In the world of business, effective communication is key. Whether you’re an executive presenting a quarterly performance review, a manager sharing project updates, or an analyst summarising market research, you need to write clear and concise reports.
A well-crafted business report might convey information, influence decision-making and drive action. In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through the process of how to write a business report that stands out and makes an impact on your professional audience.
Writing high quality business reports is a key business skill. And it is a skill you can learn. We’ve coached hundreds of people to improve their report writing skills. If you want help, then get in touch. We’d be delighted to discuss how we could help you.
Read these top tips on how to write a business report from our expert coaches:
Before diving into writing your powerful business report, it’s crucial to define your report’s purpose and identify your target audience. Ask yourself:
When you have a clear purpose and you understand your audience’s expectations, you’ll find it easier to structure and create the right content when you write a business report.
But how do you write reports so they are easier to read? These six tips are some of the many ideas we apply in our business report writing training programme. Try them out today and you’ll find it easier than ever to communicate clearly.
If your memo asks for authorisation for new expenditure, say it in the first line. If your report tells the board there is nothing to worry about in the new regulation, say so in the first paragraph. If your memo seeks approval for a new consumer test, say exactly that in the headline. Make it easy for the reader to know what you want them to do.
Great writing is easy to read. It uses simple structures and short phrases. Just by breaking long written sentences into shorter thought units, you can make your writing more accessible.
How to write a business report better:
Great managers have been encouraging their staff to write better for a long time. Here’s a classic memo written in 1944. (National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Your verbs power your sentences. They drive your thinking forward and direct the reader. When you select the right verb, you find the heart of your sentence and get to the heart of your meaning. Pick out strong verbs to hammer home what you want to say.
A large part of writing is re-writing. You should never be happy with your first draft. Editing when you write a business report is the one thing that distinguishes a mediocre writer from a clear business writer. You can edit it yourself. You can ask someone else to read your business report for you. Always imagine yourself as someone who is short of time, distracted and has just a few second to look at your report. Have you made it easy for them to read? If not, then look out for the following:
Have you really made it easy for the reader? Keep editing until your writing is as good as it can be.
My penultimate tip when you write a business report is always read your writing out loud.
When you read your writing, you’ll spot logical errors, complex sentences and boring bits. And when you read out loud, you are more likely to uncover the beauty and rhythm in your words that make them easier to read.
Journalists are professional writers while most of us are amateurs. Journalists get paid to capture attention, to explain what’s going on and to get you back the next day for more of the same. When you read a newspaper, note how the writer structures sentences, produces paragraphs and shapes their articles.
Copy their ideas and try their style. Find out which of their expert tools works best for you. The more you read, the better you will be when you write a business report.
If you are interested in improving how you write, start by applying these six tips. But if you want to take it further, why not consider a BBA business writing skills training programme in your company. They are short, intensive and highly effective. We organise intensive training that helps you look at your own writing in a different way. We help you pull apart bad writing and build it up again using best practice techniques.
You’ll come away from a BBA training course very clear on what bad writing looks like – and how to create great writing. By the end, you’ll be producing confident powerful written reports that are read and acted on.
Interested to hear more? Click here or contact Louise Angus at +44 (0)207 018 0922. Or you can email her at louise@benjaminball.com.
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The most successful businesses are those which communicate well. Clear written content has never been more important at a time when both on- and offline platforms are crowded with a cacophony of competing voices. Cutting through the noise with concise, sharp and intelligent written communication is essential for any ambitious 21st century organisation seeking to secure competitive advantage. We’ll show you how to craft compelling, engaging and persuasive content which sets you apart from the crowd. Reports that deliver clear outcomes for your business. Proposals that win new customers or attract new investment. Presentations that persuade, entertain and drive change. Emails and online content that crisply capture everything you need to say as succinctly and pithily as possible. It’s no coincidence that the world’s best companies also boast some of the world’s best business writers.
Most of us aren’t born writers (unless our name’s Hemingway or Austen). It’s a life skill we must learn, just like any other. In fact, it’s an essential business skill if you’re serious about your career, because very few people make it to the top of their profession unless they’re effective communicators. You may be a business leader who wants to fine-tune your writing skills at a time when high-stakes communication is becoming increasingly important to your organisation. Or you may just want to be a better presenter or public speaker. You may be a People Manager looking to enhance your learning and development programmes with some tailored writing training for your graduates or for colleagues in the early stages of their careers. We’ve worked with professionals at all levels and at all stages of their careers – and helped to transform their written communication.
We tailor our courses to your specific needs, whether it’s for your sales team looking to develop punchier pitches; your investor relations team looking to sharpen up their investor pitch books; or your younger colleagues in need of some basic writing skills. We offer one-to-one coaching or group courses, physically or virtually. Our standard Business Writing for Professionals course runs across two half-days for up to eight people, but we’re happy to adapt course content and length to meet your organisation’s particular needs – or to accommodate the specific requirements of your company’s learning and development programme. We also run a half-day course on Storytelling: The Secret to Compelling Presentation, which develops that aspect of our course content in more detail.
