I Think I Can

Last week, my new client sent me an e-mail about a project he wanted me to start. After being nominated for one of those "favorite local _____" awards, he was convinced by the sponsoring magazine to purchase ad space in the publication. He had a quarter page ad to submit to them within a week's time. He sent some of the details he wanted included in the ad.

At first I thought he just wanted me to write copy for the ad. I had to have a conversation with about how small a quarter page ad was and how much copy would realistically fit in it. We also talked about how much copy people will reasonably read in an advertisement.

At some point I realized he actually wanted me to design the ad. My first response was "I am not a graphic designer." I told him I could write some copy and slap it in a text box with his logo, but it wouldn't look outstanding. After I found out the ad would be 4-color, I immediately knew it needed more graphics.

I know several graphic designers, but I knew it wasn't something I could drop in someone's lap with less than a week's time to work on it. My only option was to try to do it myself. Once I felt I had responsibly informed him that I would do my best with it, but it would not look professionally designed, I started the ad.

Though my first instinct was to refuse the project, I ended up with a decent product. As it turns out, even though I didn't have experience in this area, I had worked with enough designers on projects to know what looked good and what to put where. The biggest challenge was working with software with which I didn't have much experience.

He loved the ad and we got it to the magazine publisher prior to the deadline. Now there are a couple caveats to this story. I was lucky that my husband's computer actually had the design software I needed to complete the project and that he knew how to use it so he was able to give me some basic instruction. The lesson I learned here is that I actually know more than I think I do and I can accomplish what may have seemed impossible before.

That doesn't mean I aspire to becoming a graphic designer, but as my projects start to lean more toward the marketing end of the spectrum, it's a good idea to develop skills that complement the writing skills I have and make me more marketable.

Been to the Library Lately?

I used to frequent the public library, but in the past couple of years I've done more buying and borrowing of books, so I've been somewhat neglectful of my local library. This week I went to a small business owners panel held at the library and I discovered that I was underutilizing a valuable resource.

Have you ever heard of a business librarian? Our library has one. Maybe it's because, with our reliance on the auto industry for most of our business here in Michigan, our economy has been in the toilet for longer than everyone else's and they're trying to encourage growth in any way possible. Whatever the reason, the library is full of business and marketing resources that are as of yet untapped by many.

In addition to books, there are seminars and handouts, business plan contests and tons of advice for burgeoning entrepreneurs. For me, this resource is twofold. Not only does it give me ideas for marketing my freelance writing business, it's helping me be a better resource for the small businesses that constitute my client base.

Following Directions

There's a lot of advice out there for freelancers and one of the pieces I've encountered most often involves following directions. Clearly, being able to follow directions is important for many types of situations. However, apparently some people don't read the freelance writing ads very well or perhaps they read the ads but don't respond as requested.

For example, if an ad asks for a writing sample, a resume and a cover letter, you send them all three. It only makes sense, right? If you're responding to an ad that asks for your rates, you should include your rates in your correspondence.

As someone who has been involved in the hiring of employees, I can attest to the fact that not following the directions in the ad leaves a bad first impression. If someone can't follow the instructions for how to respond, why would a potential employer or client believe they will be able to follow directions for the assignment or in the workplace?

The other day, though, I encountered a situation in which it made very little sense to me to follow the directions included in an ad. The client asked interested parties to respond with a resume and stated that the resume should include the following:

• Education and work history
• Specific editing, proofreading and writing experience
• Applicable areas of expertise
• Availability
• Word-processing programs on your system

To me, some of these items made sense, but others didn't belong anywhere on a resume. I was confused as to why they wouldn't just ask for a cover letter. I toyed with the idea of altering my resume to include them, but in the end I decided not to answer the ad.

I Saw Your Resume on Craigslist

In a recent post I talked about an idea I got from a fellow freelancer for posting an ad on craigslist. I decided to post an ad myself and see what happened. So far, the results have been completely lackluster. As with anything like this, when you post something, you open yourself up for all kinds of replies that don't interest you. Even though you are asked to indicate whether or not you want to be contacted by recruiters or for other services, many people don't follow these.

