If you’re involved in business writing, be it writing business plans, state of the art of the reports or sales pitches, there are some key things you can do to ensure you’re at the top of your game. Read on to find out how to be a good business writer:
1. Keep Up-To-Date with Industry Developments
It’s always useful to keep abreast of recent developments in the industry you’re working in, be it new products and services that are being launched, or mergers and acquisitions that might have happened. This can help your writing directly, as you may need to differentiate what you are trying to propose or sell in your writing, from similar solutions and processes already out there.
It can also help you indirectly, as you will be able to show awareness of recent trends in your sector through your writing. This will of course have a positive impact on the person(s) reviewing your document, because it will demonstrate that you understand the sector.
2. Start Off With a One-Pager
Rather than writing pages and pages of a business document from the get-go, produce a one page summary of what the project is about. For instance, if you’re writing a funding application involving the development of a new product, then you might want to produce one side of A4, outlining why the new product is needed, how the product will work and what the commercial impact will be of the innovative solution.
A brief summary like this will enable you to identify any gaps in the arguments you are using to base your proposal on, early on, and enable you to change the pitch you’re using accordingly, to one that is more compelling.
3. Brainstorm with Your Team
More minds can always achieve more than one. Although people are very busy in the workplace, always request a colleague or a team if possible, to work with you during the early stages of planning your business document – even it means working with someone for just 1 hour. Your colleague will be able to share insights that could be very useful for the document you’re writing, and identify something which you might not have considered.
4. Get Feedback from Your Colleagues
Always remember to ask your colleagues to give you feedback on the business document you have produced before sending it to its intended audience. Not only will your colleagues be able to give an overall sense check on what you’re produced, they will also identify any last minute flaws in the overall story of your document, which you can then fix before the final submission.
5. Always Proofread Your Document
Although this point might seem obvious, when you’re working on multiple business documents at the same time, it can be easy to forget. Always proofread your work for spelling, grammar and overall sentence structure before you send it out of your office.
If possible, get a colleague with experience in admin to proofread your document as individuals like this can be highly skilled at picking out typos and spelling mistakes, in your work, which you might have completely missed.