For some work from home business owners, one of the main problems they face is appearing professional in the eyes of customers and suppliers. Whilst home business ventures are no less merit-worthy than those based out of offices, there is still a certain stigma attached that home business owners must shake if they are to run a serious and profitable enterprise. This can often be easier said than done, particularly if you are doing business in a market that's full of larger, more 'professional' rivals.

However, by embracing your business status and understanding how you can avoid appearing unprofessional to others, you should be able to grow your home business to a comfortable level.

The first problem encountered by people working from home is how to overcome their residential address. Some mailing addresses are obviously residential, no matter how you try to cloak them. This sometimes appears unprofessional to larger clients and certainly can have an impact on the way your business performs.

Of course, you may be lucky (or unlucky!) and live on a notable commercial street or within a business district of your local town which might allow your address to come across as more business-like. If this isn't the case, a good, low cost way around this is to opt for a mailbox service. These are usually provided by special mail handling companies that have prime locations to collect mail for this specific purpose. The mailboxes usually cost around £30 per month for prime addresses, and you can also have mail forwarded directly to your home address.

By having addresses in major cities which all forward to your home address you can also give your business the appearance of being a large national company.

Another obvious potential problem is your phone number. While it's perfectly OK to have a local landline number, you don't want your family answering the phone to business customers, and you certainly don't want to advertise a mobile number as the means of contact for professional reasons. A good way around this is to install a second phone line with call forwarding facilities, and to purchase an additional phone located within your home office that is set up only to handle business calls. So long as this phone line and phone number is reserved exclusively for your business customers, there can never be any confusion as to who is phoning and for what purpose, allowing you to appear more professional overall.

Home businesses are now becoming commonplace as when most individuals give up employment to go it alone they tend to start out using their own home as a base in the beginning. This reduces operating costs, travel hassles, and allows for the most flexibility possible in starting up the business. By working around the obvious problems associated with your mailing address, and taking the time to install separate phone lines and work around any of the more apparent problems you might encounter, it is still possible to give the appearance of being a larger business and avoid the normal stigma associated with working from home whilst still saving money not having to rent expensive office space in the town.