Business Report Writing: 5 Steps to Succeed

Business Report Writing: 5 Steps to Succeed

Sep 22, 2012Writing a report is a hard and time-consuming task. At times, you may feel frustrated that, after spending too much time writing, you still end up with a dull and boring report, one that doesn't even interest your readers. Especially in the business world, writing a report is almost an everyday task. Reports are very crucial, particularly if you plan to work in industries like marketing, management, accounting, and finance.

What is a Business Report?

A business report is basically a report of your analysis on a certain situation or a particular aspect of a business, such as the current situation of the company, business trend, and annual financial statements, as well as past business information that may be helpful in creating strategies and recommendations for overall business improvement. Aside from these, a business report may also contain an examination of the potential solutions to issues and problems that the company is facing, as well as business theories and practices that best apply to the company's current situation.

How to Write an Effective and Successful Business Report?

Indeed, a business report is a crucial aspect of businesses in any kind of industry in that it helps and assists businesses in various decision-making. And with the huge significance and role of a business report, it is thus important to have a business report that is clear, precise, and concise. When writing a business report, remember that there is no right or wrong information. However, you are expected to provide information that readers expect you to provide, with no strong opinions, only direct and accurate information.There are five major steps in creating an effective and successful business report.

1. Determine the purpose and scope of your business report.

A business report should not be too vague or general. You should only include specific points and information that may be helpful to the business' current situation as well as its future strategies. Formulate questions and set the purpose of your business report. Formulating questions and goals will help you know which and what kind of information should be included in the report. This is the first and crucial step, and this makes the remaining steps of writing business reports a lot easier.

2. Create a clear framework.

Once you have determined the purpose of your business report, you need to create a clear framework. Using a framework helps achieve a chain of continuity between the different parts of the report, from the purpose of the business report, to the main part that includes discussion of business trends, past and present business information, to proposed solutions and recommendations. It also helps you become more organized, and helps ensure that all the necessary information is included in the report. A business report typically includes four major parts: introduction, discussion, conclusions, and recommendations. Sometimes, it may also include an executive summary, as well as a covering memo or letter.

3. Consider your readers.

Your readers are the most important thing that you always have to consider when writing a business report. It is for them that you are writing the business report anyway. Along with having a clear, precise, and concise report, you also need to ensure that your report answers their questions. Thus, it is important that you know why readers need a report. Also, you need to know their position in the company as well as their education level as these will help you know what and which information you need to include in your report.Also, you may be surprised to know that majority of readers do not really read the whole business report. Especially businessmen, business partners, and stockholders, time is very crucial for these people. Hence, a business report that is clear and straight to the point, and one that satisfies your readers, is another thing to keep in mind when writing. If possible, include relevant and important data at the start of the paragraph.

4. Gather and organize data and information.

Having known your readers and the scope of your report, you can now gather pertinent data and information. You can either collect information from primary sources or secondary sources. Make sure to gather only the important information, as well as those that answer the questions that you have set during the first step. Also, you need to ensure you stay within the scope of your report.Organizing the data and information you have gathered is another crucial point when writing a business report. There are two important things that you need to keep in mind: the report should be written in a clear, precise, and concise way, so the readers easily understand what you are trying to convey. Especially if you are conveying quantitative or statistical information, you may want to use tables, graphs, and charts for easy understanding. Meanwhile, if you are presenting textual information, you may want to use bullet points or number lists so readers won't get too overwhelmed trying to understand your report.

5. Analyze the data gathered.

This is the part when you may need to apply certain business theories to the data that you have gathered. The information you have gathered should answer the questions that you have formulated during the first step, which in turn helps and supports various business decisions, including strategies and recommendations for improvement, and solutions to current business issues and problems. During this step, you may also start establishing business goals. Based on the data you have gathered, you may include specific actions that can help achieve business goals. You may also set a deadline for the goals.Writing a business report doesn't have to be hard and time-consuming. Using these five basic will make everything so much easier. With these easy steps, you can write a clear and concise report, one that can help you establish a good impression on your readers.