To give you a little idea in advance of the diversity of such presentations, in this part we will offer ideas, information, and models falling into the following categories:

• Answering inquiries
• Offering services
• Explaining services
• Presenting credentials
• Responding to complaints
• Adjusting errors of billing or other slipups
• Explaining delays
• Making inquiries of various kinds
• Reporting results to clients
• Requesting payment
• Miscellaneous other matters, essentially routine.

Even with such segregation of correspondence, there is a great diversity in the correspondence. The diversity is not only in the general classes, purposes, and functions of correspondence: It is also introduced by the great variety of the business enterprises that have evolved over the years. So it is not a simple proposition, despite our focus here on the needs of the independent consultant: Many independent consultants engage in diverse business activities in addition to basic consulting services, and there will be no effort in these pages to offer a model for each and every possible need- it would be an entirely impracticable goal – but principles and exemplifying models will be offered to point the way, with guidance to help you adapt these principles and models to meet your own special needs.

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Earlier, I offered a list of types of letters, essentially routine. In fact, these designators or definitions specify or imply an objective or each of those types of letters. Before you can even begin to formulate a letter, you need to know just what you want the letter to do. If you want to placate a dissatisfied and complaining client, that requires a much different letter than the one you will send to a client who wants to be assured that you understand their problem and can solve it satisfactorily.

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The planning process for any piece of writing, however long or short and formal or informal, involves the same steps, although the method for doing them may vary considerably from one case to another. For a lengthy document, it may be wise or even necessary to develop a formal “book plan,” a written plan detailing all the many steps preliminary to drafting the item. For a simple writing job, such as  a brief letter, all the planning may be in your mind, with nothing formal on paper, but that is a difference in degree, not in kind. Many journalists and other professional writers use a “lead” as the planning document for a short article (I confess to being one who does so), and we may write and rewrite that lead many times before going on, as our way of planning and outlining, but we don’t proceed, usually, until we are sure that we have that lead – plan – right.

I don’t know that the “lead” method works for everyone. As one writer expressed it to me once, for him it was “thinking on paper.” I happen to agree with that. I find that scratching out a lead “on paper” (actually on a computer screen now) helps me think things out. As I “see” what is wrong with my first attempt, I begin editing and revising my rough-draft lead until it seems right to me: It defines and sets the goal, as it should; the reader should get a firm clue from your first sentence or first paragraph of what you are about to tell him or her. But let’s look at the three major stages:

1. Setting a goal or objective: What is it you want to do with this letter or other writing? Provide information? Placate an unhappy client? Report progress? Sell an idea? Ask for the order? Ask for payment? Request an interview? Explain the problem? Reassure the client?
2. Choosing a strategy: How do you plan to achieve this goal or objective? Logical argument? Promise of something? Offer to trade? Reinforce your guarantee?
3. Outlining: What information will you present and how?

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In all things generally, but in all business writing especially, you must always sell. That means writing persuasively, no matter what the subject of the letter. Even a response to an inquiry can benefit or hurt your organization by presenting a favorable or unfavorable view of it. (Do not use those cold and stilted form letters of government  agencies and many corporations that create that adverse image so many of us have of government agencies and major corporations.)

Do not be any more formal than circumstances and good taste dictate. Obviously you must address strangers and those you know only slightly by such titles as Mister, Madam, Colonel, and so forth. In the real business world, executives often address business letters to “Dear Bill” and sign them “Harry,” when they happen to be friends or business associates of long standing. However, before leaving this introduction and going on to present a few specific examples, let us have a brief look at planning, which is principally a system of outlining your material, once you have set your goal, although the importance of that preliminary step ought not to be minimized either.

