Public Speaking For Business Owners | 7 Reasons It Is Important
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- Public Speaking For Business Owners | 7 Reasons It Is Important
There is no debating it…public speaking for business owners, especially small business owners, is very important.
Perhaps you guessed that based on the many aspects of Public Speaking I’ve shared with you.
But up until now, I’ve concentrated on the “HOW TO” of the various aspects of public speaking, without telling you WHY it matters. My bad. And I want to correct that right now.
But before I tell you why public speaking for business owners really do matter, let me remind you, public speaking skills are not only for those who speak from a platform, with a large audience in front of them.
As a business owner, for you, public speaking also includes:
- Sharing information with your team
- Chairing a meeting
- Pitching your business or an idea
- Marketing your products/services
- Sharing your story to motivate groups of entrepreneurs
- Any other situation in which you are the primary communicator
So let me ensure you understand the importance of public speaking for business owners by breaking down just 7 key reasons why public speaking is so important for you.
- It helps you to overcome your perceived fear of public speaking
- It enables you to demonstrate your confidence
- Public speaking is important for sharing your message
- It helps you to perform key business roles
- It helps you to be comfortable around (new) people
- Public speaking is important for telling your story
- It is important for selling yourself and your business
1. It helps you to overcome your perceived fear of public speaking
As a small business owner, there are some things you can’t outsource and you can’t be afraid of, because your business will suffer.
Public speaking is very near the top of that list. But what is it about public speaking that you really fear?
Here are the some of the answers to that question which I get most of the time:
- Making a fool of myself
- Losing the attention of the audience
- Being unfamiliar with the subject
- Being misunderstood
- Losing my way in the speech
- Speaker’s block
- Physical reaction to nervousness
No doubt your fears feel very real to you. And my research and experience tells me that universally, fear of public speaking is rampant.
As fears go, I’ve long believed that the best way to overcome them is to confront them and deal with them.
Public speaking is no different.
The more opportunities you give yourself to speak to your publics, the more comfortable and confident you will become doing it.
You see, confidence from speaking comes mostly from repetition, not from reading about it. Therefore, small, frequent reps (team meetings, short talks, recorded practice) usually work better than waiting for one big event.
2. It enables you to demonstrate your confidence
When I talk about public speaking assisting you to demonstrate your confidence, I mean something more specific than just feeling good about yourself.
Here are some examples of what I mean:
- You have fewer “high-stakes” moments. Each time you speak and “survive”, your brain resets what counts as “threatening.” Over time, situations that used to be perceived as “high-stakes” like a tense negotiation or a confrontation with an unhappy client, feel less stressful.
- You trust your own judgment more. Speaking well, especially when you have to field questions or think on your feet, trains you to organize your thoughts quickly and commit to a position. That makes you more decisive in general.
- You present effortlessly. Your confidence shows in small things: steady eye contact, a measured pace, comfortable pauses, a clear voice. People read these as competence, which makes them want to trust you more.
- You accept more speaking opportunities. Because public speaking for business owners is not something many of them find appealing, they quietly avoid opportunities which involve speaking – presenting as part of a team, a chance to pitch a big client. With public speaking confidence, you say “yes” to more things that can grow your business.
3. Public speaking is important for sharing your message
You see, when you stand before an audience to speak, your message must answer the questions:
“what message do I want to leave with this audience?”
“What do I want my audience to do or think at the end of this speech?”
One of the reasons public speaking is important for business owners, is that with careful audience analysis, you can craft and share the correct message that connects your audiences to your ideas.
Here are some examples as to how that works:
- It forces you to find your core point. Before you can speak for 5 minutes, you have to decide what’s the one thing that you want people to walk away with. You know your business in detail but your speaking practice helps you to determine what matters most to each audience.
- It exposes gaps in your logic. When you rehearse an argument out loud, you notice the gaps in your logic – a number you can’t back up a question you hope no one asks. This allows you to sharpen your logical flow of ideas and vastly improve your message.
- It improves how you structure information. Good talks usually follow a simple structure such as problem-cause-solution. Having a “delivery” structure makes your meetings, reports, and strategy discussions more organized and easier for your audience to follow.
- It sharpens your listening and responses. Q&A sessions teach you to hear what someone is really asking and answer it directly instead of rambling. That skill pays off in sales calls, negotiations, and customer service situations.
TIP: A practical way to work on this is to try explaining a business idea or decision in 2 minutes, to someone outside your industry. If they can repeat it to you accurately, your message is clear. If not, you’ve found what to tighten in your messaging.
4. It helps you to perform key business roles
As a small business owner, there are many roles and activities which you perform that public speaking skills can make easier and more effective.
Here’s how public speaking supports the main ones.
- Leader and manager. Much of leading is talking – setting direction, running meetings, giving feedback, and rallying people during change. Owners who speak clearly and confidently get better buy-in, with fewer misunderstandings.
