Don’t you love when the light bulb goes on and you bask in its brilliance? Unfortunately, when it comes to business writing, that light is not always turned on.
How can you keep the bright ideas shining?
Here are a few suggestions.
#1 – Shine a spotlight.
Remember when you received recognition for a job well done? Made you feel all warm inside, didn’t it? Use that moment as the switch for business writing ideas.
- Tell your story about your moment in the spotlight
- Describe the journey that brought you there
- What challenges did you overcome?
- What are your top 3 (5, 7, 10) takeaways from the experience?
- If you had to do it over again, what would you change?
Try sharing the spotlight.
- Describe a client’s shining moment
- How did your business support your client’s efforts?
- Create a case study about your client’s experience
- Interview your client for your business blog
- Develop a video of the interview
Think about your employees/partner/vendor
- Recognize a job well done
- Feature the individual/vendor on your business blog
- Share client testimonials
- Create an ad campaign showing how the individual/vendor helped your clients
#2 – Find alternatives to light.
Some of the best inspiration is right at our fingertips.
Take the word, light, and do a quick list of what comes to mind.
- Shine
- Bright
- Read
- Electric
We covered ideas for shine, but here are a few more.
- What shiny, new product or service do you have?
- Is there a client who you’ve taken a shine to? What makes them such a great client?
Now, let’s try the others.
- Bright – Have you taken a class, attended a webinar or seen a presentation that offered bright, new ideas? Share those with your clients.
- Read – Do a review of a book, industry article or post that you read and enjoyed
- Electric – Share the latest gadget or an electric presentation you found helpful or inspiring
Look at the alternative (opposite to light) – Dark – Describe a challenging time with your business or a project.
#3 – Flip the switch.
This idea can shed light in a number of directions.
- List the last 3 (5, 7, 10) tools/events/products that took your business out of the dark ages
- What new product/service/gadget made a task as easy as tuning on a light?
- What was your ah-ha moment when you knew you were on the right path? In business? With a solution to a client’s problem?
- Describe a time when you flipped the switch too quickly.
Your Shining Moment
Like any task performed repeatedly, business writing can fall prey to dullness. To keep your business writing shining, warm up your options.
- Create stories of brilliance and share what you learned from moments of darkness
- Remember to shine the light on your client – even if the story’s yours
- Sometimes the simplest ideas are the switch for creativity
Go forth and shine.
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Idea #8 Lamp
In a recent post, 10 business blog ideas were sitting right in front of my face. I looked at 10 items sitting on my desk and used them for blog post ideas.
To demonstrate that I practice what I preach I decided to do a 10-part series, using each one of the 10 main ideas. This post is #8 in the 10-part series.
The 8th item from my desk was a lamp. It illuminated several ideas.
- How about you?
- What enlightens your business writing ideas?
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Cathy, I loved this! I think that stories that are personal really help clients and readers on our websites and blogs. It helps them to feel connected to us. I love that feeling of connection with others. It is so important. It helps others to find their way, and that makes me very happy. I enjoyed your post very much. Your style and voice are very enjoyable 🙂
Hi, Lisa-nice to see you here – especially with all the kudos thrown my way. 😀 Thank you for the kind words.
It’s definitely all about relationship-building and why not have a little fun while doing it. Thanks for sharing your comments, Lisa.
Hi Cathy,
Luving the tips.
I added this component to my business writing tool shed recently: humor. Instead of trying to be so serious and direct, I add more levity. I pique interest by intending to become more interesting, more funny and more light.
Not only does this elicit a chuckle, it helps me get more clicks too.
Thanks for sharing.
RB
Hi Ryan: As someone who uses humor quite a bit, I totally agree about its value. Who doesn’t like to share a laugh? Thanks for adding a great tip, Ryan! 🙂
Hi Cathy!
Thanks for inviting me back to your Blog…from
The Blogging Mastermind Comment Tribe’s page. 🙂
BRAVO, very well executed throughout along with
a creative consistency as well.
Have a highly inspired day…your tribal friend Steven Suchar
Thank you for the kind words, Steven. Glad to have you back! 🙂
I never thought of using a lamp as a way to inspire me to write a post. I’ll never look at my desk the same way again! LOL, great post I enjoyed it very much and very helpful too. I’ll keep your ideas in mind. 🙂
Diana-You never know what will inspire you. It can literally be at your fingertips. 🙂 Thanks for the nice words, Diana. 🙂
Kathy great tips! I also love the font and structure of your posts, a girl can learn a lot from you : )
Well, thank you, Karla. That’s very nice to hear. Come back any time 😀
Great post Cathy. I love the idea of flipping the switch and you actually gave me an idea for a post! I’ve actually been thinking about writing about this product for some time but I wasn’t sure how to present it. Now I am. 🙂
Hi Danielle-your comment was dumped as spam-how rude. 🙂 So glad my post inspired. Be sure to come back here and share a link to the post.
Thanks for stopping by, Danielle! Your energy amazes me. 🙂
Great post! I recently used HGTV’s House Hunters to inspire my blog post! It’s amazing what you can find to inspire your writing. Having an 8 year-old is helpful too.
Hi Pam: Thanks for stopping by. You are so right, inspiration is everywhere and children are like little busters of writer’s block. 🙂
I’ll have to check out your HGTV post.