Small Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Good’

Letter is a most important way of communication as it conveys your message to the person you want to. But Business letters are formal letters helps to convey your message to your business associate or associates in a very professional manner. There are certain principles that one needs to follow in order to write an effective business letter that creates a positive impact and generates good results from the benefactor. (A person whom we are trying to convey or convince) The some basic things one has to keep in mind while writing a perfect business letter are: – There are some specific rules and regulations for writing a formal Business Letter, which may not be in writing. – The Business Letters should compulsorily be written on the Company’s Letter head to create a positive impression. – Obviously for a formal Business Letter you language must be formal as a sign of respect and gratitude. – The person referred in the Business letter should be addressed by opening words like Dear Mr., or Dear Ms. (Ms. is written as you are not sure whether the female is married or not) , or Respected Sir or Respected Madam, or if you do not know the name you can write Director; or, CEO; etc. – To start with, firstly explain the reason behind writing this letter (in one sentence) and then directly write the letter in detail. For eg: Suppose you are writing a general letter or want to enquire about something you start with ‘…I am writing this letter to know about the ……. To convey sympathy to some official person you start with…’ I deeply regret on the sad demise….’ If you want to complain about something start with….’I am greatly disappointed for the fact that…..’ and further continue your letter with formal explanation of the cause behind writing this letter. – While writing a Business letter the language and the theme should be general and to the point despite of the your relation with the person to whom this letter is subjected. Business Letter is not only a formal way of communicating message but also acts as an important document which can be preserved as a record for future reference, if needed. The business letter must be written with complete concentration and in a clear language so as to convey the message very clearly and straightly. In case of a missed sentence or even a word for that matter, may land you up in a mess and give you a hard blow instead of working out positively for you. For eg: A letter for application of a job, one has to mention his complete expectations from the company clearly, as his impression as well as future earnings will obviously depend on this letter. Never use words like ‘don’t’ or ‘couldn’t’ instead use ‘do not’, or ‘could not’ as the later words sound more formal than the former ones. Use present tense and don’t try to show off. Moreover while closing your letter always use honest and gratifying words like ‘Truly yours’ or ‘Sincerely yours’ or Faithfully yours’ or ‘Thanking you’ or other regular ones like ‘Best Regards’ or ‘Sincere Regards’ etc… Believe in yourself and put in your best efforts and write a Business Letter that Gets You Good Results! (If you can’t do it by yourself, internet is always there to help you). Always remember “Word are mightier than Sword”.

When it comes to starting up your own home business, one thing that you have to keep in mind is that owning a home business is basically doing what you love to do and what you are good at. You can’t simply start up a home business in a field that isn’t related to what you are already doing, and expect it to work. At least not right from the beginning.

In order to have a good chance of making your home business work for you, the first thing that you have to do is make sure you know what you are doing. A business plan is a must, and the first part of this is talking about what you are going to do with your home business. You have to have something that you are doing for others, whether you are providing them with a service or you are getting them something that they buy from you. No matter what it is, though you have to pick it based upon what you are good at.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you can’t do something other than what you are doing for a living before you begin the home business. You might have a hobby or something that is interesting to you that you do often, but it might not be what you do to make money. This is all part of figuring out what you are good at, and making that be how your business starts. Go ahead and take a look at something that you enjoy doing, whether or not it is something that you do for a living now, and see if you could make a home business out of it.

Remember that in order to work, a business has to be successful in many ways, so keep this in mind. You have to have something, whether it is a good or a service that others are going to pay you for. This is something that might seem obvious, but it is something that is very important when it comes to your business. You have to be sure that you are doing something that others will give you money to do.

However, it also has to be something that you enjoy. If you are going to be miserable , you might not want to do it, because the point of working from home is that you can spend your time working but doing work that makes you happy and fulfilled. So, be sure that not only does your home business plan talk about how you are going to make money, but make sure that it seems like a fun business for you to be in. If you can keep both of these things in mind, you are going to be all set!

The essentials which go to make up a good business letter may be divided into two classes – mechanical make-up, and contents. Before a letter can come into existence the mechanical side must be attended to. The subject matter may be pertinent and well composed and yet the letter itself be so arranged typo-graphically and so disposed on the page that the unity of the whole is lost.

The display as a whole should balance. Before the stenographer starts the address, calculation should be made as to how many lines the letter will run and as to how it should be disposed on the page. The body of the letter should neither be crowded near the top nor bottom of the sheet, but should be so placed that, viewed in connection with the letter head, it presents a well balanced and artistic effect.

