Business

The Business Letter – Write It Right and Succeed

A business letter is not an ordinary communication.
A business letter is one in which some information is passed that should be important enough to put into writing, and more, should evoke some kind of a response.
Write your business letter right and you will succeed.
The Business Letter Form
Remember the business letter is NOT a report. It is a letter.
In today’ world you will be lucky to hold attention to three paragraphs, let alone a whole page.
Decide what it is you wish to say, and be prepared to say it in three short paragraphs.
If you have a long letter to write, do not write it as a letter, but as a report.
A letter is a letter. Be brief, succinct, avoid value judgments, make every word count, write nothing banal, and most of all, keep in mind what kind of a response you wish to invoke.
The Business Letter Format
The Subject.
Always begin your business letter with a subject reference. Do not mix subjects, or include more than one.
The Introduction.
Here in one paragraph you introduce your subject, as well as any crucial information about it.
Imply in the introduction what response you wish to evoke.
The Body.
The body of the business letter is the longest paragraph.
In this paragraph get down to details, but keep them brief and to the point.
Do not give value judgments and do not introduce new material.
The Summary Conclusion.
Here you sell your point and summarize all the points you have made before.
The Salutation.
Develop you own signature salutation.
You can you standard ones like Best Regards or Kind Regards, or find something new that suits you.
Let this be your signature salutation, and stick to it in all your business letters and communications.
The Business Letter vs. Email Letter.
In today’s world the formal business letter is fast becoming a rarity, and is taking the new form of the email letter. However, remember its only a different form or delivery. Follow the same rules as above.
Some business like to write the business letter now on company stationary in electronic form and include them as attachments to an email. This is not a bad idea, and still retains some form privacy.
Business Letter Language Guide
Here are a few tips from communication experts that may help you frame your use of language in your business letter or email.
Speak in the present tense. Avoid a lot of “I will; it should be, and …”

Use simple words. Do not show off your superior vocabulary.
There are very effective words that are commonplace. There are power words, and all of them are simple and impossible to misinterpret
Be direct.
Go to your point, and do not speak in ambiguous terms
Avoid homilies
Remember who it is you are talking to.
If you are speaking to a superior, maintain your distance of respect, while still selling your points across.
Avoid value judgments. Leave these for the letter recipient to decide for themselves.

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Friday, February 5th, 2010 business letters No Comments

If Your Small Business Can’t Afford to Rent an Actual Office – We Can Help

For businesses that can’t afford to or simply don’t want to unnecessarily spend thousands on a full-time office… we offer a physical office address, phone, fax, reception and meeting space access for a fraction of the price. A New York Virtual Office may be just the solution for you. Find out today with our July 2009 Virtual Office Address Trial Offer for only $12.50 per month.

Within one business day you can open your New York office on Broadway in the trendy Flatiron district taking our advantage of our trial office of US$12.50 per month, for 2-months of service including a physical New York office address with reception and access to meeting facilities.

During the trial period, you receive everything you would at the standard rate. Mail handling is available as well as meeting rooms, phone service, fax service, and all the extras! All the benefits of having a real staffed office (not a mailbox or a fake suite number) without the overhead or headaches.

VIRTUAL OFFICE TRIAL
$12.50 per month for 2-months of Virtual Office. Virtual Office address includes:
-Physical Office address on Broadway with reception and meeting facilities.
-Mail handling privileges including mail-forwarding
-Meeting room rental privileges

For more service details, visit: http://manhattanvirtualoffice.com/virtualoffice.html

<em>Offer valid for new approved clients only. Offer may not be combined with any other offer. Not valid on renewals or reinstatements. Applicants must order and have their completed applications approved prior to July 31, 2009. After the 2-months are up, you can opt to renew service. Renewal rates revert to standard rates.

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Monday, February 1st, 2010 find business No Comments

Safe Guard Your Business Interest With Commercial Insurance

Scale of operation and capability to manage risks are inversely proportional. It means that small and medium scale business ventures are more vulnerable to risks compared to their long scale counterparts. The reason behind it is that they have little flexibility to sustain when there is any significant financial loss. So, all the small and medium scale businesses need to be covered under commercial insurance policies to minimize financial risks.

Commercial insurance policies are liability insurance policies and protect your business from unforeseen risk. It not only offers coverage to your business but also to your employees. According to the directives of Law, you must have commercial insurance coverage if you are hiring employees other than your blood relatives.

The premium of the commercial insurance policies depends upon the insured amount, quantity and quality of risk and type of operation. It may vary between .25%-2.5percent of the insured amount. However, the premium amount and risk coverage pattern vary from insurer to insurer.

You can buy commercial insurance policies through both online and offline mode. However buying them online has several advantages. They are

1-It saves a lot of time and money. You can easily go through the pros and cons of a specific policy and buy it from the comfort of home or office.
2-Comparison is the second most benefit offered by the online mode. You can compare the price, features and risk coverage potential of the same policy at different insurers. It helps you to have a better deal.
3-From the online forums and communities, you can assess the benefits of a commercial insurance policy in a better and impartial manner.
4-Online option is open 24X7. Hence, you can do it in your free time.

