Whether you are involved in a service or product oriented business, customers are the glue that holds your business together. Without good customers, your business would not survive, especially in today's economy. Therefore, it is extremely important to keep your customers/staff informed about your business. However, you should only keep them informed about those matters that are most important to them.

In some instances, it would be overkill to inform your customer about every aspect of your business dealings. For instance, let's say that you had an employee who continuously came to work late every day. In this instance, you wouldn't inform your customers about the employee's tardiness and your failure to get the situation under control. Instead, you would handle the situation yourself by administering a firm warning to the employee or perhaps you would simply fire him/her immediately. If you did, your customers would simply think you were not a capable manager and would not see you as a savvy business person.

In contrast, let’s say that you own an investment company and your firm lost a substantial amount of your client's money due to bad investment advice that you received from an employee. In this instance, you owe a fiduciary responsibility to keep your customers informed about their losses and you would need to inform them about these losses right away.

To counteract the negativity of the message, you could also give them a positive plan of action in which you describe how you intend to recoup those financial losses. You could also ask for your clients' input through a brief survey in which you would ask them for their input regarding future investments. By doing this, you demonstrate that you care about your customers and want them to be involved in the process as it relates to them.

In conclusion, it is very wise to keep customers informed about what is going on in the company because informed clients are happy customer and happy customers are more likely to be long term clients and refer their friends and family to you.

So in essence, by keeping clients informed, you build trust and secure your company's reputation and stability and you keep them for the long haul. Therefore, you should keep them informed to a certain point, depending on the circumstances.

The Secret to Happiness? Own a Small Business
CHERRY HILL, N.J., and PORTLAND, Maine, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite the economic challenges they've faced over the past few years, American small business owners declare themselves to be a happy group, according to a new survey from TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank®. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081031/NEF005LOGO-a ) (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081031/NEF005LOGO-a ) A remarkable 69 percent of American small business owners polled for the TD Small Business Happiness Index would describe themselves as "very happy," with 61 percent believing they are happier than their peers.

Michelangelo Lopez with LightYear Wireless and MLM business
What’s with MLM home based business? Considering an MLM home based business?

2009 Small Business Book Award Winner's Announced by Small Business Trends
Small Business Trends released the results for their top ten 2009 Small Business Book Awards -- More than 4,000 votes were cast for the Reader's Choice Edition. Editor's Choice Awards were also presented to twelve authors selected by Small Business Trends’ editors and an advisory board of 27 small business experts. This online publication has more than 250,000 monthly readers.