This effect is often underrated, being in fact passed by without a thought by the average stenographer, and the ordinary business man is so busy seeing that his dictation is correctly transcribed that he gives little thought to this essential. Harmony of color effect should be observed. A yellow paper bearing the firm announcement in blue, the letter in green and signed with purple ink is not to be recommended.

Letters blurred in copying and wet from the press or otherwise violating the rule of neatness cannot help but produce an unfavorable impression. Orthography and capitalization, particularly of proper names, should be exact and uniform.

A misspelled word in the body of a letter, particularly if a mere transposition of letters in typewriting, may occasionally slip in and do no particular damage, but the misspelling of the name of the party addressed may lose an order, and cannot help but militate against the general effect of the letter. Neatness uncompromising neatness – that should be the first effect of a letter, giving the idea that the firm putting out the writing is thorough master of the minor (as well as the major) details of its business.

Contents

In letter-writing, contents may be divided into subject matter and expression. The subject matter is, broadly speaking, what the writer says. This should coincide with two other things:

(1) what the writer wants to say, and

(2) what the one addressed wants to know.

Something which is the a b c of life and a mere matter of routine to the writer in a certain line may be abstruse and complicated to a non-technical reader. To avoid an offensive simplicity of language on the one hand and excessive technicality on the other is one of the tests of a good business correspondent. There is a tendency to slight simple questions asked by different inquirers day after day, which must be avoided by putting oneself in the place of the one asking the question, and giving the knowledge for which he is looking.

One of the most, if not the most, important essentials of a good business letter lies in correct expression. The one thing which causes more failures in business correspondence than any other, is the incorporation of personal peculiarities in a letter. There may be called to mind, in fact, more than one established business backed by ample capital, having a broad field and financed by capable and conservative business men, that is at the mercy of a poor correspondent. This is ably expressed by Forrest Crissy, who says:

“So apparent must be the importance of this branch (tact and tone in business letters) of business systematization, that scarcely a word of argument is needed to enforce its necessity. Very recently a large whole-sale merchant said to me:

‘I have recently been obliged to discharge the head of my credit department – my confidential man. He is honest, conservative and shrewd, but recently I have been awakened to the fact that his incapacity to write a letter which does not leave a sting, a chill, or at least a sense of lofty indifference, is hurting my business more than would some downright reckless blunders. When he writes a letter granting a good customer a larger line of credit he gives it a twist that somehow makes that customer wish he hadn’t asked for credit and thus placed himself under added obligations. And if he refuses to meet the request for such a favor the refusal is so put that it seems a studied effort to conceal a strong unwillingness to give any credit at all.

Yet this man has always considered him-self an adept in letter-writing – and for a time he completely hypnotized me into that view. But at last the steady withdrawal of patronage and the occasional out-spoken retorts which his letters provoked forced upon me a recognition of the real condition of affairs. Then I went out after a man who could write a business letter that had just the right ring to it; that was neither so sloppy that it sounded hypocritical or so stiff and stilted that there was no tone of good hearty business friendliness in it.

I have found him. He comes high, but the difference in results is remarkable. Of course, there are other things required than this form of literary ability – that’s what you’d call it. He must have business experience, business judgment and all the other cardinal business virtues; but the addition of this peculiar capacity to write business letters that hit the mark is a rare gift and makes him a star man.’ “

Simplicity and clearness as an element of expression cannot be rated too highly. The saying of a thing in the plain language of the common people, not only adds to the style and dignity of a letter, but has the most vital element of being understandable. As Chas. R. Weirs says, “Eloquence, either real or imaginary, has no place in a business letter.”

Whatever else may be neglected in writing, courtesy should not be slighted. A man may be told nearly anything face to face – it is qualified by the bearing, tone of voice, manner and earnestness of the speaker. A sentence may be given an entirely different meaning by a tone or gesture – it may even be diplomatically changed after partly spoken, to make it conform to the unconscious demand of the listener, and most of all spoken speech is transient. What is written, on the other hand, is put down in black and white to stay. The record is permanent. It can be offered in evidence, can be dug up years afterwards from a musty file, and discourteously written can queer, not only an immediate sale, but the sales of a decade.

Length

Letters often tend to verbosity from the fact that they are dictated instead of written. Were a man to write his letters himself with pen and ink he would study brevity and conciseness of expression, but having letters written for him, he will dictate more than he would write. Brevity is not always desirable. Some people – particularly those receiving few letters – like to receive lengthy correspondence. Getting few letters, they wish those long and newsy.

