I hope you find my writing and business tips and observations useful. My business and blog are dedicated to helping businesses communicate clearly and reach their potential.
Read, subscribe to my newsletter, enjoy!Tash
Communicating with suppliers
In a business context, most people think of clear communications in terms of their customers. But it is also important to communicate well with your suppliers.
For instance, someone I know recently ended a project because his client gave him insufficient and contradictory information. This client had prepared a brief but work done to match that brief was rejected!
Obviously communication is a two-way thing but if you make your needs straight forward it is more likely a supplier will give you what you want.
1. specify anything mandatory – e.g the logo must always be on a white background or the newsletter must be ready by the 1st of each month
2. explain your ideas – a rough sketch is ok as long as it is labelled
3. avoid jargon unless you are sure the supplier understands it the same way you do – that includes using their jargon if you aren’t sure of it yourself!
4. write or talk as if they are a customer – clearly, concisely and politely.
Have you had client projects where poor communications made the project a dreaded chore instead of challenging and interesting?
Personal or professional development
I remember some years ago, all employers had to provide training for all of their employees. Yes, some employers and employees didn’t take it seriously and some silly courses may have been undertaken, but I still like the concept of people constantly learning.
As an employer, training staff means they are learning and growing so will be able to their jobs better, and they will respect and value the fact that you care enough to provide such training.
Kylie at Tilda Virtual wrote about the importance of setting a training/development goal and sticking to it, and asked what our goals are in this area for 2008.
To be honest, I haven’t developed a training plan as such for myself. I am going to the Business Mums Conference in July, I read business blogs/magazines/blogs/articles when I can, and I look out at networking and other business events for ones that are relevant to me. Oh, and I am working towards my certificate IV in business (frontline management) and certificate IV in leadership support later in the year, although that has more to do with being a cub leader than a business owner!
Of course, the information I learn about each client, their business and sometimes their industry is development for me, too, but much harder to plan (who knows what industry my next new client will work in!) and not always directly transferable to other work I do.
But there has never been a rule that says business owners must provide training and development opportunities for themselves… And yet this is the group who probably has to cope with the largest number of tasks in different areas.
Kylie has me thinking now, so I will make some time to think of what skills I can and will develop this year. I know I won’t put a huge amount of time into training this year with a baby on the way, client work and family commitments!
How about you? Have you planned any personal development this year? Have you timetabled for it so it won’t slip aside when more urgent tasks arise?
He isn’t a good start
As much as possible, avoid starting any sentence with a pronoun*. Sometimes the pronoun will clearly refer to one person, but often the pronoun is confusing so it is safest to avoid it.
I recently read the following in a book: “As Linda came back into the room, she saw Claire was back from lunch. She smiled at Marie then called Bill.” The question is, who smiled at Marie and rang Bill? The author meant Linda but grammatically the ‘she’ of the second sentence is Claire.
In business writing, that sort of confusion could lead to misunderstandings about who was to do certain tasks, or just annoy the reader so they will take their business elsewhere. Use a name or title to start a sentence for clarity.
*For the sake of clear communication, a pronoun is a word that can be used instead of a noun – for example, she, he and it are common pronouns.
New category…
I have come to realise that there are two groups of people writing for business – those who are ready for technical knowledge and those who need more help with the basics of writing and grammar. Most of my blog so far has been aimed at those with a certain level of knowledge, rather than helping those (usually sole traders and particularly WAHMs and WAHDs) who need information about the basics to present themselves in the best light.
So, I am adding a new category called “basic grammar and writing” where I can include an occasional post about topics that may seem more obvious, but are critical for good English and a professional presentation. For those who need this, I hope it helps you! And please ask about any specific topics you want to know about.
Just giving out cards does not work
I have just been reading part of the Small Business Diva blog where she wrote about networking, and her 6th point reminded me of a networking breakfast I attended a month or so ago.
Donna-Marie wrote ” When at networking events, don’t try to talk to everyone there and shove as many business cards as possible into everyone’s hands nor push your products/services on people. ” And I couldn’t agree more. Networking is about building relationships, not getting your name in front of the maximum number of people.
At the breakfast I attended, I happened to sit next to a man who didn’t tell me his name or show much interest in talking to me (his choice, and it doesn’t bother me!) However, as he stood up to leave he handed a business card to everyone within reach, said good-bye and left. He still didn’t say his name or use mine (I had introduced myself).
