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improve your writing skills

15 Ways To Improve Your Writing Skills As An Entrepreneur

Have you ever thought about finding quick ways to improve your writing skills as an entrepreneur?

Business owners tend to feel an immense amount of pressure to be able to do it all and do it all well. Writing for your business is one skill you must nail to feel successful.

However, we also understand that even the most high-achieving entrepreneurs can feel burnt out, against a wall, and just plain ol’ uninspired when writing for their business.

For some, it’s been a while since you’ve sat in a classroom fine-tuning your creative writing brain. And for others, writing anything is your worst nightmare – even with all of the coffee in the world to keep you going (we’ve been there, too).

But we’re not here to gatekeep the best ways to improve your writing skills as an entrepreneur, which is why we’ve created the list below.

Why Every Entrepreneur Should Improve Their Writing Skills

As an entrepreneur, you have many many many hats on your head. Writing is one of those hats that will continue to serve you over and over again. 

Similar to accounting, you need to know how to do it. Whether you should do it – that’s an entirely different question. 

But when it comes to your words, you need to have the skill sharpened. When you know how to communicate effectively through the written word, you are able to: 

  • Close sales on the deals you actually want
  • Attract the right types of clients
  • Secure financing through traditional loans or investment
  • Motivate your team, vendors, and clients
  • Limit the back and forth in email because you got your point across clearly

The limits are endless when you know how to write well.

How To Improve Your Writing Skills

Yes, writing is a skill. This means you need to practice every now and then to avoid making mistakes while getting your message across clearly. Here are 15 ways to improve your writing skills as an entrepreneur.

1. Create A Daily Practice To Write

Again, writing is a skill much like swimming or cooking. You can excel at it, but it takes time and practice.

To clarify, you don’t need to sign up for another college course or set aside hours of your day. You can polish your general writing skills in as little as 15 minutes a day using quick writing quizzes from free sources like the Academic English Cafe

If you’re looking for less structure, pick a fun prompt you can use to write a short story for yourself. Set the clock and write as much as possible in 15 minutes, then stop. Plug your story into software like Grammarly to check for spelling and grammar and see how to improve your style.

No extra time on your hands? We’re here to help. Let’s talk about what you want out of copywriting for your business.

2. Diversify Writing Styles

Go back to choosing a fun prompt. This time, take only a few minutes to write using 3 different styles. You can alter anything you want to make it sound…

  • Extra professional
  • Positive and lighthearted
  • Extremely emotional
  • Sales focused
  • Exciting
  • Straight forward

When you’re done, take a look at all 3 and read them aloud to yourself to get a better idea of which styles you excel at and which could use a bit more work. Believe us when we say there’s a big difference between writing styles depending on your voice and tone.

3. Time Yourself

There are 2 solid ways you can practice timing your writing in 15 minutes or less:

  1. Answer an industry-based FAQ you definitely know everything about
  2. Discuss an industry-related hot topic you wish you knew more about

The first will allow you to see how much and how well you can get your point across in those 15 minutes. The second will give you a short chance to research and write what you know with the same previous goal in mind. 

Reread both finished prompts and try to pinpoint places where you could improve.

4. Select Your Favorite Passage Or Page To Copy

Have you ever read something that you truly admired? 

Whether you were looking at another company’s website or e-blast, you can emulate a similar style in your own writing without being a complete copycat. Here’s how to do just that using a landing page like this one:

  1. Find a landing page you admire
  2. Break down the page line by line into clear sections like…
    1. Headlines
    2. Subheadings
    3. Body copy
    4. Call-to-actions (CTA buttons)
    5. Final statement or header
  3. Write about your own business following a similar style

Once you feel like you’re going in a good direction, take a step back, and admire your hard work.

Thinking about adding engaging landing pages for your business but don’t know where to start? We’ve got you covered!

5. Record Yourself, Then Transcribe

Let’s say you’ve been chosen to give a speech on a popular topic in your industry. Keep the speech under 5 minutes and simply speak on the topic while recording yourself. 

As soon as you’re done, start transcribing what you’ve said. Chances are, you’ll notice right away the number of times you say things you would NEVER write. This includes words like…um, err, uh, like, and anything else that isn’t truly a full thought (Hint: Don’t include those). From there, you can write down everything else you’ve said and edit it to make it more concise and digestible to read.

Psst! If you do this, you can create a blog or social media post for yourself. 

6. Edit Someone Else’s Writing

One of the best ways to hone your writing skills is to edit other people’s writing. This allows you to get used to various styles and personalities to see what fits where best. Don’t know where to look? Start with editing friends’ or family members’ social media posts or emails they’ve sent (just don’t be so quick to point out their errors ????). 

If you’re comfortable, ask someone to write something for you to edit it for them. You never know, it might spark up some pretty interesting conversations about writing choices and preferences. 