So far, I've received no legitimate responses to my ad, but several from people trying to get me to use a job search site or offer me a job completely unrelated to my post. In fact, I can tell none of these people even read my ad or just don't care about relating their e-mail to my ad, because most of them say "I saw your resume on craigslist." Mind you, I didn't post my resume, just an ad.

Still, I've decided to rerun my ad when it expires. Here are my reasons:

1. I've already written the ad, so it will take very little work to post it again, even if I change it around a little.
2. Someone someday, when I least expect it might actually see it and send me some work.
3. It doesn't cost anything.
4. It takes about two seconds to delete an undesirable e-mail and I probably only got about 10-15 of them in the span of a few weeks.

How to Lose a Client in One Day

I didn't actually lose the client, but I easily could have. One of my tasks is to write and upload a new post to the blog module of their Web site each week. No problem, right? The writing wasn't difficult. It just meant gathering some industry-specific information and getting the login information for their content management system.

I'd used plenty of content management tools before. After all, for several years when I had my day job I was in charge of Web site maintenance. This tool, however, was more complicated than the others I'd used and I ended up creating a new blog instead of posting to the existing one.

As soon as I realized the mistake, I attempted to delete the new blog—and ended up deleting the company's entire existing blog. Luckily, I didn't panic. Instead, I got in touch with one of tech guys, who was able to restore the posts, which had just been dumped into the recycle bin.

My client was understanding about the whole situation. I think because the situation was resolved it didn't bother him. Yet again, though, I've learned a valuable lesson in the freelancing world. Don't delete anything unless you're absolutely sure you want it deleted.

Back to Business

Well, that's it. All the holidays are over. My husband goes back to work today and I can finally get down to business. It's not that I didn't do any work during the holiday season, but it certainly wasn't as productive as I would have liked. I didn't check the job boards every day and I certainly didn't update my blogs every day.

But it's a new week and I have several meetings scheduled. I have a new client to work for and several projects scheduled for my first client. I also have some articles I've been neglecting that I need to start writing and revising. I need to ramp up my search for new short-term gigs. My savings is, in effect, completely depleted now and it's really impossible to live completely off my husband's salary, so I need to start bringing in some serious cash. Here's to a productive, billable week.

The Referral is Reality

I had a very productive meeting yesterday with the potential referral I mentioned last week. As it turns out, the client is getting ready to redesign his company's Web site and needs to get it up quickly. Before doing so, he wants me to check out their current site, find out which content should stay or go, be finessed and what's missing. Once the new site is up, he also wants to do some weekly work on SEO, as well as some press releases here and there. Basically, he's ready to hit the ground running.

Since my work for my first client has been ramping up and I've got to finish some revisions to one article and another article I haven't even started yet, it means I should be very busy. I know it's still too early to tell—after all it's only been a little over two months since I started this endeavor—but for the first time it seems really promising. I just need to find some way to keep all the work caught up while pursuing new work at the same time.

Early Christmas Present

Yesterday morning I was determined to be productive. I got quite a few things done in the morning, but by afternoon, I had lost a lot of my motivation. I had to go out to run a few errands, including buying the last remaining Christmas present on my list and picking up some food for my furry monsters, Gretchen and Maddy. By the time I returned so, miraculously, had my motivation to work.

While I was gone, I checked my BlackBerry obsessively (as I always do) and I received two very important e-mails. The first was in response to my reply to one of the those pesky writing gig ads I always complain I never land. Well, I guess I have to stop complaining, at least for a week or so, because I finally landed one. Merry Christmas to me! It's not high paying, but it is a long-term job that's expected to last six months to a year and it's a steady $200 a week.

The second e-mail was from that referral I mentioned last week. He is very interested in having me do some work for him and he wants to meet with me on Monday.

It was great to get some good news and my motivation to work magically reappeared as quickly as it had evaporated. Hopefully, it will last until Christmas.

The Difference

Recently, I talked about the holiday slowdown that seemed to be happening with freelance writing ads. I also mentioned how not a lot of work got done at this time of year while I was working at a full-time office job. We always got the days between Christmas and New Year's off, and inevitably, those last couple of days before Christmas, it was exceedingly difficult to concentrate on getting anything done.

