
Fee.
Sound.
Touch.
Smell.
Taste.
Appearance
Hair – How long? What style? What color? Face –Find outstanding features, Check expression.
For women:
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What is the effect of your make up?
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What parts of the face it emphasizes or plays down? For men:
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Clean shaven or a mustache or a beard?
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How does it make you look? Body
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Tall or short
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Slender or solid.
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How does your clothes fit you? o
FOR MEN: Make sure your shirt fits properly, avoid ties with large patterns, go for subtle and symmetrical patterns with no more than four colors, be sure your shoes are well-polished and your socks patterns are understated.
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FOR WOMEN: Stay away from frills or large complicated patterns, avoid things that make visual or mental noise , keep neat haircut, avoid skirt hems that creep too far above the knees. What is your posture?
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Relaxed or formal? Flamboyant or conservative?
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What colors do you have? How does colors look on you?
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How they make you feel?
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Sound
Pitch and inflexion of your voice. Loud or soft. Your accent.
Fast or slow.
Words you use.
Pleasing voice to hear?
Movement
Stride purposefully or glide effortlessly. With authority or with grace.
Dealing with People
Body language. Expression of your face.
Tone of your voice.
Alert or relaxed.
On guard or at ease.
Environment
How does it look? Furniture and décor.
Do you fit it in the room?
Are you comfortable.
Can you concentrate on your work?
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS IN THE INTERVIEW
Give a brief description of yourself. What is your vision of yourself in five years? Ten Years?
Give your strength; your weaknesses.
What can you contribute to the organization?
What is your perception of the job? The organization?
Do you have any questions? Clarifications?
Four Possible Directions
Rise in Your Organization. KEY CONCEPT: MENTOR Jump to Another Job. KEY CONCEPT: NETWORK Shift to Another Career. KEY CONCEPT: TRANSFER SKILLS. Go Out on Your Own. KEY CONCEPT: CONTINUOUS LEARNING
