[susan53]

Can't deal with both of these today (time, sorry) but I'll answer the first and come back to the second another day if no-one else has answered in the meantime.


Let's start with the basic sentence. I'm not sure what you mean by "computer business skills". There are business skills, there are computer skills - but I can't think of any computer skills which are necessary specifically for business but nothing else -?? So I'd just say :

His lack of computer skills made his business lose money....

Now for the adverbs :

a) haplessly : this is very archaic. In the Brown and BNC corpora there are no examples at all of this adverb being used, and only two of the adjective, in both cases pre-modifying a noun. The Cobuild dictionary does not list the adverb at all, and again exemplifies the adjective as premodifying a noun (the hapless victim of a mis-placed murder attempt), saying that it is literary in style. So don't use this adverb at all.

b) horrendously : this is grammatically possible but still sounds a bit odd, and would certainly give the sentence a neutral to informal style. Fine if you're speaking, but the sentence sounds to me as if it's in a written, neutral style. In speaking I'd expect something like :
He had no computer skills at all and the business was losing money horrendously.

c) atrociously : Again, grammatically OK but open to all the objections above. And it doesn't really collocate with loss of money. The only collocation I can find associated to money is : It was atrociously expensive.

So my answer would be

a) Don't use an adverb at all. If you're writing in a neutral to formal style, change the sentence to eg His lack of computer skills caused his business to lose a large amount of money.
or His lack of computer skills resulted in excessive/appalling losses for the business

b) If on the other hand, you are speaking more informally, then what I said above would be possible : He had no computer skills at all and the business was losing money horrendously.. However, there is also a colloquial expression that could be used adverbially : He had no computer skills at all and the business was losing money hand over fist.