Last Friday, Jodee of Freelance Writing Jobs did a blog post on the subject. She made some good points and started me thinking about my attitude going into this week. Last night, I was thinking I would be lucky to get a few things done this week since I'm already in Christmas mode. I kept hearing myself say "I'll wait until after Christmas to contact that person."

When I was working in an office, it was acceptable to put things off until after the break. No one expected much to get done, and all my work was going to be there waiting for me when I got back. Here's the difference now that I'm freelancing. For the most part, any work that I get has to be something I've initiated. And even though it's Christmas this week, the relatively slow speed with which I am able to obtain freelance writing jobs and clients means I have to plan ahead or when Christmas is over, I won't have much work to do.

My First Referral?

Something happened yesterday that I wasn't expecting. During my regular Wednesday morning meeting with my client, he asked me if I was looking for more work. Umm, yeah. As it turns out, he was talking to one of his business contacts and telling him about the work I was doing for his company. His contact mentioned that he thought it was a good idea and wondered if I could do some projects for his company. Now nothing has been finalized and I haven't even talked to the guy yet, but I'm pleased just for the glimmer of hope. It would be wonderful if I could actually get another long-term client out of this. I think if I could have three clients who gave me steady work along with the stray article here and there, I could make enough for a full-time job. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself.

At any rate, up until this point I've been relying on myself to market my business and overlooking the most obvious source of good PR—a satisfied client.

Holiday Slowdown?

Over the last couple weeks, I noticed that there seemed to be fewer and fewer freelance writing ads (or maybe just fewer ads that interested me). Since it's December, I wondered if it was just a holiday slowdown. When I worked in an office, I remember not as much work getting done around the holidays. The mood was festive and everyone was looking forward to the holiday break. Consequently, everyone just wanted to finish whatever had to get done before the break. No one worried about initiating any new projects or finishing anything that could wait until after the festivities.

However, last week I had what can only be described as an onslaught (in relative terms, of course) of work that did not come from ads. I had an unexpected project come up on Friday that caused me to neglect my blog in order to finish everything. Now I have to spend this week finishing the following things I was hoping to get done last week and over the weekend, including a marketing plan and three articles. Not that I'm complaining.

Small Business Multi-tasking

Since I went out on my own in October, I've attended a few free seminars for small businesses. My reasons for attending were the following:

• As a freelancer, technically I have a small business and I thought they might be useful.
• Many small business owners and potential clients would be there for me to meet.

I made a few contacts through these seminars, and I also learned tips that could help me market my business better online. Yesterday, however, when I was working on the marketing plan for my client, I realized there was another advantage to attending those seminars. A lot of the information and handouts I received were not only useful to me in marketing my small business, they also helped me come up with ideas for marketing my client's small business.

I would recommend checking out some of these resources, particularly if they are free. In my community, there's actually a small business librarian who can point you to events, books and other materials that are available for small businesses. Your community may have something similar. If your community has a small business association, it may hold informational seminars. I'm starting to find out there are a lot of things that are worth trying—you never know when they might prove to be worthwhile.

Exciting Possibilities

I had a meeting with my client this morning and we made some good progress. While we were meeting and afterward when I was doing some follow up, I started to realize something. My client has a lot of work for me. Even though I've complained about some of the challenges, in many respects the company is the perfect client for me. Why?

1. They seem to respect my judgment and feel I have some expertise.
2. They don't have an internal marketing person, so I get all the work.
3. They don't ask me to do a lot of editing or rewriting.

The amount of work they have for me is such that it's probably enough for a part-time job, and they have been taking my suggestions for additional marketing very seriously. So, in many ways, it's ideal. I can have the flexibility of working from home on my own time schedule, but still have the security of knowing there's work coming in each week.

I'm going to spend the next few days working on a marketing plan for the company, and after that, I'll have regularly scheduled, recurring projects. I'm pretty excited about the possibilities.

I Need Deadlines

It seems that almost every online ad for a writing gig contains the requirement of being able to meet deadlines. That's fine with me because I'm used to working with deadlines. In fact, I'm used to working with extremely tight (and often unrealistic) deadlines. I've been known to do whatever I can to meet a deadline, even if it means staying up all night.

