by Kimberly Wells-Ball
Marc J. Epstein in an interview with R. Kanini said
“One of the biggest deficiencies…[of nonprofits as well as for-profit social enterprises]…is the lack of clarity and rigor around specific project or organizational goals. Without a clear articulation of what an organization is trying to achieve, measuring success and impact is quite challenging.”
Well, one would think ‘what the heck writing has to do with it?’ And, well, it has quite a lot. You can’t expect one to start a nonprofit without getting oneself into some basic business writing activities. Emails, proposals and business plans and pitches are needed to get others support you and your cause. The way you’re able (or unable) to express yourself reflects on your organization’s reputation and standing. So, you want to get it right.
Still, not everyone is expert in writing. So, it’s worth the time and investment in acquiring one or several tools in order to ensure your business writing is as rich and error-free as a monthly report.
If you often find yourself in a situation when you just sent a very important email or social media post and you realized you made quite a few grammar and spelling mistakes, you should think of buying Ginger. It not only saves you from making embarrassing mistakes, it also gives you a personalized tutorial on common mistakes it sees you making. Designed to support over 65 languages and also offers translations for 40 languages. Basic and premium plans available starting at $5.10/month. Surely, Ginger isn’t a must. Still, we all make typos (I personally cannot writing something without making few), and here your choice could be either Ginger, or paying attention to what Microsoft Words highlights.
Also, WhiteSmoke could become your lifesaver in those embarrassing situations simply because it checks not only for grammar and spelling mistakes, but plagiarism, punctuation and style issues. Both regular and premium versions offer a full-text translator that translates into 45 different languages. Only the premium version offers writing and grammar tutorials and document and letter templates. You can pay monthly, starting at $9.95 for basic services and $14.95 for premium or order a lifetime service at $159.95 for basic services and $299.95 for premium.
For editing you can also use HemingwayApp. The desktop app costs only $9.99, but you can also use the browser version for free to get a general idea about what should be changed. What I love most about this app is the readability score it assigns to your writing. Basically, the app is all about how to make your writing simple and readable. And where’s simplicity, there’s clarity.
Another tool – well, it’s more of a service than a tool – I want to talk about is AceWriters Paper Writing Service. This one is for those who actually can’t write at all, or just need a second opinion on a piece. There you can edit and proofread your work to make sure everything sticks together. Besides, an actual living person (not a machine) will be reading though your piece so you will get a pretty good feedback on what it lacks and where there’s too much. It won’t hurt to get a second opinion.
Of course, you may not need all these, but if you are stuck with writing a business plan, you could check out Business Plan Pro. It offers you tutorials in both plain text and videos, educates you in the language of business financials, checks your figures to make sure the math adds up, and gives you over 500 business plan templates. The standard version goes for $99.95 while the Premier version goes for $159.95.
Another business plan application – Enloop – that features an AutoWrite system allows you to simply input your company’s data while their program creates the business plan. The app automates the accounting for you in whichever currency you choose, too. Spell checking for 16 different languages is available. Basic, Advanced and Professional plans are available at different price ranges. What I like about any tool is a free trial version since you get to check out whether it is worth pay for it; Enloop provides trials for users. Still, remember to give everything a look – don’t rely too much on apps.
Finally, I’ll talk about the app called WordStream that can keep you up to date with new search engine algorithms. It’s pretty important for your website or blog to be SEO current if you want the right people find you on the web. WordStream claims to convert 60% more leads and cut costs by 10%. Their pricing is appropriately graded to the size of your company’s search spending. You get a free tryout, too.
So, all in all, whether you need to build a business plan from scratch, have access to business document templates or stop sending out emails with spelling errors, these applications will help you improve your business writing, thus improving your impact and consequently your business.