When you start your first business, there are things you don't know you need. Truthfully, it might take your third business before you really get a handle on everything necessary for a successful startup. That's okay. You don't need an MBA to achieve a satisfactory level of success. Depending on the business, you might just need a good idea, the right timing, and a refusal to give up.
That said, not every business is a lemonade stand. You might need the services of a technical writer. You would be surprised at the types of businesses that do. Here are a few reasons why technical writing services might be right for you and your new business:
1. Distributing Technical Information
"What is technical writing?" is a natural question to ask if you are just starting out in business. The short answer is that it is the creation and distribution of technical information. So the first thing you need to ask about your business is whether it would benefit from the creation and distribution of technical information.
Even the hypothetical lemonade stand might benefit from technical writing if the product has very specific attributes designed to improve some aspect of a person's health and is produced with bespoke ingredients in a singular manner. Creating and distributing that information will require the services of a technical writer. There is a good chance that some aspect of your business could also benefit from technical writing.
2. Answering Questions Before They Are Asked
One of the ways you can increase the chances of success for your small business is to clearly communicate answers to questions before they are even asked. It is not difficult to come up with a list of questions your customers will have. It won't take long before you have enough questions to populate a FAQ for your website. You will soon notice that many of those questions have a technical flavor to them. Customers are going to want to know exact size for all dimensions, weight, wattage, and a whole host of other things that need to be meticulously communicated. Compiling that information is best done by a technical writer.
3. A Different Skill Set
Technical writing is still writing. Every kind of writer has the most fundamental skill required for technical writing. However, there is a big difference between creative writing and technical writing. So you need more than a basic facility with words to pull it off.
Technical writing requires very direct, literal, and uncluttered communication. Using as few words as possible, you need to communicate as many technical details as possible. A person needs to be able to read a few passages and learn something important about the nature, assembly, or operation of a product. If that is not your skill, hire a technical writer.
4. You Can Be a Technical Writer
You don't have to be an engineer to be a technical writer. No one knows everything about their subject matter. The real craft technical writers have mastered is research. A good technical writer is first and foremost, a great researcher. They are not only able to imagine the types of questions people will ask, they are able to find the answers.
Additionally, they are great organizers of information. Without organization, all you have is an information dump. As with an instruction manual, all technical writing must be laid out in a way that leads the reader through a chain of information such that the reader not only understands but retains the most important parts.
5. Time Is Money
The main reason you might want to hire a technical writer is that technical writing is time-consuming. It takes longer to write a useful white paper than it does to write a blog post of the same length. When you are starting your business, you don't have time to personally execute every detail yourself. You need to bring in people who can take some of the load off of you. Learn to delegate so that you can be free to do the things that only you can do.
Most new businesses need more than hard work and determination. If your new business will depend on the dissemination of precise technical details, don't launch it without the help of a technical writer.
