For all of you that are setup at home. I have put together my shop in an empty airconditioned room in my house. I live in a community where we are not supposed to run public businesses from our houses. I've just been doing small orders for church youth group and some local teen bands. Now I'm fortunate enough to start getting more customers. The problem is they all want to come by to place orders and check out my shop. I really don't want strangers coming into my house with my wife or kids feeling uncomfortable.
How do you handle meeting up with potential clients without sounding unprofessional. Anyone that only takes email orders, or only makes pickup and deliveries ? I need advice.
Well, first, be careful if you're not supposed to be running a public business from home. That's a good way to lose your licensing.
Anyhow...that said, you can use that exact reason as to why customers cannot come by the shop, let them know that you run your shop from home and that local ordinances prohibit you from having walk in customers. Tell them you'll be glad to meet them at THEIR place of business or anywhere else of their choosing.
This is how I do it. I don't know for sure if I could have walk-ins or not in my community, but then, I never planned to have them either. I would much prefer if people did NOT come by my home, around my family because it's our HOME first and my place of business second. I always bring samples with me and try to meet their needs as best as I can this way.
Does it ever make postential customers wary of you not allowing them to see a physical shop ?
What assurance do you give them that you will not take their money and run?
I try to do all of my meetings with my customners at their place of business and a few do come to my home. I would rather that didn't happen but sometimes it just does.
Simply state that your production facilities are off-site and closed to the public (which technically they are by using your residence). What I used to do was use a conference room at my friend's office. I would meet corporate clients there. Look and sound professional and the rest will fall into place. Just my two cents.
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Does it ever make postential customers wary of you not allowing them to see a physical shop ?
What assurance do you give them that you will not take their money and run?
Samples, references and perhaps a website that showed off your business can help here. I work out of my house and it hasn't been an issue yet. I always offer to come out to the customer to save them time and trouble. Spin it as customer service, follow through with them and you'll be fine.
It also sounds like you're wary of letting people know you're running a shop at home. I don't know what to tell you there aside from in my experience, honesty goes a long way and I try to keep everything above board.
Most of my clients get to know me prior to any money ever changing hands. I meet with them, hand them a sample or a company tee shirt after our meeting, and we chat/email for a while about their job. Then when they're ready to buy, I collect my 50% fee and go from there. I've yet to do a job where I haven't spent time building trust before the sale.
It takes LONGER, that's for certain, but so far, it's been worth it. And I do tell them I work from a shop at home....so they'll know where to find me.
And I've found that they prefer me coming to them, it's easier to work it into their day, gives them a more "secure" feeling and it's just simpler all the way around for THEM. If you could buy your next car by having the salesman come to your house and do the deal, wouldn't you feel a little more in control than when you're sitting in an office at a dealership at their mercy?
Only the people I know really well are allowed to come to my house. Any others I make arrangements to meet them either at their business or at Starbucks across the freeway from my neighborhood. So far no one has had a problem with these arrangements.
I've been working from hoe for over 13 yrs. I explain my shop is located at my home and my insurance doesn'tcover visitors. This has only came up 1 or 2 times in all my yrs. of business.I deal with most customers by phone and Email. The customers that want to see samples of my work can,I carry samples in my vehicle and can show them. I explain my reasons for the home shop is to keep cost down and this affects their cost too. .... JB
I worked out of my home for six years before moving into a commercial space. I have a 5 bedroom home with a finished basment and I had crap everywhere. Every nook and cranny had something to do with t-shirts and printing. Never in six years did I have an issue with clients wanting to see my shop. They wanted to see samples and I carried several with me when I visited them at there place of business. Now that I am in a commercial location things are much more organized and I still do not have the problem of clients actually wanting to see the shop. I mostly supply corporate promotional items so many businesses do not have the time to stop by my office anyway but when they call they definetly want an answer.
Also, I live in a covenant community as well that restricts everything including running businesses out of your home. For the most part you can not erect a sign and too much traffic will cause a problem but from home how many customers will you have at one time anyway. Overall I do not think it will be an issue.
We have had a customer tell us they didn't want to work with us because we worked from home. But we were able to convince them to come by and sold the job.They wanted a 9-5 shop to deal with. We have our shop set up in our garage so we don't have to let people in our house and can keep things seperate.
I currently work from home and I have to say I dont have any problems with meeting my customers outside my home. I used to be in a commercial location and closed due to overhead. My business is internet based so I usually tell my customers that I am A "Internet-Based business (which I am) and it sounds better than home-based. They actually visit my site to request quotes, etc.
I must agree with a few other people that posted replies. When you meet your clients, bring samples and always be professional and you will be FINE.
Just a note: Since closing my commercial location, all my customers are NEW customers so that may tell you something. Just to think of it, I just met with a client to pick up the down payment for an order about an hour ago and the client suggested we meet at McDonalds...go figure. Be sure of yourself and your clients will also be sure of YOU. I hope this helps!
This is a good issue - I just started, and all my clients have came into my home because I knew them somewhat from other people I knew personally/ But as my business grows, i don't feel comfortable letting strangers in - i would set up an appointment to meet and bring a laptop with samples. If you sound sincere and gain trust first, they should go with it. If not, explain you are just starting and the quality of your work speaks for itself.
I find it interesting when you guys (and girls) talk about not being allowed to run your business form home, we don't have those sort of restrictions here.
I would agree with others though, carry samples and visit them, I usually do it around picking up/dropping off deliveries/stock etc anyway and just make appointments around that. Most people would rather the personal service and convienience of you coming to them, occasionally it stuffs things up for your day when they are busy and have trouble getting to you but they also really appreciate the effort you put in to "servicing" them
To those that work from home... 
Be sure of yourself and your clients will also be sure of YOU. I hope this helps!
