helping you become a better writer

If you are sending out resumes you should also be sending out cover letters with those resumes. The cover letter is essentially where you sell yourself to the employer. So it is essential that you have a successful cover letter. And you can ensure that you do with only five simple steps.

1. No fluff. In your cover letter you need to get right to the point. You can begin it with “I am writing you today because…” And then include all of the facts: job title and location, where you found out about the position and so on.

2. Show that you know the company. Next demonstrate your knowledge of the company with a little flattery. Tell them what about the company makes you want to work there.

3. List your qualifications. Let the employer know what you have to offer them. You can list relevant experience in bullet points.

4. Make it personal. Sum up yourself including things like your strengths and skills and what things you are passionate about professionally.

5. Close the sale. Let them know you are excited about the opportunity and interview. Then list what action you will be taking next – whether you will be following up or waiting to hear from them.

There are basically two types of resumes. There is the chronological resume and the skills-based functional resume. The chronological resume tends to be the one that you see most often. However, for some people a skills-based resume would serve them better in their job hunt. Skills-based resumes work best for people that are looking to change careers or who have held a lot of jobs for short periods of time. For instance, if you are a consultant you would most likely want to use a skills-based resume as opposed to a chronological resume. Skills-based resumes are great because they really highlight the reasons why you would be a valuable addition to a company.

I have recently attained a great skills-based functional resume template. This template is used by one of the major recruitment agencies in the US. Feel free to download it and tweak the format to meet your needs. And don’t let the fact that it is focused on finance deter you as it can be used for any industry.

If you want to be a writer then there is a pretty decent chance that you are looking for advice or motivation. If that is the case, let me point you in the right direction.

Have a look at How to Write With Style by Kurt Vonnegut. You won’t be sorry.

As someone that majored in English and Journalism in college, being a travel writer is one of those writing dream jobs for me. I mean, how cool is it to get to travel to places that you want to visit and then get paid to write about those places. If travel writing is something that you dream of too then I came across an article that can help you out.

Becoming a travel writer is not as hard as you might think. To get started in your new career as a travel writer, just follow The 10 Steps to Becoming a Successful Travel Writer posted over at The Travelers Notebook.

If you are ready to start working on your business plan the first thing you will want to work on is your executive summary.

The executive summary is the first part of your business plan. And it is also the most important part of your business plan as it gives an overview of the entire business plan as well as a history of your business.

Basically, you will use the executive summary to show where your business is currently, where it started and where you want it to go. It is important that you be truthful!

Since the executive summary gives an overview of the entire business plan, it should be the last part of your business plan that you write up. You only want to write the executive summary once you have worked out the rest of the business plan.

Contents of the Executive Summary

• Mission Statement
• Date business began
• Names of founders and the functions they perform
• Number of employees
• Location of business and any branches or subsidiaries
• Description of plant or facilities
• Products manufactured/services rendered
• Banking relationships and information regarding current investors
• Summary of company growth including financial or market highlights
• Summary of management’s future plans

For all of the above except for the mission statement, have the information in a bulleted listed or something similar. The point here is brevity. Your mission statement will be whatever length you need to get your mission across.

If your business is brand new you you might not have information for all of the areas above. That is okay and expected. Instead of worrying about that lack of info try to focus on your experience and background instead. If you can show expertise in the industry then you are going in the right direction!

While not necessary, you can include a table of contents directly after the executive summary. That way the reader will have an easier time going through your business plan as they can be quite lengthy.

Stay tuned for part 3 of writing a business plan!

And if you missed part 1, check out How to write a business plan, part 1.