Even Small Business Can’t Avoid the Office Politics Blues
March 23, 2010 by Rita Marshall
Mixing family and business. Cliques. High maintenance employees (or bosses).
They may seem like the banes of corporations, but plenty of small businesses also struggle with the problems of office politics. (I’d phrase it more as “workplace politics” since a filing cabinet or coffee maker isn’t a requirement for these situations to arise.)
www.officepolitics.com is a great site that features advice on different workplace dilemmas from coaches, lawyers and mediators. You can submit your own problem or read through the archives, which include situations such as:
- The new guy I hired is HATED
- My co-worker is hogging information
- Lose our funding because of a few bad apples?
The website also sells Dear Office-Politics, a book game that “teaches you how to play (and laugh at) office politics.”
How to Avoid Gobbledygook in Your Writing
January 30, 2010 by Rita Marshall
Confusing language has always been a pet peeve of mine. When I write, I picture people drinking in the information as if they were having a cool glass of water — the info is enjoyable, goes down easy and satisfies their needs.
Gobbledygook is the sludge in that glass of water, but unless you’re very disciplined in your materials, it can happen.
What kind of gobbledygook have you read, or even worse, inflicted on others?
- Buzzwords? (”leverage”, “value-added”)
- Cliches? (”110 percent”, “high performance”)
- The “professional” clunky phrases that businesses can’t seem to give up? (”pleased to”, “in terms of”)
Dow Jones and marketing strategist David Meerman Scott compiled a list of the Top 25 Gobbledygook words and phrases used in North American press releases in 2008. (Are they optimizing the value-added metrics to leverage their synergy before they are pleased to announce the 2009 list?)
Scott has come up with the Gobbledygook Grader, which lets you cut and paste your copy for the Grader to analyze. The results will give you a score out of 100, along with a list of the gobbledygook the Grader found in your materials. It won’t re-write the material, but it’s a good start to pouring your customers a new glass of water.
Did You Use Any of the Words of 2009?
January 9, 2010 by Rita Marshall
If you used Twitter or Facebook at all last year, you’re probably familiar with the newest additions to the Oxford Dictionary.
“Unfriend” was the word of the year, while “Tweetup” was a runner-up.
They weren’t all techie terms, though. My non-social media favourites include:
- zombie bank: a bank that only continues to operate because of a bailout
- phantonym: a noun that looks like it means one thing, but actually means another. As in, “fulsome” sounds like it should mean “really full”, when it actually means “excessive to the point of insincerity”.
The threat of phantonyms to the English language is of small concern, however, when PC World makes this observation about two other 2009 additions to the language:
The disappearance of free Internet access should give rise to some colourful new additions to the Oxford Dictionary in 2010.
Writing or Re-writing Business Website Content: What to Know Before Contacting a Web Copywriter
December 3, 2009 by Rita Marshall
Over the last few months, I’ve worked on a few business websites. The clients have been from a variety of different industries, but I’ve found two things are always the most important, no matter the industry: the insights of the business owner and the ability of the web copywriter.
What Does a Business Owner Bring to the Website?
You bring insight and experience to explain what makes you the best. Before you even sit down with a web copywriter, think about your business, your customers and what makes you special. If you sat down with me, I’d ask you the following questions (among others):
1) What does your business do?
2) What makes you special?
3) Who are your customers?
4) Who are your competitors and why are you different?
5) What do your customers like about you and why?
Maybe you noticed that questions 2, 4 and 5 are different ways of asking the same thing. I REALLY want to find out what makes you different from everyone else! Every business can claim good quality or good customer service. But how is it unique in your case?
One multi-service company I wrote about only expanded their services because their customers asked them to provide more and more services that no other company was providing. One company’s competitors shipped in all of their products, while my client’s company grew most of their products almost from scratch.
This goes back to my business biography post; you need to tell a story on your website, preferably one that ends with a happy customer buying your product and riding off into the sunset. Your unique insights into your business, as well as your experience, gives you a great information base. Now all you need is a writer to flesh it out, and yes, you do need a web copywriter.
What Does a Web Copywriter Bring to the Website?
So if you have the insight, why do you need a web copywriter to write the content for your business website? Because web copy needs to be highly targeted and short. It usually takes me more time to write a 400 word article than an 800 word article. Sound strange? Consider this: crafting a 400 word article out of a mountain of information means sifting through to find and polish the absolute best and ruthlessly discarding the rest.
A good web page will be limited to maybe 250 – 350 words per page and should include good SEO; you can imagine how much work goes into picking the absolute best 350 words!
I also use the information a client gives me on his or her company’s history, strengths and goals to draft an outline of what pages they should have on their website; or what pages should be kept and dropped from their current website.
So don’t just throw up any block of copy on different pages on your website and figure it’s okay: search engines don’t like that, and if they don’t like it, your customers will never find you.
Are You Writing This Down? How to Take Notes
August 24, 2009 by Rita Marshall
If I’m interviewing you, you may be taken aback when I look and talk to you while my hands scribble a shorthand version of what you’re saying. “Can you read that?” a lot of people ask me.
Yes! And while you probably don’t need to master the art of maintaining eye contact while recording a person’s verbatim words, knowing how to take notes is a great skill to have.
Why Learn How to Take Notes?
Taking notes gives you a written record of what happened during a conversation or meeting, and it’s also an important communication tool. We miss a lot of things other people tell us because we’re distracted — by a noise, by something we see, or just because we’re thinking of what we’re going to say next.
When you take notes, you concentrate on the speaker’s ideas and show the speaker that you value what they have to say. You should take notes if:
- You have a meeting about an important project
- You are meeting someone for the first time
- You are at an important speech or presentation and want to get the most out of it.
- You are in charge of taking notes / minutes for a meeting
In my experience, it’s always better to have notes that you end up not needing instead of wishing you had a written record of an important statement, conversation or meeting.
How Do I Take Notes?
- Use a computer or handwrite, depending on what’s available and what feels most comfortable.
- Make sure you have enough writing material. Your laptop should have enough power. Writing by hand? Have a few pens with you and use a notepad with plenty of paper.
- Make sure you can hear the speaker! Sit as close as you can. Make sure you also have enough room to take your notes comfortably.
- Write down everything; you never know what you’ll end up needing. Agendas are helpful, but I’ve found in my time reporting that the important things are also usually surprises.
How Do I Take Notes Quickly?
You need to use shorthand. If you’re coming up with your own system, make sure you’ll remember what your symbols mean.
Text talk (U = You, 2 = To) is pretty easy to remember and so will industry acronyms you’re familiar with. After my time in health care, I began substituting “Q” for “every” in my shorthand.
What Do I Do with These Scribbles Now?
As soon as you stop taking notes, look them over from the beginning and write in as many whole words as possible, especially illegible ones. Cold notes are difficult to work with.
From Note-Taking to Networking
If you find yourself missing names or information, ask the speaker while you’re both still in the same room. A speaker usually won’t just fill in the gaps — they’ll share more information with you as well. Whether it’s a one-on-one or a large meeting, note-taking can be a great communication tool when you use it as a springboard to a conversation.
What do you think? Share your thoughts here!
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!
Have a comment? Tell me what you think here!
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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