I had a dream the other night. It's rare I remember my dreams, but this one really stuck with me. I was a writer. I had just been hired by an internet startup, as had one other writer. It was the first day of this new adventure and all of us gathered into the new office space. Everyone had their desks, accounting, tech, the executives. It slowly dawned on me that there were no desks for the writers. There was no room. I asked about it, but everyone seemed to think that the writers were unimportant. I then proceeded to explain just how important writers are to a business. Everyone seemed rather unimpressed but proceeded to grudgingly make room for desks for the writers.
To be perfectly honest, that's how I viewed writing in my business for many years, not really important, but somewhat necessary. I grudgingly made space for it. Over the years, I've learned that it is not only necessary but essential to business. And we're not just talking copywriting. There are so many facets of your business that rely on good writing, from office communications to sales brochures to client presentations and more.
Communication
Let's start at the top. As a business owner, you will need to be able to write communications to your employees that are concise and leave no doubt what you expect of them or of the direction you are going to take the company. Of course, you can hire someone to write inter-company communications for you, but this is a skill you should have yourself. If you can't explain in simple terms your vision to your employees, you probably aren't sure of it yourself and need to refine it more until you can write a simple explanation anyone in the company could understand.
I have seen it happen many times, where an owner or manager can't clearly explain the purpose or details of a new project. The employees are more than willing and eager to make progress on the project, but it fails, is way behind schedule, or is over budget. This failure occurs not due to their lack of work ethic or mistakes on their part, but because the owner or manager failed to communicate effectively in their documentation such that the employees had to do a lot of guesswork or spent too much time repeatedly asking questions for clarification. This could have been avoided with concise documentation and memos outlining the project vision.
Attracting Talented Employees
HR needs to be able to spell out the qualifications and skills needed for the job and to make the job appealing to the right candidates. You don't want to waste your time interviewing people unqualified or unfit for the job vacancy you wish to fill. HR also needs to craft proper offer letters that make clear what the salary, benefits, and other perks and responsibilities will be for the candidate.
Research & Development
Reports need to be written in a way that they are as complete and informative as possible, but easily understandable by any employee in the company.
Sales & Marketing
Advertisements need to grab the attention of potential customers and clients. Company presentations, brochures, and sales material need to be compelling and easily understandable.
Credibility
How many times have you been reading an advertisement or product description and spelling or grammatical errors made you skeptical of the quality of the products the company produces or its credibility? I have, many times, and my thought process is usually along the lines of the following. “If they don't have quality testing of a simple thing like their sales copy (i.e. proofreading), what assurances do I have that they do quality testing of their product?”
Now, some of you might be saying to yourself that you know you're not a good writer or that you don't like writing. You have two options: learn to be a good writer or hire someone to write for you. I strongly encourage you to choose the first option and learn how to write well. There are many courses at websites like Udemy or there are hundreds of books on the topic. Even your local community college is likely to have classes. If you are adamant that you don't want to improve your writing skills and you want to hire someone instead, there are many freelancers at Upwork eager to write for a fee.
Whatever option you use, to write yourself or hire someone to do it for you, remember that writing is one of the most important things in your business. Make sure all your writing, from inter-office communications to sales brochures is of the best quality.