A letter is an event to some patrons and cannot be too long for a careful perusal. In this class of letters the party ad-dressed may be often appealed to in conversational style; as, “Judge of the goods yourself, Mr. Brown,” “We ask you, Mr. Smith, if we have not treated you fairly?” etc. At the other extreme is the business man, particularly the city business man. To him, brevity to the point of curtness is always welcome. As someone has alliteratively said, the formula for a business letter to a busy man is: Sir: Say it. Stop!

Judging the Other Man’s Letter.

One of the pre-requisites of a good correspondent is the ability, inherent or acquired to judge the general character and status of the writer by means of his letters. Until the last few years the letter-head of a firm was a considerable guide to the standing of the company putting It out, but good printing is now much more common and many one-horse concerns put out conservative, well-gotten-up stationery.

Ability to recognize the efforts of an amateur or schoolboy inquiring for a catalog with no intention of buying and to treat the writer accordingly, call for almost occult powers. The president of one of the large machinery companies putting out a cement mixer selling at 0.00, relates that one of the company travelers visited Detroit in response to an apparently good lead and found a twelve-year-old boy wanted a dozen cement mixers “to go into the mail-order business with.”

Some companies putting out expensive catalogs write a letter asking a doubtful inquirer to fill out an information blank before sending a catalog. The correct interpretation of the personality of a writer means the saving of dollars of expenditure as well as the ability to write him correctly. In a fire insurance concern employing hundreds of agents it would be easy for a manager to inform himself through his special agents as to each agent’s nationality, education, experience in the business, etc., and vary his correspondence accordingly, while a mail order house might have no means of judging a man but by his bare letter.

Form Letters

A form letter is one of a series of letters, to be sent on similar occasions. Such letters are usually in imitation typewriting with blanks left for the name of the party addressed, and when carefully executed are a close imitation of a typewritten letter. Form letters vary from those not to be distinguished from actual typewriting, to the stock letters of collection agencies, in which no attempt is made to imitate the machine. Some writers use a number of short forms or inserts which they use in dictating to avoid a repetition of dictation.

Letters of Recommendation

The promiscuous writing of letters of recommendation has done much to cheapen the effect of recommends. Many firms refuse such letters entirely. Perhaps the best plan is to have an employee, when leaving, use his former employer’s name as a reference.

In the food industry, using a well-made and well-configured restaurant business plan is the second most significant initial point once you are capable to identify your target customers. to the right from the usual requirements when starting up a restaurant, business plans are necessary in order to maintain the entire business.

With the start of the Internet, some restaurant owners are kind sufficient to produce some samples of their business plan and distribute them over to internet. But every business has different requirements. So you need to change pre defined business plan as your requirements. However, not all samples of restaurant business plans that can be originate on the web are trustworthy, workable, feasible, and practical. Therefore, it is essential that you identify how to perceive a good restaurant business plan from a bad one.

Here are some tips on how to do it:

1. Detailed description of the business concept

When choosing a model restaurant business plan, attempt to see if it has a detailed description of the business model like target market, products, etc. It is vital that a high-quality business plan must identify all of these things so that you can always explain them to the property-owner or proprietor of the place you want to rent. You must include the products, business theory, owners, target market, and possible flow of the development of the industry

2. Very nature and existence of the business

It should exemplify the very nature and subsistence of the business
It is vital that dependable restaurant business plans should be able to offer details on the very disposition of restaurant businesses. Good quality samples of restaurant business plans should assist you encourage other people about the kind of benefits that you may have once such plans were implemented and carried out.

3. Help you with your money

A practical restaurant business plan can assist you control your money all throughout. It can still help out you focus on your career. Indeed, finding good samples of restaurant business plans can be very boring and difficult. Yet, you can simply detect changes if you can easily spot the dissimilarity.

4. Market analysis

A good restaurant business plan should have Detailed Marketing Analysis of business. It fundamentally has 3 sub sections- marketing, competition, and industry. In the competition section you will be calculate your competition and in the marketing section you will be target your major market with promotion and advertisement. Your business plan should accurately clarify how you plan to magnetize customers to your restaurant. These details are a part of Advertising and promotion.

These sections are important in a good business plan. Presentation of a business plan is vital, try to make your business plan yourself. You know what your requirements are.

