Poor communication skills are often identified as one of the causes of a breakdown in the business development process. So, you must constantly work to improve your communications skills because they are very important for the success of your business venture. 

This is especially true in farmer-led value-added business projects. By its very nature, farming tends to be a business where one person makes most of the decisions independently of others. So, farmers don’t tend to see the need for communicating. However, in a value-added business project with group decision making, good communication skills are critical.

To help you improve your communication skills, read Improving Value-added Business Communication Skills. To understand how good communication skills can pay off for you, read Good Communication Can Help Solve Problems.

For more information on this topic, see the links listed below of articles posted on related Web sites.

Understanding Communications

• Communication – Kansas State University Extension -- Face-to-face conversation is becoming rare in this day of electronic devices. Without the personal touch, even members of a close-knit association can forget how to relate to one another.
  
• Group Communication – Montana State University Extension -- We belong to groups to satisfy needs that we cannot meet on our own.
  
• Marketing Communications – Small Business Notes -- Marketing Communications is a term used to describe activities that deliver marketing messages to your target audiences.
  

Effectively Communicating

• Effective Communications – Montana State University Extension -- Effective communication is crucial for working successfully with others. It enables us to maintain relationships and accomplish tasks with both individuals and groups.
  
• Communicating Effectively – North Dakota State University Extension -- Communication might be thought of as an "idea transplant."
  
• Developing Effective Communications – University of Missouri Extension -- Most Americans probably do not appreciate the importance of communication in their personal and work-day lives.
  

Improving Communications Skills

• Loosen up Your Communication Style – HBS Working Knowledge -- If leaders want to connect with all of their staff, they need to combine three styles of effective communication: emotional, factual, and symbolic. Here’s how to leverage all three.
  
• Seven Tips for Communicating in Today's Diverse Workplace – HBS Working Knowledge -- Your employees may come from nations all around the world. The challenge: Ensure that their contributions aren’t buried under language and cultural differences. Here are seven tips for improving communication.
  
• Virtual Communication – HBS Working Knowledge -- Three communications skills are essential for success in the "virtual age." Do you know what they are? Find out about them, as well as the technology that will keep you connected.
  
• Environmental Interpretation: How to Communicate Persuasively – University of Florida Extension -- Interpretation is a process of simplifying complicated ideas and sharing them with a more general audience. Interpretation is much more than just rewording ideas though.
  

Listening Skills

• Listening: Our Most Used Communication Skill – University of Missouri Extension -- Listening is the communication skill most of us use the most frequently.
  
• How to Listen Effectively – University of Florida Extension -- This document will attempt to teach the art of effective listening and give pointers that will make the next sales call more successful for both the customer and salesperson.