Writing for your business: building a firm foundation

When you decide to set up a business from home, you may not have much experience of writing for a business.  What I know from my experience and that of clients is that when you think about writing for your business, it helps to be clear about three things:

1. Your passion for your business

2. What you want to communicate to others about your business

3. The result you want from the communication

As with any aspect of a business, the more you can refine what you do into a system or method, the more efficient you’ll become. That means you’ll not only save time, you’ll be able to respond fast to opportunities to promote your business.  Let’s look at the three points.

1. Your passion for your business

Very few people go into business solely to make money. Many home based businesses grow out of a hobby, a passion or a talent you have.  This is important because the passion keeps you going when other things fail. But it’s also a vital part in communicating what you have to sell.

How many times have you read brochures or websites and bailed out because the words didn’t involve you? Here’s where one of your major strengths lies.

You love what you do or you wouldn’t bother to do it.

So tell people. Use that passion in everything you write. Remember what fired you up enough to make you want to be part of it.

2.   What you want to communicate to others about your business?

Write down all the positive words you can about what you’re doing. Keep going till you’ve run out of space and breath.

Now go through all the words you’ve written and choose the 3 words that are most important to you.
These may be feelings you have about the way you carry out business; ethical, friendly or green. They may be about the results you can achieve for those who use your products or services.

What ever it is, focus on those. If those were the only three words you could write or speak about your business, would they tell people exactly what you want to say?  It may take you several attempts to come to a conclusion. Please make the effort because being clear about your core values, will pay off every time you write about your business.

3. The result you want from the communication

Make sure it’s clear what you want them to do as a result of reading your words. This might seem obvious; you want them to buy. But remember there may be important stages in between and they need to be spelled out to create the long term relationship you want.

Apply these simple tests to everything you write and you will become a more effective writer.