The end result? I left his card on the table and he gained nothing from handing it to me.
Compare that to others I have met at networking events where we have swapped cards and later exchanged emails and possibly helped each other in some way, even if we never used each others’ services.
So don’t go to networking events with the aim to hand out heaps of cards; reserve your cards for the people you click with or who specifically ask for a card or information about your services.
Walking out of a networking event with two or three, or even one, good contact is a great feeling – and a successful event.
Who reads a media release?
Unlike a lot of business writing I do, media releases are not written for the end user.
What does that mean? Well, usually if I write some webcopy, an article or a flyer, I write it in a way that appeals to the consumer of that business. So I would write words to the effect of ‘this will solve your problem’.
With a media release, I am writing to a journalist or other media person who may or may not be part of the business’ target audience. Of course, I am writing to the journalist but in a way that will appeal to their readers/viewers/listeners. So it is usually written in the third person such as ‘this will solve the problem for your readers’
Aiming a media release at your target market won’t work; it needs to catch a journalist’s attention and then be used as the basis of their article. Think of it this way – if you read a company’s website or flyer, you expect them to use ‘you’, ‘your’, and so forth; when you read a newspaper article, it will be one step removed and will not refer to ‘you’ at all.
Fear – the biggest time waster!
You might think surfing the web, playing games online or deleting spam are some of the biggest time wasters in your business, but I suggest that fear may actually be the biggest waste of all.
Think about it – if you fear making cold calls, you will suddenly find time to tidy your desk, sort emails and check links on your website! Or fear of a big project may make you procrastinate submitting your application, so much so that you do a rushed job and miss out.
Fear means we don’t get tasks done, and they stay in our minds so we can’t focus 100% on other tasks either. Although I don’t always do it myself, lol, I believe that the things we fear in business are the things we need to do NOW so we can get passed them. That doesn’t mean we won’t be scared of them next time they come around, but maybe we’ll know we can survive them!
As Michelle says in her ShelDesign blog,“if we let fear control our actions, it WILL steal our dreams.” And losing our dreams is a huge waste of our time.
How do you manage fear in your business? Do you find fear of failure or fear of success to be a bigger issue for you?
Christmas already!
Can you believe I just received an email about Christmas? And it’s only mid March!
Ok, it was a request to fill in a survey about Christmas in your business – a survey where the answers will be used to provide information to magazine readers preparing for Christmas. So it is reasonable to mention Christmas this early, but it still shocked me!
But it does raise the question – how soon do you plan for major events in your business? Not just Christmas, but Easter, change of seasons, new financial year, awareness weeks and so on that are relevant to your business in some way.
Qualify your statements
In business, there is a hope that in some way we can be the biggest and best so that clients will come flocking to us. And some businesses give into that temptation and make claims that are not exactly accurate, or even true.
Too much hype just makes people switch off, and being caught out in a lie or false claim does not build am image of professionalism or integrity. In other, these behaviours do not build a strong business foundation.
So before you make any claims, be sure they are accurate and that you have checked them out.
Be very careful using terms such as ‘best’, ‘most popular’, ‘biggest seller’ and so on unless you have statistics and research to back up your claims.
If you say you are the first – don’t just check that no one else has done it before, check that your wording makes it clear what no one else has done before. For instance, saying I run the first business directory in Australia is not quite the same as saying I run the first online business directory in Australia. Likewise, there may be two interpretations of some words – online support could mean forums, a mail group, an information site, chat room discussions or some combination of the lot. So you may be the first online forum but not the first online support group.
And remember, it isn’t just to maintain your image and integrity – if you stray too far from the facts, you may face legal issues, too.
Business Mums Conference
Last year I was fortunate enough to attend the first Business Mums Network Conference. I presented a workshop and in a forum at the conference, as well as being an attendee at other sessions, and found the entire weekend beneficial.
This year’s conference is a bit earlier so I have just finished a proposal to present again at this year’s workshop – I have already registered to attend anyway! I should find out later this month if my proposal was accepted so I will let you know what I am speaking about (I proposed more than one topic.)
If you can be in Melbourne in for 12 – 13 July for the conference, please make sure you meet me!
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