Are you throwing business away?

These days a business without a phone, fax line, emails and perhaps a website are trying to work with their arms and legs tied behind their backs!

But even some businesses that DO have the above modern business tools do not bother to use them properly.

There might be a garbled and gabbled message on a phone line which many people can't understand. If a potential customer hears this: "'ello! You are 'fru' to mumble mumble mumble. Ermm, we can't get to da phone right now, but if it is urgent please call blahsixblahblahfive-oh,bahblahblah." (And why DO people record answerphone message in the middle of a noisy office?)

Or do you have an automated system that automatically cuts a caller off without any human contact at all? That potential customer has just put the phone down in disgust and is even now calling a rival concern to place their order.

As for emails, That's Business has previously carried stories about firms that do not bother to respond to emails.

But what of those of you who use an email address supplied through your ISP and who then change ISP without bothering to tell anyone that your old email address is invalid?

In fact you might even be better off using a Yahoo account for your business. As that stays with you for life.

And rather than having these general enquiry emails go to a named account like c.smith@blah.com use info@blah.com instead, so that if C. Smith is away sick, or on a course or taking a holiday, the whole of the business does not grind to a shuddering halt.

And please do resist the temptation to use over-long and complicated email addresses. It just causes confusion and may result in emails to you being bounced back. People then -wrongly- presume you have gone out of business and take their custom to someone else.

And do NOT allow your email box to become so full that it rejects emails. If your ISP cannot provide you with sufficient email storage capacity, then the answer is simple change your ISP, now! If Yahoo and G-Mail (for example) can provide unlimited capacity, why does your ISP keep rejecting emails from your potential customers?

Keep communications with the world as simple as possible as this reduces the possibility of mistakes. And do try to keep the use of answerphones and automated systems to a minimum.

After all, you ARE running a business and not a secret society!

And if you run a website, please do keep it up-to-date! There can be nothing more frustrating to find a firm that you would like to do business with who have a website that is, in some cases, several years out of date.

And keeping a website up to date is not as hard as you might think. Visit http://www.thatsnews.org.uk/ follow the link on the front page to Mr Site and you can create a basic website, complete with online shop, within an hour or so, with no technical skill and no special software. And it costs just under £35.00 including domain registration.