Crystal Darby – The Communication CoachEffective communication is the key to success

Overcoming Writer’s Block

§ June 3rd, 2010 § Filed under communication, small business, writing § Tagged business writing, communication, communication coaching, creativity, writer's block, writing § No Comments

Suffering from writer’s block? Have a proposal to do and can’t quite get it started? Here’s a tip that works for me, especially when the work is creative in nature. I give myself a request before I go to sleep at night. For instance, if I’m trying to come up with a marketing idea for a client, or a logo design, or a newsletter concept, I ask myself for the idea right before I go to bed. I tell myself, “I’ll have the idea when I wake up tomorrow morning.” The trick here is to believe that you will be able to do it, and getting a good night’s sleep doesn’t hurt.

Anyone who does sales for a living will tell you that believing you will get the sale is an important part of the process. It doesn’t make up for knowledge about the product or service you are selling and doing research on your prospective customer. However, nothing can end your prospects faster than not believing you will get the sale.

Writing is similar. You still need the basic skills, but the ideas come largely because you believe they will. I’m not sure why this works. My guess is that stress makes it difficult to think creatively. Once you have convinced yourself that you will have the skills and the ideas necessary to complete your project or make your sale, you relieve the stress and allow the ideas to flow.

Try it the next time you have a big project. You may just find a winning solution. After all, how do you think I got the idea for this post?

Error-Free Business Correspondence

§ June 2nd, 2010 § Filed under communication, small business, writing § Tagged business letters, business writing, communication, communication coaching, editing, emails, error-free, grammar, professional, proofreading, writing § No Comments

Want your email to be error-free? Here are some suggestions.

Do you have a tendency to forget to include important pieces of information in your emails or business letters? If so, answer the “5 Ws and an H” as you write:

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

Not every email has to answer all of these questions, but if you’re inviting someone to an event or explaining something important, running through these questions will help you cover all the necessary points.

Read it out loud

Once you have finished your email or business letter, read the whole thing out loud. We are all in such a hurry these days that it is normal to leave a word out or say something that doesn’t put across what we intended. Reading out loud forces you to slow down and check for errors. It’s also a good way to check for repetition or phrases that cause the reader to lose concentration.

Find an extra set of eyes

If you have the time, have someone else read over your more important correspondence. An extra set of eyes can give your text a fresh look and find errors that you are too close to see.

If you make a mistake, your reader will probably be able to figure out what you meant. Remember, though, that being clear and error-free makes you look more professional and makes your reader feel he or she was important enough to receive your best effort.