- Visionary and strategist. Your vision only becomes real if other people understand it and care about it. Public speaking for business owners helps you turn a strategy into a compelling story that staff, partners, and investors can repeat.
- Fundraiser and financial steward. Investors and lenders back people as much as plans. Delivering a confident, well-structured pitch and handling tough questions about numbers shows that you understand your business and can be trusted with money.
- Negotiator in-chief. Deals with suppliers, landlords, clients, and partners are won partly on how persuasively and calmly you make your case. Speaking practice improves your ability to stay composed under pressure.
- Recruiter and talent developer. Strong candidates are drawn to owners who can articulate where the company is going and why it matters. Speaking well helps in interviews, onboarding, training sessions, and recognition moments, all of which affect retention and culture.
By now you would have notice that across all these roles, the common thread is that public speaking is an enabler. It doesn’t replace business knowledge, but it makes your knowledge more visible, persuasive, and useful to everyone you work with.
5. It helps you to be comfortable around (new) people
Here’s a little case study which demonstrates this.
I noticed that my good friend and long-term business colleague would seldom accept any invitations to attend events. When I asked her about it, she claimed that her businesses had taken over her life…sometimes she hardly had time to sleep.
But I also noticed that she had time for lots of other non-productive activities.
When I press her further, she admitted that she disliked being in situations where there were people she didn’t know well. She felt “naked”, she was tongue-tied and she was embarrassed when she didn’t know what to say next.
It took one of my best presentations to convince her that public speaking would help her solve this problem. Convincing her to let me coach her one-on-one was another drama-inducing event, but eventually she agreed.
When she tells this story, she talks about how her confidence grew from the time she took her first “baby” public speaking steps.
Now, she attends events enthusiastically, gives short talks whenever she’s invited to and willingly tells her business story repeatedly.
But best of all for me, with her new public speaking skills, she does not forget to weave the value of my coaching and training into almost every conversation.
Boy…I love my new evangelist!
6. Public speaking is important for telling your story
Facts are facts. And make no mistake, they are important to supporting your message.
But when you want to connect with your audience, to motivate them to take the desired action, there is nothing like your story done right.
And public speaking is that important skill that will help you tell the story of your business or your personal story as the founder.
Why is it necessary to tell your story? The truth is…your story doesn’t belong to you.
It belongs to that entrepreneur who is thinking that her idea was not a good one after all.
It belongs to that small business owner who can’t see his way out of debt.
And it definitely belongs to that 65-year old woman who’s on the fence about starting a business at her age.
Public speaking allows you to tell your story in a way that makes a difference in the life of your audience and motivates them to take beneficial action.
It is also the catalyst that will help your audience own “their” stories and the glue that will bind you to that audience, and change them into customers.
This is just another important reason that public speaking for business owners is a must.
7. It is important for selling yourself and your business
As a small business owner, speaking in front of others is the best way to get noticed, and those who get noticed are usually the ones who get the opportunities.
The more you polish your public speaking, the more access you have to wider and more knowledgeable and critical audiences.
When you can effectively sell yourself and your business to these audiences, you turn them into valuable customers or clients, maybe even for life.
Here are some of the roles you will play in this regard:
- Salesperson and marketer. In most small businesses, the owner is the best salesperson. Presenting to prospects, running demos, and pitching proposals all depend on speaking skills. Also speaking at events, webinars,etc also works as marketing, building visibility and credibility without a large ad budget.
- Brand ambassador and company spokesperson. You are often the public face of the business. Being able to represent the company consistently and credibly shapes how the market sees it. In a crisis, this becomes even more important, because how you address customers and the press can protect or damage trust.
- Relationship builder and networker. Partnerships, referrals, and mentorships tend to come from people who remember you. Being comfortable introducing yourself, speaking up in a room, or giving a short talk at an industry event makes you easier to remember and easier to say yes to.
Remember: If you want your business to be highly visible, technology levels the communication playing field. Public speaking helps you to stand out from the crowd.
How do you level-up your Public Speaking?
Here’s your first simple baby step to lay the foundation on which to gradually build your speaking experience.
Baby step – Build the habit (1-4 weeks)
The goal here is low-pressure repetition.
- Practice out loud for five minutes a few times a week – explain your business, a recent decision, or a product to an empty room.
- Record yourself on your phone and watch or listen back once. You’ll notice filler words (“um,” “like”), pace, and posture. Pick just one thing to improve each week rather than trying to fix everything at once.
- Speak up more in settings you already control – open your team meetings with a short, prepared update, or lead a brief training session..
Where you go next is entirely up to you…but keep going until you feel you have mastered public speaking
Lorna Barrow
Lorna Barrow excels at leading small business owners to get the breakthrough they are looking for in their businesses! She unleashes her 25+ years of small business experience and knowledge on your business, which was developed from working with small business across the Caribbean and beyond. This ensures you get the solutions that are right for you and your business...