What I didn't know until recently is that I actually really need deadlines to work effectively. Case in point is the article I've been working on for a local electronic publication. Those of you who have been reading my blog since the beginning (all two of you) will remember how excited I was about working up the nerve to contact the editor and subsequently being rewarded with an article.

I was excited then and I'm still excited. That's why it's kind of strange that I'm still working on the article nearly four weeks later. And by still working on it, I mean that I haven't touched it since the week before Thanksgiving.

The problem is that the editor gave me a nebulous deadline for the article. She told me they wouldn't be able to publish it until after the first of the year so there was no hurry. I should have set a deadline myself, committed to it and told her when I'd get it to her, but that's not what I did. Consequently, the article is only about 60 percent done. I still have to interview one more person, which is the biggest holdup since I'm apprehensive about interviewing people because I'm still getting used to it. (My first interview went very well, though, so I should have just kept the ball rolling.)

This is dumb for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I want to be seen as a professional who can finish things in a timely fashion. Additionally, this article is pretty high paying compared to some of my other work and I could really use the money.

So, I'm setting a firm deadline for myself to finish it this week. I'm also going to commit to the practice of setting deadlines for all future projects and announcing them to my clients ahead of time. That should help me to get things done in a timely fashion.

Hard to Hear

Last week, I sent my first article in to an online cycling magazine. After I answered their ad and sent them my clips and a link to my cycling blog, they contacted me and asked me to do a short (two paragraphs) piece as a trial for them. Some freelancers refuse to do trial pieces that are unpaid, but I base my decision on the situation. I was willing to do it for this one since it was so short and they were looking for a vastly different type of writing than what is represented in any of my clips. Besides, I really wanted this gig because cycling is my most significant hobby and I am thrilled to write about something for which I genuinely have a lot of interest. They really liked my sample piece and called me a few days later to talk about my first article.

It gets better. It turns out that they wanted art for the article, too, and they were willing to pay for any photos I had that went with the article. Well, it just so happens that my husband, who has a cushy State job in IT, is an amateur photographer with a decent entry-level SLR camera that takes pretty good pictures. He's also a cyclist and bike racer. Needless to say, we were thrilled to be able to sell some of his photos.

I submitted my first draft of the article early last week. I wasn't overwhelmed with the result—for some reason I was having trouble getting into it and it was hard writing in the style they wanted. I turned in the article because I didn't want it to be late, but I'll admit it wasn't my best work. It wasn't total crap, but I knew I could do better.

Luckily, they gave me some positive feedback, but asked me to add a few more details. I was so glad they did because the second time around I got really into it and I was so much more pleased with the product and they were, too. It went to the editor for final editing and they chose several photos to complement the article.

When I received the edited version, it was prefaced by an explanation from the editor. He indicated that he had edited it a lot more harshly than he normally would, just because he wanted me to get used to the style they wanted. He did tell me that I was still free to propose changes. I got the message on my BlackBerry while I was out and was on pins and needles until I could get home to open the attachment.

The first time I read through the article I started crying. I wasn't that attached to the article, but just the suggestion that I was inferior because of how much he changed was so upsetting. It didn't look anything like what I had submitted. After letting myself calm down for a few minutes, I read through it a second time and I saw something a little different. Most of the wording really was mine—he had just rearranged the order and changed the punctuation to come up with an altered flow.

We got a sneak preview of the article last Friday and I am so excited to be able to post the link on my blogs and on Facebook when it's released to the public. I'm just amazed at how good it looks with all of the photos. It's written in a very conversational, first person style and any of my English teachers would cringe at the way it's punctuated (or not, as the case may be), but I'm still very proud of it. It's amazing how any reservations I had just disappeared when I saw the end result.

I want to post some analysis of my reaction to the edits, but this post is already far too long, so I'll save that for another day.

Progress!

I met with my client yesterday to figure out how we could resolve some of the issues we're having, namely that we aren't getting much accomplished. We had an extremely productive meeting and came up with a lot of ideas for how we could start getting more done. The immediate result was that I was able to finish a project yesterday afternoon that I've been sitting on for a while and will be able to send out an invoice for it in the next couple of days. It will be a larger paycheck than any I've received so far. That, in and of itself, is success.

