Using Communications To Leverage & Grow Your Small

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Using Communications To Leverage & Grow Your Small

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Internal Communication

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Internal Communication

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Internal Communication

Communication within your business is called internal communication. It includes both formal and informal communication between employees of the organization. Effective internal communications help increase productivity, profits, safety, and job satisfaction. In the presentation below I will go into detail the three types of internal communication.

A Typical Business Plan Format

A business plan is created to explain and illustrate the vision you have for your business, and to persuade others to help you achieve that vision. To accomplish this,

• Your plan will need to demonstrate, on paper, that you have a firm visualization of what your business is going to be.
• It needs to convince others that your business concept can be successful
• The plan must possess the expertise-alone or collectively-to assure that it will be both successful and profitable.

The following presentation will help you organize and format your business plan.

Three Strikes - You're Out

Every small business owner eventually faces the unpleasant task of taking disciplinary action against an employee. When faced with this challenge as a new small business owner, it is important to know the appropriate measures you may take.

Make Expectations Known
Make it clear to employees what your company's rules are and what negative actions can warrant discipline against them. If employees understand your expectations and rules, they will be more likely to follow them and uphold your standards.

Be Fair and Objective
Treat employees equally and be sure that you give at least one verbal warning, prior to taking action for discipline. If you think an employee is acting inappropriately, do your research and be sure before you approach them with the problem. Once a warning is given, allow the employee to explain their actions. It is important to hear all sides of the story.

Cover your Butt
If you determine that disciplinary action is necessary,carefully document each step you take and what is expected of the employee, to remedy the situation. Behave professionally and do not attack on a personal level. In keeping with this, make sure that confidentiality is maintained. It pays to gain a level of trust and understanding with your staff.

Writing An Effective Business Plan

A Business Plan is a formal plan prepared to serve as a tool for attracting the other components of the business formation package, including people and money. A well-developed plan can provide small business owners with a much greater chance of success and reduce your chance of failing.

Tips For Writing an Effective Business Plan

• Be Honest, not only by avoiding lies, but also by revealing what you actually feel about the aspects of the plan.
• Use third person, not the first person ("I" or "we"). This forces you to think clearly from the other person's perspective
• Use transitional words, such as but, still, and therefore, and active, dynamic verbs as a means of leading the reader from one thought to another.
• Use short, simple words, so the plan will be easy to understand and follow
• Use visuals, such as tables, charts, photos, and computer graphics to present your ideas effectively.

Remember, that your plan should be reviewed by people outside your firm, such as business consultants, attorneys and other business people, before it is sent to potential investors or lenders (Byrd & Megginson, 2009).

Turning Customer Service Inside Out!

Here are five tips for your organization to help strengthen its internal customer service orientation:

1. Employees should never complain within earshot of customers. It gives them the impression your company isn't well run, shaking their confidence in you.
2. Employees should never complain to customers about other department's employees. Who wants to patronize a company whose people don't get along with each other.
3. Employees at every level should strive to build bridges between departments. This can be done through cross training, joint picnics, parties or offsites, or creative gatherings, as well as day-to-day niceties.
4. Utilize post mortems after joint projects so everyone can learn from the experience. Fences can be mended and new understandings gleaned when everyone reviews what went right...or wrong. By doing do after the project the immediate pressure is off, yet stronger bonds can be forged while the experience is fresh in peoples' minds. Not doing so can result in lingering animosities that will exacerbate future collaborations.
5. Consider letting your employees become "Customer for a Day" to experience firsthand what your customers experience when doing business with you.

By following these steps and improving internal customer service, you will enhanced the customer service your external customers receive, which is something every customer and employee can appreciate!

Electronic Communication in the Modern World

Electronic communications have revolutionized communications in today's business world.  With the ease and efficiency of the Internet in today's modern world you will most likely need to have an operational website to compete with the competition to serve your customers at the "click of a button".  You will be communicating with your customers, suppliers and employees with electronic communications.  

It is now commonplace for people in company's to use e-mail to communicate rather than by telephone.  You will need to define policy within your business on how you will manage and review the use of electronic communications to satisfy your employees, suppliers, customer and legal requirements.  Here are some tips for your small business when mandating an electronic communication policy:

• Establish privacy clause that will ensure the safety of both information about your customers and employees.

• Make sure your employees know the legal rights when using company computers.

• Define what types of communication are suitable within your business.

• Establish a policy that prohibits certain items that your employees may not partake in on company computers.

• Monitor the use of all electronic communications for abuse and legality.

With these tips in hand you will be able to establish the groundwork for electronic communication of your business.  Keep in mind that the ever-changing technology in today's modern would will require you to evolve the policies over time.

How to Create a Buzz About Your Small Business

When you’re launching a new marketing campaign for a product or service, one of the most important factors is to get your name out there and get people talking about your business. In order to accomplish this, you have to abandon generic marketing ideas and employ a buzzworthy strategy to increase your business’ visibility. After aligning your company goals and your message with your marketing strategy, you can begin to create buzz about your product or service by using the following three guidelines.

