Happy anniversary to me!

I just realized that today is an important anniversary for me: Exactly four years ago, I was working my very last day at my job as a full-time technical writer. I was quitting to follow the next stage of my dreams: to freelance full-time.

Four years later, I'm still at it, and it's going pretty well (if I do say so myself). Despite the recession, I have still been pretty busy, and it even looks like I'll beat last year's income by $1,000 or so.

I found out this morning from Kathy Kehrli's blog that yesterday was a new holiday: the National Day on Writing. Too bad they didn't make it today instead — that would have been perfect! In any case, I'm celebrating by sitting at home in my pajamas (something I don't often do), working on a couple of deadlines. A combination of the weather (light rain and snow) and my deadlines kept me from heading out to the barn this morning, which is why I'm around to celebrate my four-year anniversary of freelancing full-time!

Happy anniversary to me — and may there be many more!

Funnies for Mondays

I had one heck of a weekend. To read all about that, visit my Pony Tales Blog and read the weekend's posts. And sadly it's not over, either — more fun scheduled for later today.

For those of you who don't want to read the entire story, the short version is that I decided to move my horse NOW, rather than in two weeks, because of an incident at the barn over the weekend. But none of it is happening as smoothly as I'd like.

We are going to try (for the second time) this afternoon to load Panama onto a trailer. But because I have several deadlines this week, and because I can't turn down money now of all times, I have a busy morning ahead of me — I need to work hard and get as much done as possible, since it's unlikely I'll have another chance today.

But before I get started, I needed something to cheer me up first thing this Monday morning. Not being able to sleep in (my first choice), I'm instead posting a few of my favorite funny videos. Only one is writing-related, I'm afraid, but indulge me!

Lessons from The Office

Michael and I just finished watching Season 5 of The Office. I've found wisdom for writers in past episodes, and this season held a particularly fine little gem: a lesson in why we shouldn't price ourselves too low.

Spoiler alert — if you haven't seen this yet and you don't want to know what happens in the season, click away!

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Basically, the boss, Michael Scott, quits his job and starts his own paper company. He scores quite a few Dunder Mifflin clients by offering low low prices, but it turns out the prices are too low. He and his employees, Ryan and Pam, have a conversation with an accountant that I think is all too applicable in the writing industry, too:

Accountant: Your prices are too low.

Michael: Lowest in town!

Accountant: Why do you think Staples and Dunder Mifflin can't match your prices?

Pam: Corporate greed?

Ryan: Our pricing model is fine... Over time, with enough volume, we become profitable.

Accountant: With a fixed cost pricing model that's correct. But you need to use a variable cost pricing model... As you sell more paper, and your company grows, so will your costs. For example, delivery man, health care, business expansion. At these prices, the more paper you sell, the less money you'll make.

Michael: Our prices are the only thing keeping us in business.

Accountant: They're actually putting you out of business.

It's the last two lines that I think are the most profound. Listen up, newbie writers! You might think you can learn to write faster, turn out more articles per hour, and become profitable "over time, with enough volume," and maybe that will work for a little while, but that's not how you stay in business. You need to think about your long-term goals — whether you still want to be freelancing five years from now, for instance.

Michael Scott goes back to the office and starts calling up clients to raise their prices, and of course they just go back to Dunder Mifflin, because the only reason they'd left in the first place was for the lower price. i.e., You can't quote a client a rock-bottom price and expect to be able to raise it to a more reasonable rate later on.

Naturally, the show has a happy ending: Dunder Mifflin (not realizing that Michael Scott is about to go out of business) buys out the fledgling company and gives Michael, Ryan, and Pam jobs again. But my idea of a happy ending is NOT going to back to work in an office. I like working for myself just fine, thanks! So I have to set my rates to enable me to continue doing that.

What's your happy ending?

ALWAYS carry business cards

You've probably heard this before. Well, let me tell you: always means ALWAYS, as I discovered today.

I had a couple of doctor's appointments this morning for a medical research study I was participating in. I usually bring my laptop to these types of things, in case of any downtime. I have a lovely new bag with compartments for both my laptop and the stuff from my purse, which is what I've been using whenever I bring my laptop with me.

Unfortunately, when I switched my stuff over from my purse this morning, I neglected to bring my business cards. I actually thought about it, but decided that since I was only going to the doctor's office and then back home, it was highly unlikely I'd need them.

Highly unlikely doesn't mean definitely not, as it turns out.

It might have been the least likely of places, but the woman who was doing my PFT asked what I did for a living, and when I told her, it turned out they might need someone to do the writing for their new website. When she asked for my email address, I had to write it down for her instead of giving her a card. While I know (having been in there a few times already) that she is pretty laid back and didn't care — in fact, we ended up commiserating over how we never seem to have business cards on hand at opportune moments — I was somewhat embarrassed by my lack of professionalism.

My business cards are actually quite attractive, and it is always quite satisfying to hand one to a prospective client, or even a colleague. Too bad I didn't have any on hand today... but I've learned my lesson! In fact, I just dug up my extra business card holder and slipped it into the new bag, so that from now on I won't have to worry about it when I switch purses.

Taking the freelance writing rates survey

Yesterday a commenter on Lori Widmer's blog mentioned a survey she is doing, on freelance writing rates. It's a quick, anonymous survey, on a frequently visited topic for my blog as well as others, so I thought I'd pass it on.

Long time, no read

I just realized I've barely posted this month — on this blog, anyway. It's been quite a month, actually! After I was sick (which really took it out of me), I got kicked by my horse and spent several days hobbling around on a swollen, bruised leg. And then of course I fell on said leg during Friday's lesson... Although that last one wasn't a big deal (other than the time it cost me tending to Panama's injuries), I really got my butt kicked this month.

In more ways than one, unfortunately. My income also took a bit of a hit this month. Partly it was being either out of commission or moving really slowly because of the above-mentioned events, but I think two other factors contributed: summer is over, and I got burnt out from being so darn productive.

First things first: summer. I've mentioned before that summer is always my busiest season. I've noticed during other years that my workload usually picks up like crazy during June, July, and August. And sure enough, September dropped the ball — I think my total income will be less two-thirds what last month's was. (And although I forgot to blog abut it, August was a very good month, nearly as good as July.)

If I'd been feeling more up to it, I probably could have done some marketing and quickly made it back up (since I knew early in the month that it would be slow). But as I said, I was a bit burnt out. And even if I could have overcome this (which I probably could have), getting sick and kicked almost certainly did not help.

Well, here's hoping for a better October!

Taking sick days

I was extremely ill over the weekend. If what I had wasn't the flu, then it was the worst cold I've ever had. I was pretty much incapacitated for both Sunday and Monday, and although I felt better yesterday, I was still weak and lethargic. Therefore I decided to take the day off and spent it camped out on the couch, watching movies.

While I was sick (and over the weekend, I might add), I got an email from a client asking about his article. This brought to mind a question that I wanted to put to my readers: How do you deal with sick days? Do you let all of your current clients know you're taking time off because you're sick? Or do you only let them know if it's going to interfere with a deadline?

I tend to think only the latter is necessary. Particularly over a holiday weekend. But what are your thoughts?