How Do I Say That? Pronunciation Guides for a Better Business Image
August 9, 2009 by Rita Marshall
Saying “warsh” instead of “wash” or “ofen” instead of “of-ten” can be a charming expression of a local dialect. But mispronouncing a word like segue or butchering the name of a person or city can be embarrassing, especially if you make it during a presentation or introductions.
Fortunately, the Internet is here to help, and will do it for free.
Preparing for a meeting? Practicing a speech? Need to settle an argument with someone who calls it “War-chest-er sauce”? (That would’ve been me ten years ago). Turn up your computer speakers and check out these websites.
- Dictionary.com uses more than 16 dictionaries to compile its database of English words. Beside each word you’ll see a speaker icon. Click on it and you’ll hear the correct pronunciation of the word.
- Inogolo.com specializes in the proper pronunciation of people and places. Your friend will learn that it’s actually pronounced “Worster sauce”. When you want to compliment a new business acquaintance on his TAG Heure watch, you’ll know to say, “Tag HOY-yur”.
- If you run Firefox, you can download the Pronounce Firefox extension. Right click on any word on a web page, and “pronounce” will appear in a menu. Click and you will hear the Merriam-Webster dictionary pronunciation of the word.
If the name or word you’re searching for doesn’t appear in any of the above three options, you might have to go about it the old-fashioned way. Ask someone who knows how to pronounce the name or word. Once you’ve heard it, repeat it and record yourself saying it correctly. Take another listen and practice again before heading off to your meeting or speech. Vwah-la!
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How to Keep Up Small Business Momentum over Summer
July 14, 2009 by Rita Marshall
Three Ways to Communicate During Vacation Season
If your small business doesn’t depend on hot weather, gorgeous summer days can make you feel like a 10-year-old kid who’s just heard the last school bell of the year.
Everyone’s itching for vacation – you, your employees, and your clients. It’s tempting to have a “see you in September” approach to business communications in the summer, but resist the urge.
Why Holidays Shouldn’t Be a Time to Disappear
Entire projects, including down-time housecleaning projects, can disappear when momentum gets lost. Think of it as death by a thousand one-week vacations.
Maybe you were going to suggest a cross-promotion to the local garage. Then you got his voice mail, and he won’t be back until July 20. By then you’ll be gone, and you’re not back until the first of August. You’ll just deal with it then. Except you don’t, because you come back in August trying to play catch up.
If you have employees, you may run into the domino effect: Linda gets the project started, but has to stop because Judy has the one piece of information she needs, and she’s out west for two weeks. When Judy comes back, Linda’s gone, as is Dianne, who really should take a look at this before it goes any further.
Three Ways to Communicate in Between Summer Vacations
Communicating with clients or your own staff doesn’t have to suffer during summer. It won’t be as fast as the rest of the year, but try the following to keep things on an even keel at least.
1. Have a Summer Attitude
Instead of slashing your way through a to-do list or curling up in a procrastination ball until the fall, think of yourself as planting project seeds and watching them slowly unfold. You and everyone else deserve to enjoy the good weather and you also deserve to get things done. The perfect balance is to expect things to move, just a little slower. A summer attitude will help you master the next two steps.
2. Make Your Calls and Continue to Follow-up
Call that local garage and leave a voice mail. Let him know you won’t be back until August. He might not be especially motivated to call you at 9 a.m. on your first day back, but jot down a note to yourself to follow up a few days after you get back. Always put in the initial effort.
3. Create a Wiki or a Summer Bulletin Board for Your Staff
If your business is high-tech, go for a wiki. If you have no idea what a wiki is, buy yourself a giant slab of corkboard. Either way, have some kind of collaboration system in place so that messages get passed in between everyone’s vacations. When Linda hits her roadblock, she immediately leaves Judy a message specifying the information needed. Dianne has access so no one has to wait for her input.
Enjoy Your Summer and Your Small Business
Small business owners deserve and need the few beautiful months of the year to recharge and relax. With the right attitude and communication habits, you could enjoy a summer with both lazy days and a list of accomplishments, paving the way for an energized fall.
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Email Etiquette: Don’t Make These Mistakes!
June 15, 2009 by Rita Marshall
photo by Bruno Neves
Lesson 1: Your first email to someone new? Make it count.
I spend a fair bit of time on emails, especially ones where I am contacting a source or possible client for the first time. First impressions count, and email doesn’t let you express tone or establish a rapport the way face-to-face or a phone call does.
Lynn Gaertner-Johnston at Business Writing blog shares an email message spectacular in its ineffectiveness. Read her post and remember why even a “quick” email should be researched, personalized and carefully written.
