If bank interest rates are not doing it for you right now, this eBay-style investment site might - and it could give you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside too.

Whilst looking around the site, I came across a blog post from one of the co-founders with a very clickable title (which I’ve borrowed). The 10 benefits are:

1. It causes you to get more creative.
2. It forces you to make the tough decisions.
3. It thins out the competition.
4. It makes you realize you can’t take anything for granted.
5. It reminds you that real wealth isn’t about the stuff you own.
6. It fosters out-of-the-box thinking.
7. It makes it easier to abandon business-as-usual.
8. It brings you back to the basics.
9. It accelerates change.
10. It causes you to be less wasteful.

I think these benefits can pretty much be applied to any business. What about your company? Are you going through any of these right now? Are there more benefits you can add to this list?

(If you’re really having trouble answering that question, I can tell you he was not. He was a composer.)

In today’s world, it seems that unless you offer solutions then you’re a nobody. But for me, ‘solutions’ is just a most common example of lazy writing. It doesn’t actually tell you anything – and good writing should tell you all you need to know.

Eye for Image is not a provider of communications solutions. We write. And we give strategic advice. And we coach your communications team. We do all those things. And saying we offer ‘communications solutions’ sells us, and the reader, short.

Another thing with solutions: it comes from solve. And you solve problems. So if we offer solutions – and you want them – then you must have problems. But that isn’t always the case. Sometimes people just want something written. Or they want strategic advice. Or they want to be coached.

Okay. Rant over.

English has thousands of words. More than 500,000 according to Chambers 21st Century Dictionary. So surely we can find the right one for every situation. But all too often, we look for an adjective or adverb instead - and the result is heavier, wordier, less precise text.

This is explained concisely by Andy Maslen in his book Write to Sell:
“Unless they provide extra information, adjectives and adverbs are just a lazy writer’s excuse for not thinking harder. Here’s how to use more precise words instead:
Not a huge house, but a mansion
Not a forward-looking executive but a pioneer
Not a respected company but a standard-setter
It works for adverbs to:

Don’t work hard, strive
Don’t think creatively, innovate
Don’t perform impressively, excel”

Obviously, there’s always a time and place for a well-chosen adjective or adverb, but generally it’s good advice.