Andy Hills Independent Business Consultant

Authoring, corporate and otherwise

I started out contracting many years ago as a technical author. It allowed me to master concise written instruction and the correct use of illustrative methods, both of which have served me well in all aspects of corporate authoring.

Starting my own organisation, Holisys, created a new set of headaches [opportunities] in that I learned the requirements of HR and employment, accounting and inter-departmental disputes or mediation; I also learned about contracts and contract negotiation. All these require some form of written word, usually to fulfill a set of formal criteria.

Having worked on many projects, I have had the fortune to also author project documentation from quality management plans and safety cases to processes, procedures and heads of terms and audit reports. I have, in some form or another, assessed all types of organisational and project document.

In 2010 I was approached to become Editor for a magazine. Not a large magazine but a magazine nonetheless. I found this to be an exciting, frustrating and rewarding endeavour; having to deal with contributions from all comers, focusing on the 'theme' for the issue (and getting others to do the same) and how to strike a balance of advertising and copy. I also found that these skills were a great support in some of the corporate material that gets produced - documentation should be made to 'be of interest' to the reader so that people want to read and digest rather than do it under sufferance.

Broader horizons

With this in mind, I started an design and print company, Simple Ad Design. This has allowed me to expand from solely business consultancy into company image; it has enabled me to formally put into practice my belief that if something is elegantly communicated then it is more acceptable to the reader. Read more on this on my Design & Print page.

Editorial things

When I started editing I thought it would be simple. Editing is not simple, it's hard work and it gives you a headache but the rewards are high so it is one of my favourite jobs.

Thankfully, I've been consulting long enough to have a good grasp of a wide variety of businesses and styles which are appropriate in given circumstances and have the confidence to say if something 'doesn't fit'. That applies as much to business publications as much as it does to social or community ones.

Finding the right people to submit articles can be a fun endeavour and reading through and tweaking words is a veritable delight, as long as the end product is enhanced and all parties are happy.

The hardest part of it all is deadlines. Thankfully I can also keep to those and now tend toward having a backup plan in place in case some anticipated submissions don't appear. This is a skill that I apply throughout all my work.