Classes for Aspiring Writers
As a successful freelance writer, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how I’ve been able to earn a living and build a writing business when so many print writers are out of work, and writing is such a difficult field to break into. I’ve worked with some writers one-on-one, but there were always more people who had more questions or wanted information. Unfortunately, most of the writing books out there today about breaking into writing were written five or ten years ago; before the electronic age really took off.

I’m here to tell you about how you can become a successful freelance writer in the electronic era.

I’ve completed the format for a series of 3-hour weeknight “intro” classes which get into the basic info of how to start a freelance writing career in the electronic age. I’ll be providing resources and information that attendees can use to put together their own business plan and start their writing careers!

For writers who want more one-on-one help with starting a writing career, I’m offering consulting or personal training sessions, and I’m also going to be offering a weekend workshop to get into more detail and help writers begin to create their strategy to kick-start their new careers. Writers can choose either, based on their needs, the format in which they learn best, how much personal attention they want and how much one-on-one time they need.

A Book about Freelance Writing in the Electronic Era
Part of the reason I’ve been waiting to announce this class is that I’m working on a companion project – a book about Freelance Writing in the Digital Age. The book covers many of the things I discuss in the class, but it goes into detail and provides examples, and there are extra chapters in the book that deal with the practical day-to-day reality of being a self-employed freelance writer. I’ve been waiting to talk about the book until I have official confirmation that it’s complete, but I decided that it’s not fair to delay the class until the book is ready to go, so I’m preemptively spilling the beans. I haven’t yet decided whether to go with a traditional publishing format (i.e. through an agent and publishing company to create a physical book) or to publish in an electronic format; I’m currently evaluating both options and will release more details once things are finalized.

Stay Tuned for Dates and Venues
The class content is finalized, and I’m currently in the process of researching a venue for the class. I’ve evaluated a few places, but there’s one Boston-based venue where I’d really like to host it (as it’s a venue where I’ve taken classes myself, and feel they have a lot to offer writers) so I’m waiting to hear back from that group first. If they don’t have room in their current workshop schedule, I’ll book one of the other venues I’ve researched and announce the dates.

Web Conference Options
I’m also looking at putting together Web conferences for writers who aren’t able to make it to the Boston area. I’d like to be able to help writers across the country start successful writing careers, and I’m researching my options for doing Web-based conferences and putting together electronic materials. I think the physical classes will be ready first, but hopefully the Web conferences won’t be far behind!

Stay tuned for dates and venues, and in the meantime, if you’ve got any questions you’d like to see answered in the class, post them here or email me!

A To-Do List is Essential
A solid to-do list is the cornerstone of my time management process. I use an application for my laptop, called Things, which I can also sync to my iPhone for adding/managing tasks on the go. Before that, I used a paper to-do list designed by a friend of mine, which included a self-organizing element to help determine priority. Theoretically, I don’t actually need a to-do list. I have a freaky memory and I never forget about a project or deadline. But using a to-do list helps me to prioritize the projects I’m working on, and deal with them in manageable chunks. It’s also really satisfying to cross things off when you finish them; you get a sense that you’ve actually accomplished something.

Break Tasks Up into Manageable Pieces
Some tasks take a lot of time. I’ve had projects that take days or weeks of my time. It’s hard to feel like you’re making progress on those tasks because they’re so time-consuming, and it can get discouraging. I find it really helpful to break tasks up into manageable pieces. If I’m writing a book, I might make my goal to write 5 pages each day, and then I can check off my five pages. If I’m doing a project that consists of 20 articles, I might set myself X articles per day or week, depending on the size and scope of the articles. Making this steady progress and being able to cross things off my to-do list keeps me moving forward.

Prioritize Fast Tasks
Sometimes you have a lot of tasks on your list, and a good strategy to handle the workload is to prioritize based on the time the project will take you instead of when it’s due. For example, if you have a big project and three small projects all due in two days, it makes sense to do the small projects first. That way you can knock things off your to-do list, and if the big project runs long, you won’t be late on the other projects, too. Sometimes it also makes sense to handle smaller projects first even if the bigger project is due sooner for that very reason – when big projects run long, they can set your entire workflow behind.

Leave Room in Your Schedule
One of the keys to me as a self-employed individual is to leave room in my schedule. If I fully-book my schedule, that’s inevitably the time when one of my projects will run long or require extra revision. If you leave a bit of room in your schedule, you have flexibility if you’re running close to deadline or a project takes longer than you expect. It helps to have some small ongoing projects you can use to fill the gaps, or you can spend your extra time working on marketing if you finish your projects early.

Plan Your Breaks
I may have a propensity to procrastinate. I’ll be starting to work, and then I’ll think of something I should look up or do. When I find myself distracting myself from work, I actually schedule my breaks. I’ll keep a separate running to-do list for things I think of while I’m working, and wait until my scheduled break to look them up or do things. Sometimes I say “I’ll work until X time,” or sometimes I give myself a break after completing a certain number of articles or a certain part of a project.

