10 Secrets of Developing Your Business Writing Skills to Make More Profit

The reason many people fail to communicate their expertise effectively is that they hesitate to write.

Even although many studies show that public speaking is one of the most common fears among adults, the truth is that most people are also scared to commit their ideas and thoughts to writing. This is arguably much more damaging to their potential success.

If you are going to make more profit from the expertise that you identified in the previous Step, you need to overcome any hesitation about writing and start practicing it regularly to get your message across effectively.

Whether it arises from people being told in school that they were not good writers or whether it’s a fear of others commenting on what they say, the unwillingness to put things down on paper is a significant block on success.

The problem is that writing is not just a method of communication. It’s also a way of turning ideas into action.

Business coach Glenn Dietzel, who specializes in helping people unleash their hidden potential to write books, says:

“Writing is the doing part of thinking.”

This means that taking time to write things down is a necessary step towards putting them into action.

So here are some ways to make your writing more profitable:

10 ways to use writing to help your business

“The first key to writing is… to write, not to think!”

Start by writing for yourself: If you are hesitating to share your writing with larger audiences, start by writing down your ideas and plans for your own benefit – even if it’s just in bullet point or note form. That gets the idea out of your head and leads to more chance it will come to life.
Always carry a notebook: You never know when your best ideas will come to you so always have a small notebook to hand, to help you remember them later.
Write quickly and don’t edit until later: When you start to write, just let the ideas flow freely. Don’t stop to edit as you are writing. The time to edit is later. As Sean Connery, playing the lead role in the film “Finding Forrester”, says: “No thinking – that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is… to write, not to think!”
Get feedback from others: Consider asking someone to comment on your writing before you circulate it too widely. They may give you some good suggestions and their comments will also make you feel more comfortable about releasing it.
Use expert writers to polish or to provide your raw material: There are two ways you can use expert writers to make you feel better about writing. You can either ask someone else to write for you and then change their words into your own style. Or you can quickly sketch out your ideas and then get them to polish it for you. There are many websites such as www.elance.com – where you can get easy access to experienced writers at surprisingly low cost.
Let your personality show through: In general, write as you would talk. Many people feel the need to write in a style that is too formal. So, when you write anything important, read it out loud and make sure it sounds like the way you would talk.
Seek results not perfection: You’re not seeking a literary award, you are just trying to get your message across. So don’t waste too much time perfecting your message.
You are the best at writing your own sales copy: You know your product or service better than anyone else and you have more passion about it. So you should seriously consider writing your own sales messages and letters. There are many guides and formulas that make the process easier than you expect.
Get a blog: As we discuss in a later Step, there are good marketing reasons for having your own blog. However one great advantage is that maintaining a blog can get you into the habit of writing regularly and refining your ideas.
Talking can be easier than writing: Some people find it much easier to talk about their ideas than to write, so consider dictating your ideas and getting someone else to type them up so that you can edit them. Services like www.idictate.com make this easy and relatively low cost.

Writing is not just about communication, it’s also about turning ideas into action.

Action Step: Practicing Your Writing
To get your writing juices flowing try some of the following:

Write a short article on your expertise and submit it to an online article site like www.ezinearticles.com
Set up your own simple blog at www.wordpress.com and start writing every day about your area of expertise.
If you don’t like sitting down to write, sketch out some bullet points and try out a dictation service such as www.idictate.com
Circulate a draft of some important communication to a few key people and consider their comments before issuing it more widely.
Try writing a short sales letter to promote your expertise highlighting the key messages you identified in the last step.

In the next step we’re going to look at ways in which you can package your product so that you can make money from it without having to be present.You can follow this series here on the blog or by signing up at mindpowermarketing.com/moreprofit