The sentence would be better if written like this:

"We started our business in 1995. We sold and serviced vacuum cleaners. My brother and I did everything ourselves."

Use Consistent Spellings and Punctuation

Certain words or terms can be written correctly in more than one way. For example, "ecommerce" and "e-commerce" are both correct. The key is to pick one spelling and use it consistently throughout document.

Similarly, Jane Doe, MD and Jane Doe, M.D. are both correct. Again, you want to pick one usage and use it consistently.

If you're using numbers, decide whether to use number signs or to spell out word. It's a common practice to spell out numbers under ten and to use numerical signs for numbers over ten. i.e. We have eight employees." Or "We have 28 employees."

Limit use of Adverbs and Adjectives

Business writing is improved when adverbs and adjectives are removed or used sparingly.

For example, "Our new facility is very, very spacious" is better written as, "Our new facility is spacious."

"Our spacious, new facility really meets our needs," is better written as, "Our spacious facility meets our needs."

And, most importantly of all:

Strive for Clarity

Be clear about your message. Identify main point you want to make for entire document, then condense that point into one sentence. You might use that one sentence, or you might not. But you MUST decide what it is. If you have not formulated this one point in your own mind, your writing will not portray most important thing you want to communicate.

For example, what is one main message I want to communicate with this article? It is sentence #1.

"You can contribute significantly to your business' success by developing your writing skills."

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Triggers are critical to getting less regular tasks done. In Australia, most small businesses used to do their accounts only annually because there was no trigger to do otherwise. Then government introduced a 'trigger' called Business Activity Statement which forces us to do our accounts at least quarterly. (Whether this is more 'good' than 'evil' is debatable!)

You can use triggers – diary entries, for example – to prompt things like a regular review of your plans, or a review of your price lists or sales statistics.

On 'evil' side, a whole host of triggers constantly conspire to remove our focus. In fact an effective way of tackling procrastination is to identify and remove triggers that distract you. For example, turn off prompt that pops up to tell you that "you have new email".

Try focusing on your triggers for a day. Every time you 'change course' during day, consider what it was that caused you to do so. Write these things down. Conversely, when you think about that job which you never seem to get around to, think about developing a trigger to make it happen.

© David Brewster, September 2002 http://www.BusinessSimplification.com.au; mailto:feedback@businesssimplification.com.au