“Words are nothing compared to when said with an expression”
Communicating effectively here is not about your ability to deliver a perfect pitch but its a process which requires severe measures set in other to attain objectives with prospective customers /audience within the business and outside the business. Communication is a ubiquitous aspect of a business, it is more than just understandably sharing thoughts and ideas but requires a need for two way flow of ideas both inwards and outwards. Communicating effectively does not just increase sales of product or services but strengthens communication between an entrepreneur and the public. It is therefore essential for entrepreneurs with large business organizations to see the vital need for communication in which research has shown 75% of successful businessmen engage in oral and written communication to their publics.
For an entrepreneur, there is a need to understand that communication is not effective if there are no similar or common grounds between parties and so it is vital to ensure that before communication is processed, there should be an understanding of the nature of the audience/public receiving the communication such as culture, language, literacy level and social range in other for the effectiveness of message about a business of product and services.
Entrepreneurs with different forms and level of corporations involving large number of people and various hierarchies often have struggles in relations to communicating effectively within and outside their audiences due to the fact that little is done to relating first with those within than those outsides. The same is with start-up entrepreneur who pays little attention to the audience close than those far.
For the fact that employees relate with the various audiences/customers at different levels like the marketers, managers and ambassadors, they have direct contact with the community members, opinion leaders etc which make them prone to disseminating positive message about the employer and the organization. Whatever way one looks at it, employees wield influence on the fortune of an organization. Therefore, no matter the size of an organization, whether big or small, whatever the nature of the business it does, either commercial or non-commercial, in as much as it has people working for it, it must give a thought to the employee and this can be done through employee relation tools such as :
- Employee publications
- Management publications
- Employee Annual reports
- Bulletin boards
- Annual monthly meeting
- Video Teleconference
- Anniversaries get together/ end of year party and prizes
- Suggestion box
- Employee Birthday celebrations
When communicating with the above tools with the employees, ensure that the communication is understandable; avoid ambiguity or lack of clarity. Also, make sure message is communicated regularly and not just in a crisis and lastly, the communication within the employees should flow not just to the departmental heads but from management to the employees to ensure effective communication.
The need for this to be done is to ensure the following:
- To ensure adequate job performance of the employees in other to meet productivity to the audience
- To ensure that the employees understand the objectives and thinking of the employer
- To attain a favourable image within the employees and aiming the clients/ audiences.
Communication with external publics/audiences
When communicating with the public, there is a need to put into consideration the means of communication which is determined by the following:
Location of your public
Users of the media
Identify media channels used by your target publics
Pre-test the messages to determine if they will be understood by the public and then check the literacy level.
Moreover, location is now no barrier for communication due to the advancement In technology in which location is bridged through the use of social networks such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, sales sites and deliveries agencies. Also the mass media is not exempted such as the radio, television, and publications. Blogs and sites are vital for disseminating information and interaction between external publics and the organization itself.
In all the means of communicating, feedback is very vital in other to ensure continuity and to determine if your customers are satisfied with your product and services in other for correction and adjustment to be made. When communicating with the external publics, several needs are put into consideration such as the language, societal behaviour and trends are essentials to communicating effectively.
In conclusion, communication is key; entrepreneurship is competitive and needs effective sharing of thoughts and ideas in an understandable way. Your idea can solve problems as an entrepreneur but what makes it profit-oriented and gives prestige is the right communication. This can affect your product and organization in the following ways :
- maintain customer and clients
- protect and preserve a good image
- check out for feedbacks
- make more sales/profits.
Finally, as an entrepreneur, there are so many things you can make happen for you if you have built on your communication skills effectively.