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If there are three rules for writing well, this could easily be all three of them, for this identifies the most common problem: Far too many people write letters (and other things) without knowing exactly what they want to say. They simply doodle verbally, in fact, as though they were engaged in idle conversation over tea, in the hope that eventually they will stumble across the right thoughts and words. It rarely works, and even when it does the result is that much of it is rambling and pointless and most certainly not at all businesslike. (Have you ever gotten a letter that left you mumbling to yourself, “What are they trying to tell me?) In short, if you don’t know clearly and in advance what you want to say, how can you ever be sure that you have said it?

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Suppose that the fradistat industry is a monopoly, in which Consolidated Fradistats is the only producer. Since Consolidated Fradistats is the entire industry, the entire market demand for fradistats is the demand for Consolidated Fradistat’s product. This demand is illustrated in Figure 10-1, in both schedule and graph form.

What price will the monopoly charge for fradistats? While our initial reaction may be that the monopoly will select the highest price, Figure 10-1 shows that this is incorrect, since the highest price may not be the most profitable price. From Figure 10-1 it can be seen that, by charging a price of $5 and producing 700 units, the monopoly can maximize its total revenue. Note that we are only looking at the revenue side of the picture, and are ignoring the costs. In effect, we are assuming that if the monopoly maximizes total revenue, it is maximizing profits also. Under these assumptions, the monopoly will raise its price as long as the demand is inelastic – it is because the demand becomes elastic above a price of $5 that higher prices will not be charged.

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By making prices higher and output lower than they would otherwise be, monopoly imposes a twofold burden on society economically. As an example, suppose that the minimum price for which widgets could be sold profitably were $3. If there were strong competition in the widget industry, the price would fall to $3 (instead of $5) and production would be 1000 units (instead of 700). But with a monopoly in the industry, the public is burdened with both higher prices and lower output than would exist under competition.

In a competitive industry, it is the consumer who is most powerful in the marketplace. If consumer demand for a product increases, higher prices and profits will attract producers into the production of that product. Furthermore, they will offer it for sale to the consumer at the lowest possible price, due to the intense competition among themselves. In a monopolistic situation, on the other hand, the shoe is on the other foot. The monopolist is in the dominant position: since the consumer must deal with the monopolist, the monopolist can restrict the supply of the product, forcing its price to higher levels. The higher price and profits will not call forth increased supply, because new firms cannot enter the field. Obviously, the key to the monopolist’s position lies in the control of the supply of the product.

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1. “Perfect competition” is the most competitive situation possible, in which the individual firm has no control over the price of its product since it faces a perfectly elastic demand curve.
2. The incentives for a firm in perfect competition are to minimize production costs per unit (maximize efficiency), produce as much output as it can afford to, and sell its output for whatever price the market determines.
3. Generally, profits in perfectly competitive industries will be very low, with only those firms that have below-average production costs able to earn above-average profits.
4. Monopolistically competitive industries are also very competitive, but differ from perfect competition in that firms have an opportunity to practice product differentiation, thereby making demand somewhat less elastic, and (possibly) to increase prices a little.
5. Competitive industries, consisting mainly of the small business sector of the economy, constitute an important part of the economy, probably producing about two-fifths of its output.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Can you think of additional examples of perfectly competitive industries or monopolistically competitive industries? Would you like to go into business for yourself in any of these industries? If so, what strategy would you follow in order to be successful?

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Perfectly Elastic Demand - a situation in which any price increase above the market price will cause a firm’s sales to fall to zero; represented by a horizontal demand curve.

Monopolistic Competition - a term describing industries that consist of many small firms, where entry to the industry by new firms is easy, and where the products or services or individual firms, while basically similar, are differentiated from each other to a degree.

Product Differentiation – attempts by individual firms to distinguish their product(s) or service(s) from those of their competitors.

Laissez-Faire - the doctrine, or philosophy, that it is neither necessary nor beneficial from the viewpoint of the public interest for governments to intervene in the operation of the economy.

