Public Relations: Antidote for Small Business Failure

When small businesses fail, the wreckage is often assigned to
undercapitalization, among other mistakes. Seldom is failure
attributed to a lack of effective communications that might have
modified the behavior of sales prospects in a positive way, thus
averting bankruptcy.

In my view, raising money for new businesses is a skill best
left to others, but smart, aggressive communications is not. As the
entrepreneur, you cannot rely on your financing source to create the
broad public exposure your business needs if it is to survive. Ideally
from Day 1, you must take the lead in this vital effort accepting the
fact that good results come only after careful planning and
implementation of a realistic and workable public relations strategy.

Before you achieve real growth and prosperity, your target audiences
must not only become aware that your company exists, they must be
motivated to take action. Doing something about how your business
is perceived means a well-planned public relations program that can
reach, persuade and move those prospects to action.

And, by the way, not just prospects. Other target audiences need public
relations attention, too, if they are to take the actions you desire –
employees, residents and leaders of the community, unions, suppliers
and activists. Put another way, (and paraphrasing advertising great,
Bruce Barton), you will have relations – of some kind – with your
internal and external audiences whether you want them or not!

At the root of it all, is a simple truism we all know but tend to forget:
people act on their perception of the facts. If the small business owner
is to have an effect on those perceptions, he/she must deal with them
promptly and effectively.

So the question for you, Ms. or Mr. Small Business Wannabe, is, have you
thought about some of the unattended perceptions out there that could
nudge your fledgling business closer to bankruptcy than success?
Perceptions that, if left unattended, may well result in actions that run
counter to those you and your banker may desire?

For example:

0 If sales prospects are unaware of your product or service, you will
not get them as customers.

0 And if those customers don’t remain convinced of the value of your product
or service, you lose them.

0 If employees believe you don’t care about them, productivity suffers.

0 If a minority person believes you discriminate when you don’t, a
host of unnecessary problems may ensue.

0 If community residents don’t perceive your business as a good
place to work, you have employee hiring and retention problems.

0 If insurance carriers perceive you as a bad risk, they don’t provide
the business coverage you need.

0 If journalists are suspicious of your motives and you don’t convince
them otherwise, you get “bad press.”

0 If business people believe what some competitors say about your
firm, that joint venture you want so badly may not come about.

0 And, as you grow bigger, if government regulators believe your
products are not completely safe, sales will almost certainly be
negatively affected.

0 If legislators are unaware of your opinions or don’t believe you,
unwanted regulations result.

0 And, when you grow big enough to become a public company, if
security analysts believe you can’t manage your company, they
won’t recommend your company to investors.

Obviously, small businesses have limited resources to apply despite
potentially damaging and unattended perceptions held by those
audiences most important to the success of their businesses.

Still, there are certain cost-effective activities you can undertake to
reach them. And considering the survival nature of this topic, while
some expense is involved, you may wish to research nearby public
relations professionals willing to partner with you during the early
days of your enterprize.

Together, you may move in this direction:

First, rank your external audiences as to importance. For example,
#1 customers; #2 prospects; #3 employees; #4 local and trade media;
#5 your local business community; #6 community leaders, and so forth.

Second, as time permits, interact with members of each audience and
jot down their impressions of your business, especially problem areas.

Third, prepare tailored messages that not only provide details about
your product and service quality and diversity, but addresses problems
that surfaced during your conversations.

Fourth, consider the most effective means for communicating each
message to each audience. This may include simple meetings, briefings,
news releases, news announcement luncheons, media
interviews, facility tours, special promotional events, a brochure,
and a variety of other communications tactics.

How will you know that your efforts are changing perceptions for
the better? Over time, you should notice increased awareness of your
business, especially how it’s doing in the marketplace; increased
receptiveness to your messages by customers; a growing public
perception of the role your business plays in its industry and in the
community; and, of course, growing numbers of prospects.

Such results are tracked by speaking on a regular basis with people
among each of your key audiences, by monitoring print and broadcast
media for mentions of your messages or viewpoints, and by
interaction with key customers and prospects.

Remember what is at stake – nothing less than the survival of your
business!

So, keep an eye on what’s most important, and remember that people
in your community or marketing area behave like everyone else –
they take actions based on their perception of the facts they hear about
you and your business.

And that means you must deal promptly and effectively with those
perceptions by doing what is necessary to reach them and to persuade
them to your way of thinking, thus moving them to take actions that
lead to the success of your business.

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