Partner Article

Improving Entrepreneurs’ Business Writing Skills

Modern business is demanding. To become a successful entrepreneur, you need to understand how to run a business, how to promote it, how to find customers and clients, and how to manage the expenses. And of course, you need to understand how to communicate with customers and how to write effective emails and press releases.

We all think that we have a good command of writing. We start to work on our writing skill in early childhood when we learn how to write letters and words properly. We learn spelling and grammar at school, and some of us continue to study them at the university. We read as many books as possible to capture different styles and build an understanding of how a good piece of writing should look like. We write every day and we really think that we have already mastered this skill enough. However, there can never be enough if we talk about mastering writing skill.

The matter is that different situations require different styles of writing and different writing approaches. Perhaps you have already noticed that fiction books are written in absolutely different language than articles that you read in newspapers.

In this article, we want to talk about the importance of developing skills of business writing. Today, everyone needs to understand how to communicate with clients, customers, and colleagues. Even freelancers need to know how to write letters properly and how to keep an effective communication line with the customers.

Why business writing skill is important

Every entrepreneur knows that business writing and creative writing have almost nothing in common. The words that they require are different, the structures of the sentences are different, the tone of voice is different, and the way of communication is different as well. Business writing presupposes that you write briefly as you have no right to waste the time of your partners. Besides, a short letter must include everything you want to say in a clear and easily understandable manner.

A properly written letter can help you in negotiations and even bring you some profits. If you want to improve your business writing, we recommend you to use the following tips and tricks that we’ve collected after holding several interviews with experienced entrepreneurs who have already know how a good piece of business writing should look.

Tips for flawless business writing

• Remember what you write

First of all, you need to decide what kind of text you need to create. The structure and the style of email and press release will be different. In fact, there are 12 basic types of business writing and you need to understand their differences and peculiarities. Here are these types:

1. Copies of advertisement like banners, posters, Facebook ads

2. Monthly, weekly, and annual reports

3. Biographies and achievements

4. Brochures

5. Newsletters

6. Business letters (including emails to partners, emails to colleagues, and emails to boards)

7. Case studies

8. Marketing and development plans

9. Presentations

10. Press releases and brochures

11. Product manuals and descriptions

12. White Papers

The style for each of these types is different, so keep that in mind.

• Remember your audience

Another point you need to remember is who your audience is. If you write to your colleagues, you may choose less formal language, but if you write to your stakeholders, you need to use formal language in every sentence.

Press releases and brochures usually require business language as well but if you write for a young audience, you can make it a little bit less formal. Here, everything depends on your industry. For example, if you work in the fashion industry, you can use both formal style (if you work in lux segment) and informal style if your main audience is teenagers.

• Focus on the structure

Every piece of writing should be well-structured. But for business writing this is crucial. If you want to share your ideas with other people, you need to be sure that they can easily understand you. If you mix the ideas and cannot represent them in a clear way, you will never reach the desired effect. Before you start to write any piece of business writing, create a plan that you will follow. This plan will not let you turn your writing into a mix of thoughts and will help you define every single aspect of your text.

Of course, it is always better to follow the main rule of marketing which states that for every idea you need to write a separate text. However, it is not always possible if we are talking about business writing. If you cannot write different texts for different ideas, just make sure that you do not mix them up in your text.

• Stick to the idea

A good structure is not enough for effective business writing. You should always remember that the main idea has to determine every word that you use and every sentence that you introduce to a letter or a press release.

The main idea of your writing should always be easily noticeable and you should not explain what you are writing about to your readers additionally.

• Proofread your writing

Ask someone to edit and proofread your text. It can be someone from your team or you can check it in proofreading service. Proofreading is one of the most important parts of any type of writing as it helps to correct mistakes and find the weak points. When someone else reads your article, they may tell you what exactly needs to be revised, what points need to be explained, and what should be included in your writing.

When working on your business writing, you should always keep in mind that an effective text can help you increase your income but the poorly written text may destroy everything that you have already achieved. That’s why you should always take writing seriously and make everything possible to create texts that invest into the bright future of your company. By following our tips, you will be able to avoid common mistakes and enhance the quality of the texts that you produce. If you have some additional tips to share with us, do so in the comment section below.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lori Wade .