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pBusiness writing is one of the most lucrative forms of freelance writing out there. Yet, many writers avoid this niche./p
pIn my experience, that#8217;s often due to a misconception of what it#8217;s like to do business writing. There#8217;s a lot of confusion out there about what it really takes to land business clients and successfully write these assignments./p
pI know, because once a few years back I was a journalist #8212; and I thought agreeing to do copywriting was equivalent to joining the Dark Side of the Force./p
pThen, I accidentally did some business writing. I just sort of fell into it./p
pWhen I left a staff-writing job, a CEO at a local startup I#8217;d reported on asked if I would ghost his blog. Maybe write a few advertorial articles for his website./p
pAt the time I didn#8217;t honestly know what a blog emwas, /embut I said, #8220;Sure, I can do that.#8221;/p
pThen a funny thing happened. /p
pI enjoyed myself. It was fun and challenging, trying to talk in another person#8217;s voice./p
pThe articles weren#8217;t much different from reported stories I#8217;d done in the past, except that the company gave me the topic and pointed me toward experts who knew their company and would say flattering things about their type of solution./p
blockquote class="pullquote"pIt was all pretty delightful, interesting, challenging work ? and I felt no need to take a shower afterwards./p/blockquote
pI went on to write for global, $1 billion consultancies, and Fortune 500 retail chains./p
pIt was all pretty delightful, interesting, challenging work #8212; and I felt no need to take a shower afterwards./p
pRecently, I taught a class on breaking into business writing, and discovered many writers are intimidated by this niche./p
pWriters also have many misconceptions about this writing niche. So I thought I#8217;d pull back the curtain and bust a few myths about the world of business writing./p
pHere are the seven myths I hear most:span id="more-34471"/span/p
h31. I don#8217;t know anything about business/h3
pUnless you have been living in a cave somewhere off the grid, you know a lot about business. Even if you have never held a job in your life./p
pWhat do you know?/p
pYou shop. You probably shop at some locally owned stores, too./p
pThere are products and services you use and enjoy. You#8217;ve learned something about those companies and what they do./p
pFor instance, if you#8217;re an avid gardener, I#8217;m betting you know the local plant nursery. They probably have a newsletter that needs writing, too./p
pYou help people, too. Maybe you took a relative or friend for doctor visits while they battled cancer, and learned about the medical field as a result./p
pWhile you were there you might have read the hospital#8217;s magazine for patients. Those magazine articles are a business-writing assignment, too./p
blockquote class="pullquote pqRight"pThe secret is, that little bit is all you need to know. Many companies won?t want you to know much more./p/blockquote
pIf you#8217;ve held a few jobs, all the better. Maybe you learned a bit about finance while you worked as a bank teller, or picked up some restaurant lingo as a waitress. Maybe your dad owned a hardware store and you sort of grew up around retailing./p
pThe secret is, that little bit is all you need to know. Many companies won#8217;t want you to know much more./p
pHiring someone from inside the industry would only mean they#8217;d speak the same jargon, which the company is desperately trying to iron out of its copy./p
pYou can pitch them if you know a bit about what they do, and you#8217;re a freelance writer. You#8217;ll be surprised how often that gets you in the door./p
pPersonally, I#8217;ve leveraged the fact that my dad sold insurance to land tens of thousands of dollars of work writing about insurance topics. The companies were so grateful I knew what insurance was and how it basically works, that it got me right in the door./p
h32. Businesses only use pros/h3
pYes, every business would like to hire a title="Bob Bly" href="http://bly.com/new/index.html" target="_blank"Bob Bly/a or a title="Nick Usborne" href="http://www.nickusborne.com/" target="_blank"Nick Usborne/a or another brand-name copywriter to write their copy./p
pBut guess what? Most of them can#8217;t afford top copywriters./p
pThat#8217;s where you come in./p
pNo matter where you are at in your writing career, there is a business at a similar stage #8212; just starting out, or maybe growing a bit, or big-time success. You can find those prospects and get gigs./p
h33. Staff writers do all the copywriting/h3
pWhile bigger businesses may have a marketing department, those staff writers don#8217;t necessarily know how to write everything that company needs./p
blockquote class="pullquote"pManagers begin to realize staffers are drinking the Kool-Aid, speaking their jargon mumbo-jumbo./p/blockquote
pThey may not know spit about blogging, for instance. Or how to run a good Facebook campaign that gets the business hundreds of likes./p
pCompanies sometimes need outside eyes. Managers begin to realize staffers are drinking the Kool-Aid, speaking their jargon mumbo-jumbo. Then they need an outsider to come and translate it back into English so regular customers can understand why it#8217;s cool./p
pAnother issue in this age of down-staffing and right-sizing is that often, the remaining staff of the shrinking in-house marketing department are overwhelmed./p
pThey find themselves in a crunch and realize on-site resources will never get that white paper or company magazine written by deadline./p