• Make your business stand out - it sounds simple in theory, but it is the most important part of grabbing customers’ attention (ie, creative ads)
  

• Tap into areas related to your product/service - an example would be participating in an electronics forum or running a banner on an electronics site if your business offered electronic products

• Get your product to consumers so they can experience it - create an opportunity for consumers to get an up-close look at your product/service or allow them to sample/test it

Using these strategies should help you to create a buzz about your small business. Remember that using new and creative ideas is always a key to increasing your small business’ exposure and getting consumers buzzing about your business!

Training for Success

Once your small business is up and running and you have hired employees, you will need to implement an employee training plan. The best approach is one of continuous development. It is good to deliver small pieces of information on a frequent basis. Some business owners may hold weekly training sessions, others may be monthly, while others may be quarterly. Whichever approach you decide to take, here are some tips for making your training seminars a success.

• Use various training methods: it is nice to change the way new information is delivered to cater to different learning styles and keep things interesting

• Try not to overwhelm your trainees with new information: keep the sessions manageable and low stress by focusing on just one or two topics

• Use a constructive approach: clearly state any problems without pointing fingers and clearly state the solution

• Be creative with the topics: you could hire an instructor to teach time management techniques, or enroll employees in an online training course to learn the new software you hope to implement

• Be patient and understanding: try to envision where your employees are and what they are capable of

• Don’t expect immediate results: it takes time to pick up new skills and repetition is key

These pointers should help you when thinking about ways to make your training seminars a success, and ultimately make your small business more successful.

A Successful Mission Statement

A business's mission statement defines the present business scope and broadly describes the organization's present capibilities, focus, and activities. It is concerned with broad concepts such as the firm's image, with the basic services the firms plans to perform, and with the long-term financial success. Once set missions are rarely revised.

Result-Oriented Objectives

A clear definition of your mission enables you to design results-oriented objectives and strategies. They include:

• Finance Objectives
• Marketing Objectives
• Production Objectives
• Management Objectives
• Human Resource Management Objectives
• Legal Objectives

A good mission statement defines exactly the identity of your business and allows all of your planning to flow from it. It is important to have a mission statement and major objectives that will interrelate and provide guidance for a cohesive and meaningful organizational structure (Byrd & Megginson, 2009).

How to Deal With Customer Complaints for the Small Business Owner

Most Customers want to be heard when they have a complaint and the best way of dealing with this situation is to learn from what the customer has to say.

L.E.A.R.N. is an acronym, with 5 easy steps to follow:

LISTEN - Listen carefully to your customer. Don't interrupt or tell the customer to calm down, this will only ignite the anger.

EMPATHIZE - Feel the pain of the customer, and tell her that you can understand how they feel.

APOLOGIZE - Apologize to the customer, even if you feel that you have no part in the problem. Do not blame the customer, but there is no need to take the blame yourself!

REACT - Decide what you will do to resolve the problem, and tell this to the customer.
NOW! - Do not delay. Take immediate action! The longer you wait, the harder it is to produce outstanding customer service. - WILLIAM H. DAVIDOW
(http://www.customerservicepoint.com/handle-customer-complaints.html)

If these steps are followed correctly, you and the customer can go on with a happy and productive business relationship as well as now having a customer who knows you care about their problems and not just their money!

Listening: The Key to Successful Communication

As an owner of a small business you will be communicating on a daily basis with both your employees and the customers who will be purchasing your products of service.  Communication is a vital aspect of running a successful business.  Many people in management positions struggle with communication because of poor listening skills.  Your mind will always be cluttered with thoughts and concerns about your business, but the most important thing when having a conversation you will need to stay focused on the conversation and only the conversation.  

    Tips on Improving Listening Skills

• Do maintain eye contact
• Do imitate the body language of the speaker
• Do lean forward and show interest
• Don't multi-task when listening 
• Don't interrupt

Another tip is to use reflective listening when communicating.  This form of listening summarizes what the person has shared and asks for a response.  It reassures the person that you are in fact not only listening, but you are also paying attention to the content that is being told.  With these strategies in hand your communication skills will drastically improve along with your business in the end.

Principles for Motivating Your Employees

One of the best ways to improve your small business is through motivating your employees successfully. No business can rise to the top without strong and motivated employees. You can do this by using incentives to improve employee morale and employee performance. In the following list I provide basic principles for motivating your employees.

• Motivate employees by being enthusiastic and optimistic - these characteristics are contagious

• Interact with your employees often - understanding their needs and concerns goes a long way

• Appreciate a job well done - employees will remember this and strive to continue their performance

• Provide pay incentives occasionally - employees will strive for excellence when compensated accordingly

• Align employee goals with organizational goals - this provides a road map for employees to improve

All of these tips for motivating employees are a step in the right direction for increasing your employees’ performance. Remember that employee motivation begins with you creating opportunities for them to be motivated.

Creating Your Company's Correspondence Guidelines

As a new small business owner, it is important to set guidelines for your company's correspondence. The following presentation will help you get started with creating standards for your memos and letters.

Creating Your Companys Correspondence Guidelines

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