Lesson 2: Use your emailing powers for good, not annoyance.
Maybe some people honestly don’t know, or maybe they know perfectly well and are deliberately trying to drive you crazy. Either way, make sure you’re not one of them and check out this fun ABC News article on office politics and bad email habits.
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Do You Need a Business Card?
June 5, 2009 by Rita Marshall
photo by Mihai Eustatiu
Do you need a business card? Of course you do. A wildly popular and perfect digital replacement for a business card hasn’t appeared yet, so our 2×3 cardstock friends will be with us for a while.
Some people put off getting a business card, convincing themselves that it will be a waste of money. Two notorious groups for this are online business owners and, at the other end of the continuum, low-tech business owners in small towns / rural areas.
Online Business Owners Need Business Cards
To be fair, it seems pretty simple why your online business can get along without hard copy business cards. Your clients are online, you find clients online, you do everything online.
In response, Diana Ratliff asks the following six cheeky questions :
• Is everybody who might possibly have an interest in your business currently online?
• If yes, do they know how to find your site?
• Will they be able to find your site six months from now?
• Is your site getting all the traffic you can handle?
• Does everyone you discuss your business with around town have a pen and paper handy so they can write down your website address?
Think of IRL (In Real Life) marketing as an edge for your online business. Technology is fast and amazing, but so is personal contact and word of mouth. Speaking of word of mouth…
Low-Tech Small Town / Rural Businesses Also Need Business Cards
Everyone knows where your business is located! Turn left on the second concession just after RR 3. The long, hidden driveway to get to your business is kitty corner to the giant tree at the Henderson place.
The problem is that new people move to small towns in rural areas, and they don’t know where the Henderson place is. Also, if they ask a long-time resident, the long-timer may only have a vague description of the location.
A long-time resident in my small town, who knows everyone, was stumped recently when someone asked him for the name and number of a local wood-carving business. He could describe where it was on the highway, but without a business card in his pocket or the business card info in his Blackberry, he didn’t have a phone number or even a business name to pass along.
People and Business Cards: A Great Combination
Word of mouth and reputation is great, but people’s brains only hold so much. As always, never make it hard for people to remember:
- who you are
- what your business is called
- what it does
- how you can be reached
If you work hard at making connections with potential clients, business cards will be a great safety net to make sure customers can find you whenever they need you.
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How to Choose a Business Card Design
May 20, 2009 by Rita Marshall
Your business card design is 2×3 inches of written communication, graphic design and first impressions. Think carefully before you just throw some Avery pre-mades into the inkjet printer or spend hours coming up with something impractical that’ll blow everyone’s mind.
Business Card Design: Balancing Layout with Information
Layout plays an important part in simple, effective written communication. As I’ve said before, your reader’s eyeballs are your most precious resource — don’t abuse them or make them work any harder than they have to.
Don’t try to squeeze everything you’ve got on to one little business card! An image is great, but stick to just one. Include only your relevant contact info that fits easily on to the card. If you need to include taglines, a quote or anything else, consider using the other side of the business card.
Remember Function when Choosing a Business Card Design
- Stick to the traditional when it comes to the size of the card. Too big or too small sizes are unwieldy and don’t fit into standard business card holders.
- If you’re thinking of using a material other than paper, think carefully. I may love your metal business card, but if the nice airport security lady asks me if I want to keep it, I’ll probably say no. If you go with plastic, you won’t be able to scribble messages on the back.
- Business cards don’t really double as promotional items. If you have your company info printed on a clothespin or chocolate bar, you need to have a normal business card as well. Otherwise I’ll eat your contact info or use it to hang my laundry. Either way, I won’t remember you after.
The Most Important Advice on Business Card Design
KNOW YOUR LIMITS. My Quark Xpress experience qualified me to dummy up my business card. It did not, however, qualify me to draw a logo. I found a great graphic designer who created the Longbow logo for me in several formats, and I’ve used them faithfully for my website, letterhead and business cards.
But maybe you’re a pretty good drawer. Do you deftly sketch plates of cookies for bake sale posters and entertain kids with your Bugs Bunny doodles? That’s nice. Do NOT draw your own business card logo. People may complain that business cards are turning into meaningless pieces of paper (see next week’s post), but it’s still a powerful visual indication of how professional your business is. For the love of God, do NOT use Microsoft Word Art or Clip Art!
Before Your Business Card Hits the Printers’
I highly recommend picking a professional’s brain when it comes to your final design, even if it’s just a friend or a student who’s good at design. Also run it by family and friends — can they easily locate your information? Does it make their eyeballs hurt? If you get a yes to the first question and a no to the second, you’ve got a winner!
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