Last week I met a woman who ran her own painting business in Melbourne. Now you don’t see many female housepainters, so my interest was piqued. Then we got talking and I found out that she had won first place in the painting division of WorldSkills Australia’s National Competition – essentially the tradies’ equivalent of the Olympics.

They have a national competition for tradies? And you won?

Well, I was seriously impressed.

For this woman this was probably not that much of a big deal. But as an outsider, it was such a great story and I begged her to tell me all about it.

Now of course you may not have won the national competition for whatever business you run (your industry may not even have a national competition).

But I’m betting that you have some kind of interesting story about what you do. And you could turn that story into a blog post for your small business blog.

Maybe it’s a particular challenge that you came across and how you solved it.

Or what about the story of how you got into business. Did you fall into it after finding a gap in the market? Was it a life-long passion? People love hearing how businesses got started.

You could also write about an award you received or accolade you got. Even something as small as meeting your business idol could be spun into an interesting post and reveal to your customers more about you and your business.

Now you don’t want to write about just anything that comes into your mind. That funny thing your dog did last week isn’t likely to be relevant to your clients (unless you run a dog grooming business, in which case blog away).

But sharing stories about your business helps you stand out in a sea of similar businesses. It makes you look interesting, passionate and knowledgeable. And those are the type of businesses that get the clients, amirite?

If you’re stuck on what to write about, think about the type of things that you get asked about the most at cocktail parties. Sure, it might be the same old questions and answers to you, but for your readers this is new information that could help them decide to contact you.

Note: If you tell people what you do and they walk away from you, then you either need to work on how you describe it, or you need to address some misconceptions about your industry. I’m a firm believer that even accountants have interesting stories, so there’s hope for all of you. 😉

If you need some help figuring out which of your stories would make great blog posts for your business website, then get in touch. I offer a blog strategy service to help you get on the right track. #nomoreboringblogposts

In the comments below, let me know about the last great business story you heard.