It continues to surprise me how many lessons I am learning each day in my freelance writing adventures. The most significant things I learned from this experience are to speak up when something is not working and to look for innovative ways of dealing with people who have different styles and situations.

When I worked at my day job, I had to constantly pester people for copy. They were always missing deadlines, and though I tried to be nice about it, I felt well within my rights to continually nag them until I got what I needed. When you're a contract worker and your contact is one of the owners of the business, the situation is a little more delicate. I had a problem with getting what I needed from my contact and reminded him periodically when I didn't get something, but I didn't really feel like I could put a lot of pressure on him. After all, he knew the consequences if something didn't get done, and for the most part, the consequences affected him more than they affected me. (Although, if I don't get work done, I don't get paid.)

Earlier this week, I sent him what I thought was a fairly diplomatic e-mail, stating that I didn't think we were getting a lot accomplished and I wanted to discuss how we could work better together. He called me and was very receptive to the idea. He agreed that we were treading water and took responsibility for his part in it. And then we discovered something. Right or wrong, he admitted that if something wasn't on his schedule, he probably wouldn't get to it. Now I'm sure this is not true across the board—I can't imagine he wouldn't answer an e-mail from a client who is bringing in money, but my e-mails and phone calls were falling by the wayside because he didn't have time scheduled to deal with them.

What we came up with was a recurring, weekly virtual meeting. Now I know that each week, that time slot is mine. If I need any feedback or clarification from him on something, I can get it at that meeting. That's not to say that I can't e-mail or call him in the interim if I have a question, but I know I won't have to wait weeks to get a response from him. I'm confident this will remove a lot of the impediments.

The takeaway from this is that I'm going to have to learn to work differently with different people. Ultimately, I think I want the same thing my client wants, we just need to think creatively to make sure it gets done.

Frustrating

One of my biggest frustrations with my freelance writing career is, believe it or not, the only business client I've actually landed. I hooked up with my client through a mutual friend and we've had many meetings to discuss how I can help them.

The scenario goes something like this. They don't have anyone on their staff dedicated to doing marketing or communications, so the partners end up trying to do it on their own. Because they're extremely busy with other types of client development, many of these projects have fallen by the wayside. There are all kinds of things they should have been doing that never got done.

But there's another problem. The partners don't really have time to interact with me, either. So, the situation goes something like this. I have a long conversation with one of the partners (at least I'm only dealing with one at this point) about a project they want done. He is extremely gung ho and excited during the conversation. We end the conversation with me agreeing to do some background work and him agreeing to send me some materials I'll need to complete the project. So, I do my part, send the partner a status update and remind him to send me the materials. Several days go by with no response.

A week or so later, maybe more, I get an e-mail from the partner asking me to call him at a certain time. During the phone call, he starts talking about a different project, which he asks me to make my priority. Nothing seems to happen with the original project.

At this point, I've only completed one actual project. I've also submitted two other small pieces which I ended up gathering all the information for since I never got the materials he was supposed to send. I never heard back on either one of the smaller pieces. It's really confusing because whenever we talk about a project, he acts like it needs to be done right away. There are also outside organizations I know he's supposed to be giving some of these materials to, so we're missing their deadlines.

Further complicating the situation is that the partner is the very good friend of one of my friends, so I don't want to alienate him. Additionally, the company worked with someone who did marketing and communications for them before who scammed them and tried to charge them for a bunch of work he didn't do. Needless to say, they're a little gun shy and I'm trying to be sensitive to that.

It's a frustrating situation, but I don't want to give up on them. For one thing, I really need the money and they have paid me some money. The partner also told me I could start billing them on a biweekly basis for the work I had done, so now, even if I don't complete a project, I can still send them an invoice. Marketing myself to them has already been accomplished. I'm already in the door, I just have to figure out how to get these projects finished while working around this unproductive way of doing things. I also really do believe they want and need this work to be done. I suspect the real barrier is just that they're extremely busy in addition to being disorganized. Next week, I think I'll have a conversation with him and try to set up a schedule and plan of attack. Perhaps if we document things in an organized fashion more will be accomplished.

I'm heading North this afternoon to our cabin. That means no electricity or running water, let alone Internet, so I'll be on hiatus until next week. I wish my legions of readers a happy holiday.