3 Communicating with stakeholders

In the previous section you explored how to communicate with your customers. In this section you will be considering the other people who might be important to your business. These stakeholders can range from family and friends who might provide funding or support, to people who might invest for a share in the business, to lenders, suppliers, retailers and distributors, complementary services, and even competitors whom you might cooperate with at some point.

These are a diverse range of stakeholders. This section asks you to think about two areas of communication:

• Pitching your ideas – whether it is to suppliers, distributors or investors.

• Internal communications with co-workers as your enterprise develops.