Successful small and startup businesses, regardless of the products and services they are offering, have a few things in common. One such thing is the way the businesses develop and nurture healthy business relationships. A considerable number of entrepreneurs today focus more on the details of the services or products they offer and forget the essence of good business relationships. While making and managing a substantial amount of cash flow is important for your small business, it is equally important that you develop and manage relationships with the relevant support teams—including:
• Employees
• Customers
• Suppliers
• Tax specialists
• A banker/creditor
• Insurance brokers
• Training providers
• IT specialists as well as enterprise systems
Rather than waiting for an emergency to arise before you can contact these support teams, it is advisable to develop and maintain a close and healthy working relationship with them. Throughout this article, you will learn how you can manage business relationships with some of the most important caregivers of your small business.
Relating With Your Customers
For you business to thrive, even through the challenging times, you need to establish and nurture good relationships with your customers. You can learn how to relate well with your customers from other businesses in your industry. In this regard, sharing resources and struggles with other businesses can help you enhance customer relationships in your business. Another way to do this is encouraging your customers to leave you honest feedback. Listening to such feedback allows you to make amends to your business to suit client needs, hence attract more long-term customers.
Managing a Healthy Relationship with Your Employees
Some employers find it hard to establish a working relationship with their employees, but this is one of the relationships you must nurture in your small business. Making your employees feel respected, appreciated and seen can improve their work performance significantly. Based on various research findings, a look into the Sales-To-Employee Ratio of any business can give you an idea of the financial as well as productivity health of the business. The type of relationship you have with your employees can also impact on how your business relates to the customers. This is because happy employees are more likely to satisfy your customers than ill-treated employees.
Establishing a retirement plan is among the ways, through which you can motivate your employees. Additionally, you should empower your employees and allow for free communication with them. While doing this, you need to establish a mutually respectful relationship that allows workers to meet their deadlines and expectations in a friendly work environment.
Establishing a Good Relationship with a Banker/Creditor
Although you expect your business to make enough profit and support itself, this may not always be possible. You will need capital to expand, buy a business premise, increase inventory or to bridge a minor gap between your receivables and payables. During such times, a healthy relationship with a banker or creditor can be very beneficial for your business. Working with a creditor that knows your business well enhances your chances of getting a favorable loan. A good relationship with your creditor will allow the creditor an opportunity to learn such things as the history of your business, your credibility, and loan repayment prospects. This being the case, working in a close relationship with a good creditor, such as Advance Funds Network (AFN), is something you should consider. The following tips will help you build and manage a good business relationship with your creditor:
• Come up with a clear payment policy for your suppliers and be transparent and open about it.
• Work on improving your automatic risk profiles and online credit score.
• Establish a good track record with the creditor—try to always repay your loan within the stipulated terms. By doing this, the creditor will probably give you a loan on better terms the next time.
Cash flow constraints are among the main challenges that startup and small businesses are experiencing today. By establishing a good business relationship with AFN, you can easily get an unsecured business loan. Through creativity and honesty, the creditor provides affordable loans to American businesses. Having been rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and the IFA, this is the creditor you should approach whenever you are in need of a fast, unsecured business loan.