pThen, they call a freelancer./p
h34. You need special skills and a degree/h3
pIf you have written articles, you can do the vast majority of business writing assignments right now. Here are the basic skills you need:/p
ul
liCuriosity/li
liStorytelling/li
liInterview skills/li
liAbility to boil down materials/li
liDetail orientation/li
liAbility to work with people/li
liBasic ability to write concisely and clearly/li
/ul
pIn other words, basic good reporting and writing experience. Your journalism skills are highly transferable into this field./p
pThe degree requirement is obviously false, since degrees in writing haven#8217;t even been around all that long. However, did ads and brochures get written before the rise of communications schools in universities?/p
pMost of the great copywriters of the emMad Men/em era learned on the job. They started as junior copywriters and learned the ropes from the old hands./p
pI also know this one is false because I lack a degree myself. I have yet to have a single business owner ask me if I have one./p
pIn writing, education is not what#8217;s at issue. If you can create a strong set of writing samples, you will impress the heck out of business prospects and you will get gigs./p
h35. It#8217;s all hard-sell copywriting/h3
pI can testify this is wrong, because I have yet to write any sales copy for a business client, and yet I#8217;ve earned tens of thousands from businesses over the years./p
pFact is, there is a ton of business writing that is informational rather than persuasive copy. Types of writing that don#8217;t tend to be hard-sell include:/p
ul
liBlogging/li
liWeb content/li
liNewsletters/li
liSocial-media posts/li
liCompany magazines/li
liWhite papers/li
liCase studies/li
liSpecial reports/li
/ul
pWhile a website might have a few sales pages, they need other pages, too #8212; History and Bio pages, a Home page that introduces the company to newcomers./p
pMany companies are increasingly steering away from the hard-sell, because customers are pretty sick of that grind. There#8217;s more and more content marketing out there, where you#8217;re just offering valuable information and building your brand authority./p
pAnd that means more opportunity for writers who don#8217;t feel like writing #8220;Buy now!#8221; in red, 60-point type all day./p
h36. I will be helping companies do evil/h3
pI hear this from writers a lot. Business writing makes you part of the problem, part of the Big Corporate Conspiracy that#8217;s destroying America. You#8217;ll be helping murder babies and destroy the planet./p
pWell, woah, hold up there a minute./p
pThe thing is, you pick and choose your clients as a freelancer. And no matter what your political bent or personal philosophy, there are companies out there you like./p
blockquote class="pullquote pqRight"pAll you have to do to keep out of trouble is target businesses where the value system aligns with yours. /p/blockquote
pThere are companies that sell organic food, or use only recycled materials. Businesses that hand-craft all their products with local labor, to which they pay fair wages./p
pIf you think the pharmaceutical industry is poisoning us all, for instance, don#8217;t write for Big Pharma./p
pAll you have to do to keep out of trouble is target businesses where the value system aligns with yours. Don#8217;t ever work for a company where what they do makes you feel uneasy. Trust me, there are plenty of companies in this big world, and you can find ones that you#8217;ll love to write for./p
h37. It will be boring/h3
pThis is the one I really thought would be true. I mean, how interesting can that little camera store down on the corner be?/p
pAnd yet, behind every successful small business there is a fascinating story. I#8217;ve never seen it fail./p
pThe story is different each time. But there is always an interesting tale there, at any business that has beaten the competition and survived the crushing odds against startups./p
pThere might be a personal story of triumph over adversity lurking behind that customer-service counter. I recently wrote website copy, for instance, for a man who#8217;d been hidden from the Nazis in Poland as a child and miraculously reunited with his family after World War II./p
pAfter following his father#8217;s wishes and becoming a dentist, he tired of that, broke with family tradition, and bootstrapped his way into a lucrative new career in commercial property management. With his Old World charm and dedication to his clients, he became the preeminent mall manager in his entire region #8212; and he dedicates all his business endeavors to his gratitude at his rescue./p
pAm I boring you here?/p
pThe business world simply bursts with tales of cutthroat competition, astonishing comebacks, new ideas, innovative products, amazing technologies, reinventions, and personal heartbreaks. Find that story, and trust me, you won#8217;t be bored./p
pIf you think business writing isn#8217;t for you, find a local business you love and see if you might do a little writing for them. I think you#8217;ll discover it#8217;s just another type of writing challenge and adventure #8212; and a chance to tell a great story./p
pAs a bonus, the pay#8217;s often great, too./p
pstrongHave you written for business? /strong Tell us how you broke into business writing./p
pemPhoto credit: a title="Attribution License" href="http://photodune.net/wiki/support/legal-terms/licensing-terms/"Some rights reserved/a by a href="http://photodune.net/item/golden-dragon/553018"phakimata/a/em./p
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