How bad hair negatively impacts my ability to make a living

I have bad hair today.

I admit this not because I want pity. I just want to share how bad hair hurts my business.

I woke up with bad hair. I washed it yesterday, so I wasn’t going to mess with it this morning. So I primped and fussed and tried to get it to work.

It didn’t. It was all frizzy, and I saw the ends out of the corner of my eye as I worked here on the computer. It was driving me nuts. I got up three times to try to fashion it.

It didn’t work.

So 45 minutes ago, I showered.

After the shower, I messed with my hair some more. I saw my roots, which need dyeing.

In looking at my roots, I saw my face was peeling off.  I needed to exfoliate.

Then I saw a couple of blemishes that needed my attention.

And my teeth needed flossing again.

And my hair still wasn’t quite right.

In all, I’ve wasted at least 100 minutes on trying to get my hair and its environs  into some kind of shape.

All this to avoid writing a proposal and actually doing work.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I would be very effective if I simply switched to wearing a wig.

I’ll do anything to avoid writing a proposal

This morning I surfed funny cat videos, visited some of my favorite blogs, did some dishes, messed with my hair, organized my shoes in the closet.

I’ll do anything to avoid what I really need to do, which is to put together a proposal for a potential client to write emails and content for a “nurture campaign.” (I had to look it up.)

I hate doing proposals. One has to gather this and that, organize things, write paragraphs on the Project Scope, find Terms and Conditions that fit the situation, come up with a cost estimate… all in hopes that your proposal will stand out from the other copywriters’ proposals for a major company.

This is a big project, and I know I’d do a great job. But getting the job takes several hours of work before I even get the chance to do the work.

And I always worry that the person who is reviewing the proposal will take the best ideas from the proposals she received then go to the person she really wants to work with (which is usually the person they’ve worked with for a decade) and say, “Hey, I know you proposed this, but can you do these things instead?”

I know people do that because when I was a sales person at my old job, I’d ask potential clients to do that. I’d say, “As you go through the proposal review process and you find elements you like, please run them by me to see if that’s something we can do. I can always add it to our scope of work.” And if the client liked me, they’d come back with other people’s ideas.

I actually have a good chance of getting this job. If only I could get up the gumption this morning to put the dang thing together.

Ok. No more cat videos. After this one.

What does a brand new business owner tell wanna-be business owners?

Since I quit my job this summer to start writing professionally, one of the coolest things I’ve landed is a gig as a columnist for a local San Diego monthly newspaper.

The Espresso is distributed for free in coffee houses and the like in San Diego. I’m not getting paid, but it’s got a circulation of 36,000 each month, and my column (and my name and web address) will be in it each month.

When I called the publisher, I told him I wanted to write on how to start up one’s own business, since I was going through the process myself. He has a passion to help his readers, he said, many of whom sit in coffee shops and dream of striking out on their own. I sent him to this blog as an indication of my writing style and the topics I would cover, and his next email included my monthly deadline and word limit.

[Permit me to whisper a tiny "YEA!" here, please.]

This blog flips around a lot to many new business issues, from healthcare, watching the budget, working from home, proposals and estimating, time management. But I want to develop 4-6 concrete topics that will logically flow from one month to the next for people who really want to make this happen.

Here are my first ideas:

1. How to plan your own business while you still have your day job (and how to keep your day job when all you can think about is your new business)
2. A trip to the Small Business Administration and other free aids — what will help and what will just annoy you
3. Taxes, accountants and banks, or who gets your money once you make it
4. The best laid business plans — yeah, you really have to write one and why
5. Marketing table for one
6. Cheap tricks and frugal living, or making ends meet after the taxes, accountants and banks

Ok, I need to work on the headlines. But I’d love to know what others would want to know. Chime in if you have other ideas.

Making the commitment to finish

Thanks mostly to my conversations on this blog, I recently picked up a job writing copy for a redesigned website. I have 11 pages in all to write, and minutes ago I finished page 6.

Three of the pages are linked and should be written together, and I’m committed to getting those done before bed. I’ll probably be at this until midnight or so — definitely past my bedtime.

This commitment to pushing through a true writing wall is new to me. When I am writing fiction for myself, I’ll stop for any reason. I’ll rarely force a story through to the end. My mind wanders; chocolate calls; I see the sudoku book by my bedside…. I have a thousand excuses.