Reward Yourself When Necessary
There are times when I take on really massive projects that require me to work long days, and even sometimes the weekends. These projects usually pay pretty well (which is my primary motivator to taking them – or else I’ll do it for an existing client) so I “reward” myself for completing the project. There was one project I completed in May that paid nearly $3,000 but required me to work a lot of 12-hour days, so as a reward, I bought myself a $300 “sale” item I’d been wanting. For smaller projects, I’ll do smaller rewards; I might buy a new book after a particularly rough week, or take my SO out to dinner if I’ve been working particularly hard or feeling stressed.

Time management skills are something that everyone needs to practice. Do you have any time management secrets you’d like to share?

The Purpose of Language is Communication
First, I’d argue against the spirit of this comment. Language developed to enable communication. Communication is independent of truth or lies. Communication is an attempt to convey a message from one party to another. In some cases, one or both of the parties might choose to conceal the truth, but concealing the truth is not a function of language – it’s a function of human behavior. I’d argue that by its nature, as a tool designed to facilitate communication, language as a convention runs counter to the spirit of concealment.

Language has Evolved for Accuracy and Precision
How do new words enter the language? Words are coined in an attempt to more precisely describe or identify something. When enough people use words for long enough, they enter the lexicon and become a recognized part of the language. Words don’t evolve to promote concealment and obscurity. They evolve to facilitate precision and accuracy. This facet of language development also runs counter to the idea of language as a tool for concealing the truth. Yes, some people may use it that way, but that’s not why language exists or how it evolves.

Business Use of Language
When you unite business and language is when I think you begin to enter gray areas about the use of words as a tool for concealment. Many companies utilize language to portray a positive picture of their company or product in an attempt to sell the product. How many people want to buy something from a company whose copy says something like: “This product isn’t the best product for this purpose, nor is it the cheapest, but we want you to buy it anyway!” Not very compelling copy. Good copy describes a product accurately, while still presenting it in a positive light.

Personally, I’d argue that good copy doesn’t “conceal” anything from the reader. As a company, you don’t want to set up false consumer expectations or you’ll create disappointed consumers. That’s not the way to build a good business with sustainable success. The goal of good copy is to make consumers want your product without making false promises and without “hiding” things from your consumers. That’s how I write copy, and I have turned down projects that have requested me to make false promises or present products in an inaccurate manner.

Language, Like Any Other Tool, can be Misused
Unfortunately, not everybody has the same approach to accuracy in language. Some businesses do use language to conceal the truth about a product, or portray it inaccurately. For example, I purchased an iPhone 4 and am experiencing the same antenna problems that many people around the country are reporting. Apple’s official response to reports of antenna problems was: “Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone.” Apple hasn’t openly acknowledged the antenna issue, and this language attempts to downplay what is a very real design flaw in the phone. In this case, I would say that language is being used to obscure the truth: that the phone has a design flaw that Apple doesn’t intend to address.

Ultimately, like any other tool, language can be used and misused in a variety of ways. Language is used for concealment by some individuals and businesses, but I’d argue that this isn’t the purpose of language, nor is it the way it’s used in the majority of cases. I’m one of those people who believes in the inherent goodness of humans as a species, and I believe that in the majority of cases, people use language as it is intended – to communicate. So while I have to acknowledge that there is some truth in this comment, in that language can be used as a tool for concealment, I believe that cases where language is used for concealment are a minority.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with this comment, or do you think language is more innocuous – a tool that can be used in a way it isn’t intended to be used?

Self-Employed Means Long Hours
Yes, when you’re self-employed, you can typically set your own schedule. However, what many people don’t realize is that the schedule you set is usually far more than 40 hours. Self-employed individuals must complete their work, but they also have to market themselves, do their own accounting, settle bills, generate contracts and deal with a thousand other administrative tasks. When you’re self-employed, your income is directly proportional to the amount of work you put in – which means that you may be working 60 to 80 hour weeks when you get started just to make ends meet. Over time, you get more efficient and build systems that help you deal with the administrative details faster, but many self-employed individuals work far more than 40 hours per week.

Marketing is a Never-Ending Task
When you’re self-employed, you are responsible for generating your business. If you’re not spending time marketing, you’re not getting work, which means you’re not making money. When you’re self-employed, marketing is a never-ending task that takes countless hours every week. Self-employed people must be prepared to advertise their skills or services whenever possible, which means carrying business cards everywhere you go and utilizing any opportunity to demonstrate skills and find business.

Being Self-Employed Involves Higher Taxes and Expenses
Self-employed individuals typically pay twice as much in taxes than someone who works in a traditional job. When you work for an employer, your employer pays a portion of your Social Security and Medicare payments. Self-employed individuals must pay the entire amount themselves, resulting in higher taxes than traditional employment. Self-employed persons also don’t have the benefit of employer-sponsored health care, which means we have to pay for our own health insurance; which typically starts at around $400 per month for individuals.

Self-Employed People Don’t Get Paid Vacations
When you’re self-employed, you only get paid when you’re working. That means you don’t get paid sick days or paid vacations. If a self-employed individual is too sick to work, he or she doesn’t get paid. Likewise, if a self-employed person wants to take a week or two off for vacation, he or she must earn extra money before leaving – or go without that income.

