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Footloose and Freelance

One woman's quest for financial independence - oh yeah, and rewarding work.

Thursday, February 07, 2002

Making progress


OK, after a bad day yesterday, I managed to work on a second draft of the Direct Mail piece today and send it off.
I would rather have stabbed myself in the forehead than work on it yesterday, but I did keep plugging away, which made today a LOT easier.

This is a Direct Mail piece for my previous company (it only took them a year to ask me to work freelance for them!). It's hard to write for them because I've said and heard it all before. I left because I was bored with it. It is my new driving ambition to find enough business clients that I can eventually (soon) drop this company.

Lesson 1: don't go for what's safe.
Lesson 2: if quoting a price on a job, figure out how much time you think you'll need for a first draft and double it to allow for revisions. Even if you are fast with corrections, you may find out that what they really want is a re-write because they didn't give you the correct instructions in the first place... Having given them a fixed price for the job, I now feel like I'm working for free.

Flushed with success at sending off the work I'd completed, I made some follow-up calls to other businesses, while I was still feeling 'up'.

My first independent client, Harry, didn't take my call and I think he may be avoiding me because the economy is so bad and none of his customers are buying. Maybe I'll send him an email to say 'hey, I'm really just interested in finding out how things are, and how that piece I wrote for you is working out'.

My second client (for whom I do barter-based work - she cuts my hair, I help her with material for her new salon) said her opening party went well and she's happy with the price-list/product description for her.

Now, since I'm feeling so good about myself, I think I'll sketch out the structure of my article that is due on March 1. Ahhh....

Current Projects:


Read & judge 50 books for national competition (due March 8)
Direct Mail for Client X (due today - done!)
Monthly Newsletter for Client X (due March 1)
Article for Writer's Digest (due March 1)
Article for Publishing Success (due April 15)

On-going Projects


Website updates
E-Newsletter
E-book

It never rains but it pours, as they say in my part of the world...

.: posted by Julie 2:05 PM