But as a newly established professional writer, I have to fight those urges to give up. We’re not talking about my words. I’m writing someone else’s words, and they’re paying me to do so. I have a commitment to give them the 11 pages tomorrow, and when I get through these three, I’ll have two to wrestle with in the morning.

I’d best get back to writing.

The Top 8 Reasons Why I’ll Probably Never Make a Living as a Blogger

1. I can’t figure out how to work a trackback.
   Do I put code somewhere? Does it do it automatically? What the heck is a URI? The only “pingbacks” I seem to get are on the posts I write where I refer to my other posts. Isn’t that kind of incestuous?
2. I have no idea what CSS is.
   And the only HTML I know is how to make something bold and how to insert a line break.
3. My “Authority” on Technorati is only 25, and I’m ranked number 331,293.
   That sounds bad, doesn’t it?
4. I do a horrible job of visiting the blogs of people who comment on my blog.
   No one likes a selfish blogger, right?
5. I can’t stand the look of ads on a blog.
   Isn’t that the way people generate income with blogs?
6. I’ve used the same WordPress template as half the blogs I visit.
   This one doesn’t allow my pictures to be very wide, so I keep shrinking the cartoons almost to the point of being unreadable.
7. I can’t figure out a way to use all the widgets and gadgets and add-ons that other blogs have.
   Some of the ones I’ve seen have monitors for how many calories the blogger had that day. How can I compete with that?
8. I haven’t done most of the tricks that I wrote about in the post “What If You Gave a Blog and No One Came?“
   If I don’t take my own advice, who will?

Guess I’ll have to stick to trying to make a living writing other people’s blogs, newsletters, brochures, etc.

I’ll Write Your Brochure Today, CHEAP

I’ve been wanting to take a picture of a handwritten sign near my house for several days. In bold black marker, it reads, “I’LL BUY YOUR HOUSE TODAY!! CA$H” plus a phone number.

This marketing technique is intriguing to me. What kind of consumer will respond to this entreaty? Someone with a missed payment, fearful of becoming a statistic in the rampant foreclosure trend? Someone whose house has been sitting on the market for a year without a nibble?

Who would really respond to a real estate transaction offer that was written in black marker on a cheap white yard sign?

As I was taking this picture, a city parks and recreation truck stopped at the light. The driver was looking at me, and I was prepared with a defense if he fussed at me for the sign, which I know he thought was mine and I’m sure is illegal. Sure enough, he rolled down the window.

“Hey,” he said. “Do you guys do remodeling jobs, too?”

What this guy proved to me is that these signs do get noticed. Their handwritten appeal catches people’s eyes, and people respond. Not just desperate people with a mortgage they can’t pay. Real people who are looking for help with their homes.

I’m afraid to call the number to ask, but I wonder how many calls these guys get a week. I Googled the phone number, and this person, John, also has an ad in some local online classifieds, referring to his location near “Lemon Grove Ave at Massachustetts [sic] Ave.” Again, what kind of traffic does that drive to his toll-free number?

If it works for John, would it work for me? Here’s my sign:

Lamenting the loss of direct deposit: Chores I didn’t count on

Before I quit my day job to become a professional copywriter, I had a regular job and a regular paycheck. Every 15 days or so, I’d get an email or an invalid check or something to tell me that, once again, I could buy groceries.

But now checks come v-e-r-y  s-l-o-w-l-y to my post office box. I have to drive to check the mail every other day or so, and, if I’m very lucky and I’ve been a good little copywriter all week, I’ll have a check.

$75 here. $750 there. Instead of two notices a month to tell me that I have money, I have to collect checks and remember to bring them with me when I’m going to the bank.

This is a problem for me. I’m forgetful, and I hate to run errands. I hadn’t counted on having to process each and every small amount. I actually set up a PayPal account so I could accept credit cards, but only one client did that (my first $100). Everyone else pays s-l-o-w-l-y by check.

Oh well. I’m getting lots of pens at my bank.

The Afternoon Idiot Hour

It happens to me every afternoon. Some time between 2 and 3 or so, I find myself surfing the web, pushing refresh a dozen times on my website stats page, itching for a walk, allowing the cat on my lap thus ensuring I can’t type… whatever.

Before I quit my day job to make a living as a professional writer, I used to try to fight through this Idiot Hour. I’d feel guilty for not being as productive, and I’d try to concentrate and keep going. I used to keep peppermint and lemon essential oils in my desk drawer to sniff them when my brain went dead.

