Monthly Archives: January 2010

What You Can Learn From BMW’s Innovation Philosophy

How Would You Re-Define BMW’s Innovation Philosophy? How do you define innovation? Graham Horton has translated BMW’s definition of innovation for those who don’t speak German. I (used to) speak a little German and hope to get the original translation from Graham.

How to Choose the Best Font for Your Blog

When I started in tech docs, Times New Roman was THE font for printed manuals. There was no ifs, buts, or maybes about this. Times New Roman. Size 11. Since then other more trendy fonts have come onto the market. Trends in font styles come and go. While fonts in printed publications are one thing, […]

How to Get Rid of a Troll

I have a troll. Do you? Trolls slither over the internet. They start as lurkers, then get brave, creep out and spit things at you. 10 out of 10 trolls feed on attention. Negative or positive – they don’t care. Attention is the oxygen that keeps them going. Here’s the story of how I found my troll and what we may do next?

5 Work-From-Home Business Ideas

Tom Peters says, “the value of services will continue to fall” and that the only way to survive is to differentiate yourself from the competition. Is this true? How do you make yourself stand out from the crowd? If you don’t, what impact could this have on your career? [Learn more about these Business Plan […]

How Many Hours Per Week Do Technical Writers Spend Writing?

How much time do you spend writing every week? Remember, you have 37.5 hours (I know!) for technical writing every week, but how much is actually spent writing? When I say writing I actually mean developing content, so this includes illustrations, diagrams, publishing etc – whatever goes into the final deliverable.

Why Don’t People Respect the Efforts I Make?

Do you feel loved? Many of us feel unloved and under-valued. We feel we don’t get the respect we deserve. I hear this on LinkedIn and Facebook: “people don’t respect the efforts I make”. Well, if that’s the case, here are a few ways to get more respect and move into a more rewarding career.

How to Collaborate on a Business Proposal

Martha asked me, “I want to put a template or guidelines to my team members as a result of my research about the good way to write a proposal.” One of the problems if you’re new to writing business proposals is where to start, especially if you have to write with a team rather than by yourself. Where do you start?

How to Give an Elevator Pitch

What do you feel when people say, “and tell me about yourself?” Most of us dread giving the elevator pitch – the story of your life in 60 seconds. Scary, isn’t it? It doesn’t have to be. The mistake everyone makes is to take a deep break, force a smile, and then starting ploughing ahead. […]