Using Email for Better Business

This Week with Sara Fitts looks at email and how it can be better utilized for developing your business and enhancing your professional image. These are just a few strategies that may make a big difference for business owners and their staffs. These strategies are especially helpful for self-employed professionals with no employees or limited staff support.

• Use a spell check program and read the entire email prior to hitting the "send" button.
• Use the subject line carefully. Make it sound professional and business-oriented.
• Be aware that every email can be forwarded thousands upon thousands of times. Make sure that nothing in your email is offensive to anyone who may receive it. Make sure your email is factual and legitimate.
• Use a signature that is a business builder. Make sure you have all necessary contact information and websites listed in your electronic signature with correct links. Use your signature as a major marketing tool. Make it as professional as possible.
• Use correct rules of grammar. Begin sentences with capital letters and end them with correct punctuation. Never use all capital letters and never use all lowercase letters. Each email should be a business letter from you to a client, customer, or prospect.
• If you are sending the same email to a number of different people, use the BCC feature so as not to "out" all the people receiving your email.
• Check your email several times each weekday. Respond quickly. Clean out your inbox each week at a minimum by deleting all emails that you don't need to keep and setting up folders for those you do need to keep.
• Avoid sending any email when you are angry or upset about the matter at hand. Take time to read and read again your repsonse to make sure that it won't be misinterpretted by the reader. Written words are much more easily misinterpretted than spoken words.
• Remember that email is a tool. The phone is sometimes a better tool at the moment. Send the right message utilizing the best tool for the particular situation.

Email is a necessary strategy and must be used in the best possible way to build and enhance your business reputation.

Sara L. Fitts is a business coach who works with small business owners and self-employed professionals to enhance their business development. If you'd like to find out how she can help you, contact her today.

Enhancing Employee Relationships

Not only do small business owners have to rely on building and developing business relationships, those with employees must develop relationships that boost morale and a culture of making the business work most efficiently and productively.

Whether the small business owner has 1 employee or 500 +, these are some things to think about to enhance employee relationships.

• Every employee is valuable and must be treated as a valuable employee. If the employee is not valuable, why is he or she employed?
• Have only a few rules, regulations, or policies - and apply them to everyone. When employees are treated differently, their loyalty will be destroyed and never recovered.
• Never underestimate the power of "please" and "thank you" because these little words go a long way toward boosting morale and employee relations. These words aren't lost on customers, either!
• Reward exceptional effort and positive results. If you reward mediocre effort and results, you'll get less than mediocre effort the next time.
• Be careful about competition. If you're trying to build a team, there is only one side and not an "us against them" mentality.
• Competition can be healthy and motivational, but it can backfire and lead to team destruction.
• Monthly or quarterly meet with all staff members and inform them of what's going on within the business. This is an excellent opportunity to reward exceptional efforts and big wins within the business.
• Manage by walking around and speaking with your employees. This is a powerful way to find out what is really going on and to show that you care about them as people and employees.
• Have fun at work. Whether scheduled or not, make every attempt to create a climate of care and concern - and enjoyment - within the work environment. When people enjoy what they do, they produce better results.
• Believe in your organization, in your product or service, and believe in your people. Most employees will work harder when they feel validated and cared for.
• Be authentic. If you as a business owner want to enhance employee relationships, you must come from a place of authenticity about it. Sincerity is required for positive results.

There are many additional ways to enhance employee relationships. I've listed the foundation of enhanced employee relationships here.

Relationships that Every Business Owner Needs

Every business owner must cultivate a number of relationships in order to be successful. Without these, sustainable success is very likely to be out of reach. Regardless of industry, geographic area, gender, or clientele, these are the most important business relationships business owners need to develop.

• Accountant
• Attorney
• Estate attorney / planner
• Financial planner
• Business coach
• Stockbroker
• Banker
• Commercial printer
• Insurance broker
• Networker
• Physician - internist
• Web designer / host / programmer
• Plumber
• Mechanic
• Dentist
• Electrician
• Handyman or handywoman
• Florist
• Virtual Assitant - or a live and in-person adminstrative assistant

When you really think about all the relationships that are cultivated and developed over the course of building a business, there are many people that have a tremendous impact on the rate of success experienced by the business owner. These relationships are priceless and must be kept in a place of honor within the business.

Take a few minutes and list your key relationships - let me know what I've left off my list.

Small Business Dashboard

This Week with Sara Fitts looks at the Small Business Dashboard - an instrument panel on which business owners set their focus. While each business owner looks at unique aspects of his or her company, there are certain items that apply to every single business owner - regardless of what type of business it is.

These are the crucial items on the Small Business Dashboard I use with my clients - as well as my own business.

• Revenue
• Sales
• Costs / Expenses
• Staff / Staffing
• Profit / Loss
• Long-term goals of the business (5+ years)
• Short-term goals of the business (30 days - 1 year)
• Mid-range goals of the business (2 - 5 years)
• Marketing Plan
• Business Plan
• Client / Customer Base
• Economic forecasts
• Target market trends
• Business trends
• Industry news and trends
• Worth of the business
• Growth options
• When to sell or close (retirement considerations)

Each business owner determines the specific gauges on the dashboard and how often they are monitored. I design dashboards for each business owner with whom I work - so I can provide them with the best tools for growing and managing their businesses. This is a powerful tool that creates a baseline for our coaching partnership and sets the stage for crafting the best goals to get the best possible results.

If you'd like to know more about how I work with business owners, please contact me directly for a collaborative interview.

Keep Your Focus

This Week with Sara Fitts is about keeping your focus - no matter what you do to earn a living. Entrepreneurs, self-employed, small business owners, and any other person who works for a living knows this - but we often lose sight of what it takes to keep our focus when we are in the midst of running our businesses or living our lives. These are a few tips that I've learned along my way - some from clients, some from books, and a few from my father. I hope you find them helpful.

These are some tips to help you keep your focus:

• Know what you want to do, why you want to do it, and what it will take to get it done
• Be realistic about finances and timelines
• Believe in all the possibilities that exist
• Define your distractions and keep them away from you during work hours - you can do this!
• Work at tasks for certain amounts of time - and keep these start and stop times sacred
• Begin with the end in mind - keep your eye on the prize - know that you will reach the pot of gold
• Exercise for energy, health, and fitness
• Rest and relax
• Know whose rules you are following - make your own rules
• Define what drains you - and avoid your drains
• Define what fuels you - and embrace these
• Change your mindset to reflect what you want to focus on - and use the power of your mind to succeed
• Take time to enjoy what you already have worked for and achieved - don't wait for it to be finished or perfected
• Stay fresh by doing something new or something different

There are many ways to keep your focus and these are just a sampling of them. I'd love to hear from you on how you keep your focus.