Finding out which small business management software solution is right for your business can be a long road. The majority of companies that offer this will tell you that their product is the best on the market in order for you to sign up to their service. Whilst it can be very useful to take a look at marketing material for small business management software owners of businesses should know what features to look out for. Here are a few questions which will help owners and managers of small businesses to ascertain if a small business management software solution they are interested in is right for them:

• How many employees can be added to the application? If you are looking at software that will only allow for 10 or 20 employees there is little room for expansion. Instead look towards software that can handle up to 50 employees.
• Is the application web based? Small business management software that is web based has so many advantages over other types of software. It means that owners, managers and even employees can log on from anywhere with an internet connection and check information relating to the business or even carry out their role from another location.
• Do the features on the small business management software solution do everything your business needs them to? For example if you need a quoting and invoicing tool it has to have these as standard, similarly a business needs software with integrated calendars, document storage, project planning tools and reporting features to name but a few. Without these features a small business might need to pay for other applications, which is a waste of funds.
• Is the small business management software solution easy to use? If a new software package is difficult to use and navigate around it can spell big problems for a business. Not only will it take a disproportionate amount of time to train employees on how to use it, it may also be too clumsy to use effectively. It is surprising just how many businesses sign up for software that is incredibly hard to use and requires several hours worth of training per employee. To get the most from small business management software it should take around an hour for employees to get to grips with and from there they can build upon their knowledge.
• Can the software grow with your business? Whilst most businesses start off small there are a large number that do not stay small. With this in mind you need software that can handle a growing customer contacts database and will allow you to add employees as you hire them.
• Does the software offer you a free, no obligation trial? This is essential before you spend money signing up to any software application.

If the small business management software that you are interested in ticks all of these boxes you should think about taking up the trail offer. Then you can see what a difference it could make to your business.

Identifying the keys to good customer service is the secret ingredient to a successful business venture. Here’s why.

Let’s say there are two grocery stores on both ends of the street. Both carry the same items or inventories. Both stores are clean. Yet, one store seems to enjoy more patronage. More smiling customers go through the door of the other store.

What makes the other business venture thrive?

The other store knows the keys to good customer service, making their profits jump from single to double digits. When you enter this store, you are greeted with warm smiles and friendly greetings from the storeowner and his staff. When they see you reaching up for items for the top shelf, they rush to assist you. When you wonder where an item is, they accompany you to the particular aisle. These small things make a business venture thrive.

For a business owner, applying the keys to good customer service will lead to more “ka-ching ka-ching” for his business!

With an economic downturn, most businesses look for ways to bring in more customers and increase profits. They devise lucrative advertising and promotional strategies but these only lead to income loss and higher deficit.

Customers are the biggest variable in the equation. Businesses earn profit through repeat customers; hence, providing excellent customer service should be the priority.

When you have satisfied customers, there is no need for fancy advertisements because you will increase the number of contented customers who are guaranteed to come back for more.

Here are some keys to good customer service to keep your customers happy:

1. Be courteous. This is something that is largely dismissed nowadays. A little act of politeness will make customers feel more valued and important. Make them feel that you are sincere in extending a helping hand. A frown can drive people away, while a smile can draw more people in. Address your customer with “Ma’am” or “Sir”. Deal with one customer at a time to make him feel that he has your complete attention.

2. Be resourceful. Customers become angry when you tell them that you cannot grant their request because “It’s the company’s standard policy.” Customers do not want to hear such an excuse.

If you want more happy customers, think creatively. There are legal ways to go around your company’s ironclad policies. Make it a policy to extend service beyond the standard procedures in order to satisfy a customer’s needs.

3. Be prompt. Never put any of your customer’s requests on hold, especially when it is obviously urgent. Prompt and accurate service may lead to referrals. Hence, empower your staff members so they can make quick decisions and attend promptly to the needs of your customers.

4. Under promise and over deliver. Refrain from giving false promises. Never promise what you cannot deliver. It is still best to under promise and over deliver. This is the best way to wow your customers!

5. Extend your service. Even if it is not part of your standard service procedures, do something for the customer that shows genuine interest to their needs.

For example, you can lead a customer to their seat, or open doors for elderly customers. People like the idea of getting more value for their money.

For business to thrive, using these keys to good customer service should be in the forefront of your mission and vision.

This must be made clear to all you staff members. Deliver this message loud and clear by make it a point to measure their performance in terms of number of happy and satisfied customers.

By providing quality customer service, you create a desirable reputation for your business that will entice more people to avail of your service. Just apply these keys to good customer service… and a successful business will be yours for the long run.