Are your writing skills up to par?

Improve Your Cleaning Business Success by Improving Your Writing Skills

I can't tell you how many positive comments we've received from clients on the professionalism of our cleaning proposals. Not only are they impressed with the presentation, but they're impressed with the content, which are grammatically correct and contain no typing errors (typos).

Your writing skills have a direct impact on the success of your cleaning business

One thing that will immediately turn off a prospect is a poorly written proposal, website, brochure, or email. The first thought that probably comes to mind is, "if they turn in a sloppy proposal like this, can I expect the same kind of sloppy work?"

Effective writing will not only benefit internal communications with your employees, colleagues, and vendors, but will give you the edge over competitors with poor articulation skills.

Well-written, grammatically correct marketing materials, social media posts, and business documentation is vital to both achieving your desired outcome and presenting a professionalism image.

Can poor spelling really have a financial effect on my cleaning business? According to one report by BBC.com, spelling mistakes cost millions in online sales. In a nut shell; you don't want to make a negative impression with poor spelling, punctuation, grammar, or typos. It will cost you.

Here are 8 tips on how to improve your writing skills:

1.     Read professionally written articles

If you subscribe to trade magazines, read the articles and pay attention to how the sentences are formed. The more you read, the more you'll improve your writing skills.

 2.     Practice writing every day

The more you practice, the better you'll get. If you aren't sure what to write about, try journaling -- write about your day. Better yet, start a blog and document your experience as a cleaning business owner. Eventually graduate to writing helpful articles for your clients and prospects, addressing problems in their business that need solving. Not only will this help your writing skills, it will help the SEO (search engine optimization) value of your website.

 3.     Have someone you know who has good writing skills proof your work

Ask them to highlight any typos or sections that need grammatical fixes. Chances are you probably misspell the same words over and over again without even realizing it.

 4.     Proof read your writing a day later

It helps to read with fresh eyes. See if you can find the errors after putting your work aside for a day.

 5.     Writing doesn't have to be so formal

Write as you speak (without using too much slang or jargon of course).

 6.     Use active words rather than passive words

Passive example: The bathroom was cleaned by the cleaning technician. Active example: The cleaning technician cleaned the bathroom.

 7.     Keep your paragraphs short and to the point

Don't ramble on. Less is more in most writing situations. If it gets too long, people are likely to just ignore or delete your content.

 8.     Read it out loud when you are finished

This will help you to see how the information flows and will help you better express what you are trying to convey.

Even if you have top notch writing skills, it's still a good idea to have someone else proofread your work. Sometimes even the best writers miss typos or other errors. Make it a point to schedule time in your day to write because you'll never improve unless you continually practice.

The adage ‘Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover' unfortunately doesn't apply here. Like it or not, we are all judgmental people one way or another. We judge people by the way they talk, what they wear, and the way they communicate. People's impressions of you, especially the first, will have a direct connection to your abilities as an effective communicator and writer.

Not an effective writer? There is downloadable software at your disposal than can help you with not only spelling and grammar checks, but creating professional looking documents. For example, Microsoft Office's Word has built-in features that include automatic spelling and grammar checking tools.

Another popular online tool is called Grammarly. It's a free tool you can add to your Chrome browser for writing online, or you can upgrade to the paid version for more features.

Regardless of how many times you proofread or spell check your content, those annoying grammatical errors will occasionally sneak through. Don't agonize over it; everyone makes mistakes along the way. But do take the time to practice and improve your writing skills, and hire help when needed for more sophisticated writing projects.