The Client is the Boss
Being your own boss can be fun, but most self-employed individuals work for clients and the client essentially becomes the boss. As a self-employed professional, you can usually dictate how you do a job, but you must provide the product or services to the client’s specifications or suffer the client’s wrath. In many self-employed professions, clients convey very tight timeframes, which may require extra work or shuffling other projects to get things done. Being your own boss is fun until you have a problem with a client; then you wish you had a boss to step in.

Don’t get me wrong – I love being self-employed. I’ve had very few problems with clients, and have been able to resolve all of those amicably. I love being able to work from the park, or Starbucks or the office, and I love being able to take the afternoon off if I get my work completed early. But being self-employed isn’t as glamorous as many people think it is, and people who are thinking of working for themselves should be prepared to make sacrifices and deal with the nitty-gritty of being self-employed.

Always be Professional
Whether it’s a mutual decision to terminate a project or one party initiates the breakup, it’s important to be professional in all of your business dealings. Don’t get angry about terminating your project, and if you are angry, don’t show your partner. Whether you’re a client or an employer, there’s no reason to take your temper out on the other party in your deal. And it’s important to remember one very important fact: the world is a small place, and you never know who the other party knows. If word of your temper tantrum spreads around the community, you’ll have a hard time finding work and your reputation will be sullied. Be professional and you can cling to that in your future business relationships.

Compromise to End the Project
Usually, when a project is terminated prematurely, each side has to give a little. A client may not be happy with the work that a provider creates, and may want to pay nothing. Or the provider may be unable to keep up with client requests for edits and may want to end the project. It’s important to keep in mind that both parties probably want a project to end in a certain way, and compromise is the fairest way to terminate a project. If you’re an unhappy client, maybe you pay for a portion of the work. If you’re a provider who wants to end a project, maybe you offer one or two more rounds of revisions and then call it quits. Keep in mind that you’re both giving something up, and try to find a graceful way to ensure you both get something fair.

Consult Your Contract
When you enter into a business relationship, you may sign a contract with the other party. Many contracts have provisions for what happens if one party wants to end the project. Make sure you are happy with the termination provisions before you sign a contract. If you do need to terminate, consult your contract to ensure you’re both in compliance with the termination provisions.

Document Everything
It’s always a good business practice to document all communications anyway, but make sure you document any communication regarding the termination of the project. If you have a phone conversation with a client or provider, document it. Save email exchanges or written letters. You may need to reference these materials if the termination turns acrimonious, so keeping these things on hand gives you peace of mind.

The termination of a business relationship doesn’t have to be a painful process. If you can both remain professional, communicate clearly and compromise on the terms of the project’s end, you can both be satisfied with a mutual parting of ways. Terminating a business relationship goes bad when people start to show their tempers or act unreasonably, so keep in mind that you’re a business professional and conduct yourself accordingly – even if the other party doesn’t. It’s your reputation on the line.

Treat Every Job Like a Big Job

First and foremost: treat every job like a big job. Don’t put small jobs off because they’re ‘small’ and they won’t pay you much; treat your small clients with the same respect and responsiveness that you provide your ‘big’ clients. You never know when a small client can refer a big client, or even when a small client expands the scope of his business or marketing efforts and needs more from you. You could do a few articles for a client who decides he likes your work and wants to hire you for a gigantic recurring project – you just never know what a job can bring you. If you treat your ‘little’ clients poorly, aren’t as responsive, or simply don’t put in as much work on their projects, you could be cheating yourself out of a ‘big’ client through word-of-mouth.

Reach Out to Your Clients Periodically

Some clients are just one-off projects, but most clients have the potential to be recurring clients, or to provide referrals that can be valuable to your business. Reach out to your clients periodically. Send out an email, or send out holiday cards to remind your clients that you exist, and to thank them for their business. If you’re genuine with your sentiment, clients will appreciate you and they’re more likely to remember you. If you pay lip service just to keep your name fresh in their thoughts, most clients will sense that and dismiss you and your contact as a marketing device. It might work, but not as effectively as genuine sentiment, or genuine appreciation for your clients.

Thank Your Clients for Referring Business

If you do have a client who refers new business to you, don’t just take on the new business – actually thank your client for referring the business your way. At the very least, send a quick email or phone call to thank the client for the referral. Even better is a handwritten note – particularly in this day of electronic communication, it’s really nice to get a handwritten thank-you note. This small step can show your client that you appreciate their referral, and make them more likely to refer you again – and give you more business when it happens.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing is a Powerful Tool

Word-of-mouth marketing is truly a powerful tool. At this point, a year and a half after starting my freelance business full-time, probably 80% to 90% of my work comes from repeat clients and referrals. I spend far less time searching for and bidding on new projects, and more time doing paying work. Any freelancer knows this is the key to building a successful business – minimizing the non-paying aspects of the business and getting more paying work – and if you use these techniques to build your referral business, your business will be much more profitable and productive.

Do you have any great tips for building a client base through word-of-mouth marketing? Share them with us! I’d love to hear what unique approaches other freelancers take to building a referral business.