7. Let Someone Else Edit Your Writing

Whether you pick a friend, colleague, spouse, or whomever, this practice will require you to be open to criticism. Choose something you’ve written before or something you haven’t yet published. Pass it on and be patient. Allow your editor time to read, edit, and offer other feedback if necessary.

It’s important to be open here because making mistakes doesn’t need to feel like the end of the world. Try to see it as a learning experience so you don’t make the same mistakes moving forward.

8. Don’t Be Afraid To Travel Back To The Basics

Let’s talk about timing yourself to gauge your typing speed. Most people consider this the number of words you type per minute (WPM). You can use a free tool online like this one from LiveChat to see where you stand on the writing race track. This is a good tool to use every now and again to get a quick measure of your WPM and the number of errors made. Continue practicing until you reach a new higher WPM with zero errors.

9. Try Benefits > Features

Every business owner knows which cool, innovative, or unique features they offer. But knowing the difference between a feature and a benefit is even more important. 

For example, if you run a dental clinic, described features usually look like:

  • Customer Parking Lot
  • Open Late On Tuesdays
  • Fast Service
  • Kids Dental

But here’s what they could look like when turned into true benefits to really entice your customers or potential customers:

  • No-Stress, Free Parking In Nearby Lot
  • No PTO Needed With Late Tuesday Appointments Available
  • Wait Time Is Always 10 Minutes Or Less
  • Quality Dental Services For Kids Ages 4+

So, what about your business? Write down your offered features and turn them into big benefits your audience can’t wait to learn more about.

10. Be Your Own Headline Hero

Take 10 minutes to jot down as many headline options you can think of for your business. Good, bad, and ugly – write them all down! Don’t overthink it or focus too hard on perfecting each one. This is a fantastic exercise to do when you feel uninspired, unfocused, or everything in between. Have fun with it! Use puns, wordplay (personal favorites), bold statements, and questions to spark your creativity.

11. Practice Punctuation.

We like to have fun here…But honestly, practice using the correct punctuation throughout your writing. You can use a simple spell-check tool to see if you got it right or to explore other options. For example, if you’ve never truly been strict about using the Oxford comma, give it a shot and see how it fits with your writing style. In addition to improving accuracy, practicing punctuation is also a good way to explore different writing styles.

12. Dear Diary Journal

You’re a working professional and entrepreneur, so we can go ahead and call it journaling now ????. 

Make journaling a short practice that you do every day or even once a week using an actual notebook (just smell those fresh pages) or your laptop, phone, or tablet. You don’t need a prompt to journal. You don’t even have to think about anything in particular to start writing! Simply write what you feel for a few minutes before you start work.

Do you have night owl energy? 

Journal late at night before going to bed and reread your thoughts in the morning!

13. Access A Writing Course

There are so many professional-quality writing courses for businesses available online. You just need to find the one that aligns with your goals. Courses like these don’t need to take up too much of your time and should be easy to follow. Courses like these also offer the most benefits as they allow you to chip away at their entirety on your own time. When you’re finished, you have a wealth of new knowledge you can use throughout all of your writing assets moving forward.

Join ours here: Launch Your Website Copy Academy

14. Explore Other Words

If you’ve done any of the above before, you can probably pick out words you might be overusing or repeating often. Put those words in a list and expand each one with 2 to 5 new words you can use in their place. Some commonly used words you should consider switching up include: 

  • Great
  • Amazing
  • Different
  • Utilize
  • New
  • Hard
  • Change
  • Important

Do you use these words too often in your writing? Add some flair when necessary to spice it up for your readers.

15. Sleep On It

Seriously! 

Once you’ve written something, taking a little break from it before hitting publish is okay. Give yourself the time to walk away from your writing and return to it with fresh eyes. You might find that you have a better way of saying what you’re trying to say when looking at it a second time.

No Time To Practice? Leave The Pen To The Pros!

Writing can feel overwhelming, and not everyone is comfortable writing for their business. But we are. 

Contact FocusCopy for a hearty cup of copy for your business goals.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words
does your business need a content writer

Does Your Business Need A Content Writer?

Business owners of all kinds deal with a variety of problems. You cut checks for employees, talk to clients daily, and go the extra mile to keep yourself on top of numerous responsibilities. But how are your marketing efforts going?

Even the most composed CEOs feel overwhelmed when it comes to writing for their business. On occasion, you may even feel burnt out and uninspired. Writing is time-consuming, tedious, and takes plenty of planning. You might truly feel you don’t have the time for it all! And that’s okay. There’s an entire world of content writers out there to help you define your goals and put your ideas into action.

There are blog posts, press releases, email marketing campaigns, and countless other forms of communication – it’s a lot to deal with. But hiring a content writer for your business could be the key to elevating your success (without blowing your budget). 

We’ll walk you through topics to think about when making your decision to hire a content writer. We’ll even show you what to look out for before you hire one!

Need a content writer for your business? Schedule a chat.

8 Signs Your Business Needs To Hire A Content Writer

You might think content writers won’t be available to handle your small to medium-sized business. Actually, content writers are more likely to work with private companies rather than public ones. This is great news for you because there are plenty of writers out there who are interested in earning your business. 

