Writing Employee Policies and Procedures

Writing employee policies and procedures

Employee policy and procedures manuals are used for many purposes. They come in many shapes and sizes.

Employee policy manuals go by a variety of names. Here are a few:

Organizational Policy Manual.
Departmental Policy and Procedures Manual.
Operating Policy and Procedures Manual.
Employee Manual (Handbook).
Employment Manual.
Human Resources Policy Manual.

Their primary function is employee education and good governance. Unfortunately, they often miss the mark because they’re poorly written, disorganized, or not well maintained. Sometimes they don’t even distinguish between “policy” and “procedure.” Continue reading Writing Employee Policies and Procedures

Writing Business Emails

When writing business emails, most of us don’t take them that seriously. We fire them off in a casual hurry, with little attention or careful consideration. That’s because we don’t appreciate the power of emails enough to write them well.

The truth is, business emails are not casual, and they’re not stiff either. Instead, they should be highly purposeful, targeted, well-structured and attention-getting intrusions, presented in a friendly yet authoritative tone as concisely as possible. Continue reading Writing Business Emails

What is a Sales Manual? How to Write a Sales Manual

Your company depends on its sales team’s performance and capabilities—in fact, sales personnel who reliably get the job done year-in and year-out are indispensable. That’s why smart companies keep sales teams highly informed about all things essential, relevant and helpful to being “smart” and effective. They supply every resource the sales team needs to do the job exceptionally well, and keep them well trained. And they do this with intentionality and deliberateness. Continue reading What is a Sales Manual? How to Write a Sales Manual

The Secret of Business Blogs

Have you ever wondered who has time for a business blog, or who has so much to say? I used to. In fact, I came to the business-blogging party late. For years I didn’t grasp what all the hype was about—I often thought, “who cares?” The secret of business blogs eluded me. Not one of my better moments. Lately, though, the secret has become very clear. Continue reading The Secret of Business Blogs

Developing Your Crowd Funding Proposal

Telling Your Crowd Funding Story

When writing your crowd funding proposal or application copy, and creating the crowdfunding pitch essentials needed to raise money from far-flung like-minded supporters, the key is organizing and writing a great narrative, with a compelling presentation.

Today over 1,000 online platforms like “gofundme,” “Kickstarter,” “Indiegogo,” “RocketHub” deliver $10 billion in critical funding to over 22,000 projects and causes each year—and the numbers are increasing. After you’ve picked the right crowd funding site for your project and done your homework on rewards, promotions, and incentives that work for your audience of contributors, you can write the pitch.

Key Elements of a Crowd Funding Proposal Continue reading Developing Your Crowd Funding Proposal

Blogging Best Practices

To make your blog worth the effort, and ensure its success, here are some basic enterprise blogging best practices to guide you: Continue reading Blogging Best Practices

Eight Things that Make Your Business Pitch Weak

1. Boring. Even though the market’s needs and your solutions aren’t boring, bring them to life through stories that resonate, rather than by merely recounting “facts.” Tell us about people with passion and intelligence, great ideas, interesting Continue reading Eight Things that Make Your Business Pitch Weak

Writing a Winning Business Proposal

Business Proposals — To know how to write a winning business proposal, ask your customer (i.e., the party requesting the proposal) what they need to know; learn what informs their decision making. The purpose of business proposal writing is to persuade the customer or prospect to select you. The best way to do this is Continue reading Writing a Winning Business Proposal

A Strong Business Writing Culture is Good for Success

Few Business Leaders Pay Attention to Their Company’s Business Writing Culture

For years I’ve been telling everyone I can that quality business writing, and a supportive business writing culture, are essential to business success. Frankly, many don’t find the topic very engaging or exciting—it’s just not something that grabs their attention or interest. They nod approval and feign understanding, but usually don’t really know what I mean. Just a casual bit of courteous respect, I suppose.

Sad, but true, businesses for the most part pay lip service to the subject of quality business writing—it never tops their list of priorities. I have yet to hear a business owner or executive say, Continue reading A Strong Business Writing Culture is Good for Success

Business-Writing Process — Brilliance or Hard Slog?

Business-Writing Process is Not a Single Flash of Uninterrupted Brilliance — It’s a Hard Slog

Occasionally business writers get it all down in just the right way in a flurry of inspiration. But for most of us writing usually doesn’t happen like that. In fact, the process is commonly a regularly interrupted slog. Ideas come, are written down, rethought, organized, edited, more ideas, refinement, ah-hah moments; dead ends are deleted; we move on, rethink, edit, polish. Repeat several times and maybe you’ll have a great piece.

So don’t think for a minute that creating business prose, copy or documents will be a seamless one-time gig, or that your entire piece will fall out of your head onto the page in a single flash of clarity or brilliance. If you’re waiting for this to happen, you’ll probably get little writing done.

Crafting very good material occurs by not doing it all at once. Continue reading Business-Writing Process — Brilliance or Hard Slog?