Communication

Introduction

Communication is central to any enterprise – it is part of the day-to-day engagement with customers, clients, funders, co-founders and employees. In most instances communication is an act of persuasion, and it involves you (as an entrepreneur) trying to persuade someone else of the benefits of your product, process or service. Communication means engaging with others so that they support you in your goal, through buying your product, through funding it, through providing in-kind support, through believing in you and your idea.

By the end of this unit you should have identified some key audiences and where you might find them, thought about how to communicate and how to use communication as a dialogue, and set out a plan for engaging with those different audiences.

The unit is structured around the different audiences you are attempting to persuade: starting with customers, then looking at those who might provide support in other ways like funders, or other companies you might partner with, or even family and friends. It looks at how you communicate within the business as it grows by introducing you to ‘classic theories’ of communication and asking you to reflect on how they might apply (or not) to you.