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In the previous topic we examined competitive industries, in which there are many firms in the industry and it is easy for new firms to enter the industry. As a result, competition in such industries is particularly strong, and is constantly pushing downwards on profits. Such a situation benefits the consumer, but certainly not the producers, who probably wish that they were fewer in number and could somehow prevent (or at least regulate) the entry of new firms into the industry. Then they would be in a position to restrict the supply of the product and (if demand were inelastic) increase their revenues. However, the difficulties in organizing such numerous producers to act collectively, plus the impossibility of preventing new firms from entering the industry, make it impossible for producers in competitive industries to achieve this. In short, then, the major problem facing producers in competitive industries is that they are unable to control the supply and therefore the price of their products. Such industries are divided into two categories – monopolistic industries, in which there is only one producer, and oligopolistic industries, which are dominated by a few large producers.

Note that we say “revenues,” not “profits.” At this point, we are not including in our discussion how the production costs of business firms interact with their sales revenues to determine their profits – this will be done in Chapter 11.

From Greek words meaning “one seller” for monopoly, and “few seller” for oligopoly. Quite possibly the single most misspelled word in the entire field of economics is “oligopolistic.”

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Services (such as dry cleaning) emphasize the speed of service, others stress quality, others offer extended hours. To the extent that a firm is successful in these efforts at product differentiation, it can alter its demand curve by making it more inelastic. For instance, Harry’s competitive position would be enhanced strongly if his were the only hamburger stand in a prime location, or if he developed a unique and highly popular product line. On the other hand, a monopolistically, competitive market is a very dynamic situation, and Harry must face the risk that his competitors – or a brand new firm starting up – may successfully imitate his advantages, reducing the degree to which Harry’s firm is differentiated, and making the demand for his hamburgers more elastic again. Worse yet (from Harry’s viewpoint), some of them may come up with even better ideas to differentiate their products, placing Harry at a disadvantage. People who have operated small businesses successfully in this kind of environment for years tend to discount flashy promotional “stunts” as short-term strategies, and stress instead the importance of establishing (or earning) a reputation as an honest, reliable firm, if long-term success is to be achieved. They claim that this is the most valuable type of product differentiation that a firm can achieve.

In conclusion, product differentiation, however achieved, can benefit the firm in two ways. First, it can build consumer loyalty to the firm and its products, and thus protect the firm against competition, and second, it can provide an opportunity for the firm to charge higher prices for its products, to the extent that consumers believe the product differentiation to be worth a higher price. All firms welcome the advantages of consumer loyalty; some will also charge a higher price while others will not. Thus, product differentiation introduces into a situation that is basically very competitive a slight degree of monopoly power, due to the fact that each firm’s product or service can be different from those of its competitors. Obviously, the degree to which this occurs varies: it is one thing to be the only one of eight hamburger stands in town with a particular location, and quite another to be the only Chinese restaurant in town and the only restaurant with a liquor license. Nonetheless, new restaurants can easily open, emphasizing the fact that, while monopolistic competition is less extremely competitive that perfect competition, it still represents a highly competitive situation. As a result, profits in monopolistically competitive industries generally tend to be low, with many firms earning only marginal profits. However, firms that enjoy cost advantages, or that have succeeded in practicing product differentiation to their advantage, will earn above-average profits.

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Perfect Competition

1. many firms
2. easy to enter
3. identical products

Prices and profits are held down, and producers have no control over the price of their product.

Economic incentive for each producer is to

(a) maximize efficiency (minimize production costs per unit),

(b) produce as much output as is economical, and

(c) sell it for whatever price the market establishes.

Monopolistic Competition

1. many firms
2. easy to enter
3. differentiated products

Prices and profits are held down, but producers have a small degree of control over the price of their product.

Economic incentive for each producer is to

(a) maximize efficiency (minimize production costs per unit),

(b) practice product differentiation, and

(c) (possibly) increase price by a small amount only.

Non-Competitive Industries

1. few firms
2. difficult to enter

Prices and profits tend to be higher than in the competitive situation.

Economic incentive for all producers is to act together so as to restrict competition and raise prices significantly.

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