Here' How Writing Can Become a Vital Tool for Entrepreneurs So how can entrepreneurs make their experience-derived knowledge available to a wide audience?

Entrepreneurs are inherent risk-takers. They tread the road less taken, venture into uncharted territory. Sometimes, their inroads are successful, at other times, not as much. Either way, it is because of the entrepreneurial spirit that many of the world's problems have got solutions, and our lives become that little bit easier, more convenient, more palatable. Entrepreneurs also perform a huge service to society in indirect ways. Through their ventures, millions receive gainful employment. They are catalysts for genuine wealth creation. And they show the way forward to a world that is in constant need of innovators and early adopters.

There is however one more invaluable way in which entrepreneurs can share their experiences, positive as well as negative, for the greater good. So how can they make their experience-derived knowledge available to a wide audience? By writing. Writing can become a vital tool for entrepreneurs to share their learnings. How? Through several ways.

Case Studies

Experienced entrepreneurs can write and develop Case Studies based on their own real-life business experiences. Granted that many entrepreneurs may not be gifted writers; the process of converting one's business-stories into case studies can be simply achieved through studying a few existing ones, extracting the basic format, and then falling into that format, their unique experiences and learnings. Daunting as this task may seem, the good news is that Case Studies do not have to be models for great and eloquent writing or language flourish. They must convey facts, strategies, merits, and learnings, simply, and comprehensively. Further, these case studies can be published in various business and marketing journals, they can be made available through personal blogs online, or shared on resources commonly used by the business community. Those with connections in the media can even have them published in strategic magazines and newspapers patronized by the relevant target audience.

Articles

Don't want to get too technical? An entrepreneur does not necessarily have to go the case-study route to share his or her learnings. A less formal but equally insightful article will also provide tremendous value to a reader. These articles are best suited to people who don't want to get too technical, have a flair and interest in writing, want to share a more personalized and informal account of their experiences. Creative non-fiction then can be a wonderful way of passing on wisdom and learnings one has acquired to the next generation. Publications are always on the lookout for good, sincere, valuable content. And to hear from the horse's mouth about businesses and entrepreneurship will be of great interest to both reader and publisher.

Blog

Another wonderful way for entrepreneurs to share their business prudence in through a personal blog. The biggest advantage of a blog is that the writer need not adhere to a strict format of any kind. Here, one's blog posts don't have to be the case-study type article type. They can be a mix of both. And one can develop one's own unique style of writing. It is also arguably the best platform on which to share certain very specific kinds of learnings that sometimes may not find takers of more traditional or rigid formats of business-writing. Let's say you're an entrepreneur who felt that some crucial mistakes were made in certain aspects of your business when you began, due to which you suffered, and it wasn't until years later, when you realized and corrected those shortcomings, did things get back on track. This kind of a story would be perfect to be told through a blog.

Book

Finally, there is, of course, the most detailed and comprehensive option of sharing one's learnings through business experience – and that is by writing, co-writing, or having written, a book. Here too, you may want to write a book about your entire working life as an entrepreneur, or you might want to focus on certain specific periods of that life. You might want it to be a mix of personal and professional events, or you might want to keep it strictly work-related. You might even want to make it extremely autobiographical or relay your learnings through an external writer/biographer, who will record and chronicle your journey as told to him/her. These, however, are semantics; the important point is that this, long-form writing opportunity that only a full-fledged book can present, is the last word in terms of really delving deep into one's work-life and sharing it in an absolute manner. A great option particularly for people who have spent most of their careers in the business.

At the end of the day though, the format is almost irrelevant, as long as entrepreneurs, young or elderly, having worked five years or fifty, use writing to get their stories across to the rest of the world. They'd be doing, not just themselves but a large section of society who stands to gain greatly from them, a huge service.