5 Commandments of Great Business Writing
Writing well will make or break your business (or your career). So how do you get good at it? As someone who makes their living writing, I’m always on the lookout for useful advice, and I stumbled across a great list of tips from AngelList co-founder Babak Nivi.
“Business writing is a customer service problem”
Writing is not about you, your feelings, or your accomplishments, it’s about serving the reader
- Nivi frames this truth in a particularly succinct and business friendly way
- “You’re not the star — the reader is. Give ’em the goods”
Don’t write your thought process
Start the piece with a conclusion and make your best case
- The final draft should not mimic the path you took to come up with the idea
- Make the best case, then close with the best argument you can make
“Scrutinize every word for bias and rhetoric.”
This helps you root out your own unexamined biases and think more logically, which can only be good for you and your business.
Sum it Up in a Tweet
If you can’t sum up what you’re saying succinctly at the end, you’re in trouble
- “The ideal tweet absolves the reader from reading further. Sequoia says, ‘Summarize the company’s business on the back of a business card.'”
“Writing is rewriting.”
Writing well is an iterative, time-intensive process.
- It’s perfectly fine if your initial draft is garbage – it’s possible to make it great, but it may take a lot longer than you expect
- Spend most of your time rewriting and reorganizing.
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