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Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 commercial insurance No Comments

How to Write a Business Letter – Super Tips to Create a Stunning Business Letter

If you are planning to start a business, you cannot afford to neglect knowing how to write a business letter.

Even if your business may be just a small entrepreneurial startup, knowing how to write a business letter is a key skill that you, or at least one of your assistants, should know.

Before we go on with the technicalities of an effective business letter, let’s lay down the reasons why a business owner should have excellent writing skills.

Business letters are the primary means by which your company would communicate to investors. They should give a great impression of you and your company. They could actually prove crucial to your business taking off or to its survival.

Business letters should be understandable, be able to communicate exactly what needs to be done, or state communication in a very clear manner. Without clarity, miscommunication may lead to misunderstandings, or worse, botched jobs.

Want to write a business letter that rocks? Then it has to possess these characteristics:

1. The standard format of letter writing applies. Ideally, a business letter should contain the following information, in order:

? Letterhead (the sender’s address)
? Current date
? Recipient name and address
? Subject (optional)
? Salutation/Greeting
? Message (body of the letter)
? Closing salutation
? Signature (including the corporate designation/position of the sender)

2. The business letter should be written in block style.
3. Use double space; and as much as possible, keep the letter in the center of the paper you use.
4. Do not shorten your words and verb forms. “Do not” should not be written as “don’t,” and so on. Otherwise, the letter gives an impression of informality.
5. Keep the letter brief and concise, but be sure to include all the information you need to communicate.

In knowing how to write a business letter, make sure that it elicits the desired results. Keep the following in mind:

? Include a reference to an event, matter, or information that is pertinent to your letter, or is the reason for your writing the letter even.
? Obviously, you would need to include the reasons for your writing. Whether the letter is a request, agreeing to a request, delivering bad news, etc., don’t be so busy as to actually forget what you need to communicate.
? Remember to enclose the important documents that the letter should come with.
? Provide a reference to where the recipient could contact you after reading the letter.
? Always keep a copy of the letter with you.

As you can see, knowing how to write a business letter is rather simple. Just bear in mind that this letter aims to communicate and that the main objective is to communicate what you need to in the clearest and most concise manner possible.

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Thursday, January 21st, 2010 business letters No Comments

A Simple Marketing Mistake That Costs Business Owners $1,000s Of Dollars Every Year. Correct It And Explode Your Sales

Many business owners simply set up shop and instantly start running ads. They never invest any time in designing their marketing or sales strategy. The result is that they lose thousands of dollars and usually don’t get the sales results that they’re after. We’re going to share with you a simple marketing strategy that’s time tested and business proven. It will empower you to get the maximum leverage from your marketing efforts.

Think of the overall market in your city. Your ‘potential market’ is comprised of all the potential buyers of your product or service in your city. To simplify the process, we overlay a ‘Spectrum’, called ‘The Buyer’s Spectrum’, over top of the potential market. Realize that on one end of the spectrum, 3-5% of the market have a preferred vendor (a family member, a business that they’ve been with for years, etc.) and will never buy from you.

On the other end of the spectrum, 3-5% of the market are NOW buyers and respond quickly to virtually any type of marketing. This leaves roughly 90% of the market that doesn’t want to buy what you’re selling right now yet WILL BUY at some future date.

Amazingly enough, the majority of companies focus their marketing efforts exclusively on the 3-5% of the market that are NOW buyers. They leave the remaining 90% of potential customers on the table. Their philosophy is that if a prospect doesn’t buy from them right now, then they discard them and focus on the ones that do want to buy from them. If you share this philosophy, you’re making A BIG MISTAKE!

‘Why’ do you ask? Well, think about a grove of orange trees. If you wanted to pick the ripe oranges, do you think that all of the oranges ripen at the same time? Of course not. The oranges ripen all at different times (we call this ‘The Customer Buying Cycle’). So what do you do, simply pick the few oranges that are ripe and then burn the rest of the field? Once again the answer is no. Yet this is what many companies do.

If you want to get more of the ripe oranges, then what you must do is water, fertilize and nurture the orange tree grove consistently. Bit by bit, the other oranges WILL RIPEN. And when they do, you’re there pick them. Now you may not get them all yet you’ll certainly get the lion’s share.

In the same way, you ‘water, fertilize and nurture’ the 90% of your potential market that doesn’t buy right away. And like the grove of orange trees, bit by bit, they too will ‘ripen’ or buy what you’re offering. If your marketing strategy addresses this, then you will get the lion’s share of the customers.

For you to get most out of your marketing and sales, your marketing strategy must address the phenomenon of both ‘The Buyer’s Spectrum’ and “The Customer Buying Cycle’ to be effective. Make sure to read our article “How To Increase Your Sales By 300% Or More By Effectively Leveraging Follow Up Systems”.

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Saturday, January 9th, 2010 find business No Comments