The Small Business Communicator

As the proprietor of a small business, you have probably read your share of resources on marketing. Have you thought about the way you communicate with employees, colleagues, and customers? How you talk to people both verbally and nonverbally results in positive or negative impacts on your business relationships. Start your journey to better communication with these four ideas.

1: Are you a good listener? Listening is an important skill that matters as much as what you say in business communications. If you are not familiar with the patterns of human communication, read how people send messages (encoding) and receive messages (decoding) at HumanResourcesOnline.net. As you improve your understanding of communication, teach yourself to focus clearly on what people say before you respond.

2: Do you make each person who walks into your establishment feel important? Treating every business contact as your equal and the object of your respect builds your reputation. Remember, you never know who will refer friends and family to your business based on a positive interaction with you.

3: Do you maintain good relationships with your staff? Because your employees are the lifeblood of your company, how you interact with them is important. After you evaluate the quality of personal communications with each person, focus on developing the weakest relationships first. If you can win distant employees to your side, enjoy watching them transform into better contributors to the company.

4: Do you use technology to improve your communication with customers? For example, web-based tools like blogs, email, Twitter, and social networking sites offer free options for reaching your customers. If you find your A-game in face-to-face communication, turn your attention to becoming a more effective writer.

Small business owners often overextend themselves in the daily operations of a private enterprise. Remember to bring high quality and attention to your written and verbal communications. If you neglect this area of your business, you will miss out on a free opportunity to grow your business.

Author: Angela Baca