My final advice is to tell a lot of stories. Business readers can tolerate some abstractions, but what really grabs them are stories. And the closer these stories come to the problems they face, the better. 3 Columns I have to say that this is the place where I have had the least experience, so perhaps you should regard my advice as tentative at best. I've only been writing columns for a few years, and I still find it hard going.
Some columns write themselves, but some require hours of agonizing over details.
Maybe someday, when it all becomes easy, I'll write a revised version of this section. The critical advice here is to get to the point as soon as possible. This usually means the first sentence or two. You are competing for the attention of the reader with everything else in the newspaper, so you need a grabber to get them to read your column. My second piece of advice is to pace yourself.