Every day businesses and those who operate them are sending messages to the public. Whether implied or actually stated, those messages shape how the company is perceived by customers, competitors and suppliers.

Experience tells me that most entrepreneurs don't spend enough time thinking about the messages their companies are communicating. Most would benefit with even a small investment of time and research to clarify their public messaging.

I recently had the opportunity to receive some public relations training from Lou Hampton of The Hampton Group Inc. He taught us how to refine our entrepreneurial communication by focusing on four messaging principles.

First, messaging should be result-based. Before you decide on a corporate message determine your desired result. Your message then needs to flow smoothly toward that desired result. For example, if I owned a car wash, one outcome I might like to have as a result of my message is to have people try my car washing service. My message in that case would clearly be different than that of an owner of a mail order business who would like people to call to order products as a result of the message. If you don't have a clear result in mind it will be difficult to come up with a corporate message that is effective.

Second, once you have your desired result in mind, you can begin to think about messages that will help you achieve that result. In doing so, however, you want to avoid messages that are too confusing or do not apply to the public, are not interesting, or that make your company vulnerable. For example, a message that a car wash owner may want to communicate is "we deliver the highest quality wash for the best price" or "we guarantee the absolute safety of your vehicle while it is being washed." These messages are simple, apply to those interested in getting their cars washed, and, if the company can actually deliver on the message it is sending to the public, likely will not create a situation in which the business becomes vulnerable.

Third, all companies have a limited number of contacts with the public. So a company can choose to give the public a different message each time it contacts them, or it can give a limited number of messages repetitively. As you may guess, you are much better off limiting your company to a few messages and repeating those messages over and over. The public is easily confused and does not have the patience to listen to many different messages. In addition, the public tends to be relatively slow to learn. It needs to hear the same message over and over before it truly begins to "stick."

Finally, once you decide on your results-based messages, you need to communicate them to your employees so that your company can always have a unified front in sending messages to the public. Whether in front of clients, writing a yellow pages add or talking to one of your suppliers, your employees are sending more messages than you realize, so it is critical that they are also educated about the messages upon which you have chosen to focus.

In utilizing these principles, the public will have a clearer view of what your company is about, and you will be more likely to see the results that you hope to achieve.