But now that I work for myself, I recognize these little mental shutdowns as real needs for a small break. Sometimes it takes me a few moments to realize how distracted I’ve become — for example, I’ll kind of “wake up” in the middle of blind-blog surfing to realize I’m not getting any real work done.

When it happens now, I run an errand, take a walk, watch an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (don’t ask — I’m addicted), eat some edamame that has to be shelled, cuddle with the cat, take a nap, etc. And I don’t feel guilty because I know that after my brain break, I’ll be fresh to get back to work.

Favorite Freebies from the World’s Cheapest Copywriter

Since leaving my jet-setting, executive-type sales/marketing position at a technology company, I’ve become ultra cheap.

 

Not just kind of cheap. I mean really, almost insanely cheap.

Example 1: at first I budgeted 3 trips a week to my favorite coffee shop, but then I discovered that I can buy 25 tea bags and make chai at home for the cost of about two cups of coffee (not including tip!).

Example 2: I spend evenings perusing books at Borders bookstore, and I take pictures of the ones I want with my cell phone camera so I can come home and order them on Half.com.

Cheap. Cheap. Cheap.

Here is a list of free discoveries I’ve made since starting my own business.

1. Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 — The Express edition is free and covers the needs of a small consulting business just fine.
2. EverNote — When I was employed, I really grew to like Microsoft’s OneNote, which allowed me to kind of “throw” important notes into the service without having to save, organize, etc. EverNote does the same thing, but it’s free.
3. Survey Monkey — I use electronic surveys to gather information for articles for my monthly eNewsletter, plus I send a survey to my clients after a project is finished. The basic service is free and covers all my needs.
4. Pelotonics — The name for Pelotonics comes from cycling: a peloton is a group of riders working as a team to increase efficiency and conserve energy. I use this group collaboration website to manage all my projects. We upload files, drafts and versions; set deadlines; keep track of communication. There’s a free level, but I now use one of the paid levels (still cheap!).
5. FreeConferenceCall.com — It’s exactly what it says. You can set up your own conference calling line for collaboration with your clients. Everyone calls a regular phone number and pays regular long distance charges, but we can all be on the line together. 1-800 conference call lines are also darn cheap.

Estimating a writing project

Yesterday someone asked me how I determine a cost estimate for a writing project if I’m not charging by the hour. This is a tough problem, and it’s important professional writers learn how to do it well. With my 60 days of experience, I’m still learning.

I try to break down a project into several time chunks:

1. How long is it going to take me to absorb the concept to come up with the right copy? I still do work for my former company, and I don’t have any kind of a learning curve there. But when I am putting together the eNewsletter that they’ll send out, I have to determine a theme, find article ideas, locate appropriate graphics. The thinking time on a project like that could be quite long.
2. How long is it going to take to actually write the copy? Is it something that may flow, or will it be a lot of cross-referencing and extra analysis all the way through? I try to imagine myself sitting down to write it. Am I flipping through different screens on my computer, or is the copy coming out without help once I understand the purpose and tone?
3. How long will it take to format the physical copy the client will receive? For example, for a flyer or a brochure, I usually give something that has some of the graphics or something that shows the layout. I’ve yet to be able to toss over just a pile of words and say, “Here — I’m just the writer. Take it to your graphic people to make it look good.” Writing effective commercial copy, to me, takes into account what the final product may look like, so I like to share what was in my head as I wrote.
4. How much rewriting do I expect? So far, I’ve really been fortunate in that I’ve nailed the first drafts on the first try, so I haven’t done much revision.  But I have to leave room for people to come back with changes.

Once I understand those four time elements, I figure out the number of hours a project will take. Then I add a couple of hours, because I’m almost always too short. When I write the contract (on small projects, it’s an email that just needs electronic approval), I almost always include two rounds of revisions, and then I give a price for additional revisions.

Other copywriters charge for more:

• Travel time to and from the client
• Time spent going over project with client
• Initial consultation
• Revisions that go beyond a regular rewrite — such as when the company “changes direction” on a piece

On my first official project as a professional copywriter, I absolutely blew the estimate. It was what the guy called “a simple proofing job” to edit two datasheets, 14 pages each. I figured I could knock them off in a couple of hours. Ha! Eight hours later, I was still sweating. It took me at least four hours to edit the dang things, and then another four or so to input all the changes (I always edit hard copy).

But I’ve nailed the estimates on my last two jobs — almost to the minute. Which gives me hope that I’ll be able to figure this out as a profession.

Happy Estimating to you all.