Communications for Small Business Owners

Communication between individuals is a two-way street, but communication between a small business and its customers is a multi-lane highway. Navigate this highway successfully and you increase customer numbers and profits. Set out on this highway unaware, ill-prepared, or unconvinced of its importance, and you will lose ground to your competitors.

This is a three-days course to introduce and reinforce the essential components of written communication that will connect you with existing and potential customers. If you are new to the communications highway, this course will provide the foundation for future development. If your company has some communications expertise, this course will help you strengthen and polish your essential components.

• Define the essential pieces of communication
• Customize these essential pieces for their company
• Identify the processes and plans needed for clear communications
• Develop, maintain, and evolve effective content for their communications

We will spend the first part of the day getting to know other participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

To start the course, participants will learn what business communication is all about. They will also review their pre-assignment.

Your communications plan should be linked with your organization’s other key plans (such as marketing, expansion, and succession). In turn, these plans should be based on your company’s mission, vision, and values. This session will explore all of these elements as they relate to the communication plan. Elevator pitches and executive summaries will also be covered.

In this session, participants will learn about the three steps for building a communications plan: selecting the destination, choosing a route, and establishing a vehicle. Setting up an approval process and inbound vs. outbound marketing will also be covered.

Next, participants will learn about the five C’s of a successful message: clear, concise, complete, correct, and compelling.

To wrap up the first day, participants will learn two strategies that can help them increase their communications success: goal setting and core messages.

This session will teach participants how to create a good media release.

Next, participants will learn how to use blogs and social media to communicate their message.

In this session, participants will learn about the power of storytelling in communication.

This session will show participants how to use communication fact sheets and the three R’s to make their communications process more efficient and accurate.

Next, participants will learn how to boost their results with techniques such as search engine optimization, analytics, and SWOT analysis.

To wrap things up, participants will take a brief look at communicating during crisis situations.

At the end of the course, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.