Small businesses have seen a bumper crop of problems during the past five years
, so it is not surprising to hear that some of these difficulties are overlooked. This can happen due to a lack of time, failure to realize that something is causing a problem, or because of the hope that it will go away on its own. There have been a surprising number of common small business communication problems during the past several years which have been ignored precisely because of the belief that one or more of these complications would be resolved by some external party such as the government or their bank.
Most companies have experienced cash flow reductions during the recent financial crisis and economic fluctuations. In the rush to put out the cash flow fire caused by decreasing sales and increasing expenses, it might seem reasonable for a small business owner to place a higher priority on improving the bottom line and a lower priority on improving their communication skills. While it might not be obvious to small businesses already running short of time to do everything that needs to be done, the prudent strategy is to elevate business communication activities to a higher level.
One reason for small business owners to pay more attention to business communication problems is that they tend to keep recurring if they are not handled satisfactorily. This often occurs when a quick or partial solution is attempted, but the typical result of doing that is to discover what can happen with an incomplete resolution. These are not the only problems which keep coming back to haunt small businesses. But of the eight to ten most common recurring small business problems, at least five of them involve business communications to a high degree.
Another key reason for moving communication strategies to a higher priority is that they can realistically help to solve several financial problems and in doing so provide a boost to the bottom line. Improved negotiating is just one example. For most small businesses, there are probably ten viable candidates for improving the cash flow bottom line by improving business finance negotiations. Two of the usual possibilities for negotiating improved cost structures are credit card processing fees and supplier agreements. Similarly there are other key components of small business communications that can provide immediate financial improvements by both increasing revenues and reducing costs. One example is eliminating ineffective marketing and sales management activities.