Especially if you experience any of the following…

1. Writing Anything Is Your Worst Nightmare

Many of our clients say they simply hate writing. And that’s okay! We get it. We love what we do. But even we aren’t always best friends with writing every second of the day. Some of the most common concerns our clients face before passing on their writing projects include:

  • No time to write
  • Don’t know how to write well
  • Obsessed with perfection
  • Afraid someone else’s writing won’t sound like them

Sound like you? It’s time to talk to the copy baristas at FocusCopy to solve the problem.

2. Your Backlog Of Projects Keeps Piling Up

Again, time is typically the enemy here. We have clients who are so focused on their end goal, they lose track of their initial writing tasks. You’re probably too busy and falling behind on important deadlines. Or (even worse) you find yourself making promises to clients without a plan for your deliverables in place. None of this means you can’t accomplish your goals. But with a content writer, you can turn a lack of structure into a timely schedule.

3. There Are No Resources When You’re Falling Behind

You need fresh content. But you don’t have anything ready to go. This is why it’s crucial to have extra work or even older writing that’s reusable. You should have a working log of blogs, social media posts, and other evergreen resources you can use when you’re short on content. That way, your material is still valuable while saving you time when work or life gets hectic.

4. Visits To Your Website Are Lacking

Have you checked your SEO rankings lately? Even more simple, have you googled your business to see where you stand? 

Looking into your ranking opens the discussion of whether you need a content writer for SEO purposes. If you’re not targeting certain keywords or phrases, chances are your competitors will. A content writer who’s familiar with SEO can research and create copy with your SEO objectives in mind.

5. You Have No Idea What Your Audience Wants

Your message sounds as though it’s getting lost in your writing (or someone else’s). This is a huge problem because B2B buyers are 50% more likely to make a purchase when they feel an emotional connection. What now?

It’s time to refine your audience. It’s okay to take a step back to the basics and ask yourself who you’re speaking to and why they should care. Think about and jot down who your audience is and how your business benefits them. How does your company make their lives easier? Once you’ve nailed down who your audience is, you can concentrate on the clarity of your message. 

6. Your Type-A Personality Isn’t Getting The Job Done

Perfectionism is a wonderful trait to have in several aspects of your life. Chances are, you aced studying in school and you’re the main point of contact when planning a trip with your friends. But when it comes to writing, perfectionism can get in the way and prevent you from publishing your work. With a ton of drafts sitting in your drive, you may as well not be writing at all.

It’s hard to let go and trust someone else with your brand. But if you work closely with a content writer, you’ll be surprised at how much they can do for you that you haven’t been able to do for yourself.  

7. No One Else On Your Team Can Take Over

Your team is swamped, and no one has an extra hand to lend. Plus, one of your employees is on vacation and another is out sick. Hiring a content writer doesn’t guarantee someone is on call 24/7. But by working with an experienced content writer, you’ll get a master of time management who meets deadlines and takes critique as though they were born to complete your projects.

8. You’re Getting Drowned Out By The Competition

Drowning in the competition? There are several other aspects of writing that help boost your website to the top. A simple long-form blog won’t push you to page one anymore. Additional aspects such as search engine optimization (SEO), meta tags, readability, big benefits, and so much more affect your visibility. Content writers know this and will integrate each aspect into everything they write to stand out from the competition.

A Checklist For Your (Potential) Content Writer 

Here are some things to look for when hiring a content writer…

Experience & Range

If you can find a content writer who has experience writing in your industry, that’s great! Otherwise, find someone who has a portfolio that shows their range and ability to work across different industries.

Understand Their Process

A good content writer will know the tools, techniques, and other resources needed to create quality content. Get a feel for how they operate and find out if it’s a fit for you.

Set Clear Goals & Expectations

Let potential writers know what you’d like to achieve and what you expect them to do along the way. Are you a fan of self-editing? Tell them. Will you have several quick deadlines? Be honest and upfront about your schedule. The more they know, the more they can do to help.

Request Referrals & Read Reviews

Find out who else they’ve worked with and ask for referrals. Get a feel for who the writer is in a professional or personal setting to see if they’re someone you’d like to work with.

Discuss A Budget For Your Business

Have an open conversation and talk to potential content writers about your budget. You may be surprised at what a content writer can do even if you’re unsure whether you can afford one.

Does Your Business Need A Content Writer? You Can Find Hot & Fresh Copy Right Here

We understand business owners’ challenges. It can be hard to let go of even a singular part of your business. Nevertheless, hiring a professional writer helps get the work done. There may be a learning curve. However, a great content writer will deliver what you need right on time. If you’re consistently catching up on your own work, hire a content writer and have it done for you.

Ready to make a move towards consistent content? Schedule a meeting with me today.

Focus Your Copy On Conversation & Conversion

Let’s Grab A Virtual Coffee With Us To Discover How To Boost Your Words