Life on Avenue Z

Ahh... the hectic holiday season

A few weeks ago I wrote about my daily schedule and how I was exchanging actual work time for marketing and follow-up time because I didn't have as much work to do as I had marketing to do.

In the past week, I've landed some really big projects for Avenue Z Writing Solutions. All of a sudden, I have almost no time to work on marketing during the day. I'm actually working on project after project. In fact, I've had to reschedule a meeting with a potential partner, cancel a class I was going to teach and cut back a little on working out. It's been pretty amazing.

Copywriting Guru Peter Bowerman warns in his books that December is frequently very busy with everyone wanting to get projects started/completed before the end of the year. I figured that wouldn't be the case this year since I'm just starting off. I was wrong. He also warns that January is very slow. But if you don't advertise in December for January work, how do you make a living in January?

My problem is keeping up with the marketing while all this working is happening. In sales we learned very quickly that one can never just sit around and finish what's on one's plate. One always has to be on the hunt for tomorrow's dinner.

I'm worried about hunting, but right now I'm trying to juggle all these deadlines.

This is good, right?

No reason to always take my blog so seriously

I was just tagged by Ms. Moonbeam McQueen for a meme. As requested, I will write seven things about myself and post the following rules:

1) Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2) Share 7 facts about yourself.
3) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4) Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here goes...

1. I love toe rings and anklets more than any other jewelry. My favorite anklets have tiny bells.
2. I spend many nights a week -- especially Friday and Saturday -- in the gym so that the long hours that a personal life frequently fills don't make me sad. I wear my marathon gear to the gym to make it look like I'm a serious athlete, not a dateless loner. How my hot pink cap with "Marathon Girl" spelled in cheap rhinestones makes me look like a serious athlete is really none of my concern. It goes well with my San Diego Rock -n- Roll Marathon ankle socks.
3. I have salt-and-pepper nose hairs. What bothers me the most is that I'm aware I have salt-and-pepper nose hairs.
4. My current favorite meal is a can of albacore tuna, heated with about a teaspoon of butter and tossed with angel hair pasta, capers and Chinese hot pepper sauce. I eat it about three times a week.
5. The people I love most in the world live more than a thousand miles away.
6. My math scores were much higher than my verbal scores on both the SAT and the GRE. And now I'm a writer.
7. In my head I wrote and rewrote and rewrote this meme list at least 46 times since I was tagged yesterday.

Ok... now for the tagging....

Ingrid the Great
Sarah from BROOD
Happy Katie
Gluten-Free Tiffany (Gluten-Free Steve was just tagged)
David Castle Art
Joleeann
Elizabeth from A Green Footprint

It's not about the number

As of today, I'm 39 years old. I was talking to a friend last night, and she said, "I don't worry about the number -- I just think about where I am and what I've accomplished to see if I'm on track."

We then proceeded to attend a small dinner party that included indulgent food and too much wine, and I certainly didn't feel I was acting any age I've been in the last decade. But that's beside the point.

Her comment really has me thinking. When my mother turned 39, she had a very tough time. We other family members quietly left her presents in the bathroom for her to discover. Celebrating was out of the question. I'm not feeling threatened or unhappy about my new number, but I'm not sure it's because I'm comfortable with what I've accomplished. When I turned 30, I cried for days, mainly because I hadn't accomplished a goal I had set to be published by 30.

But today, now, these days, for the past several years.... I don't really feel a ticking clock beside me. In fact, making the move to be a professional writer has instead made me more comfortable with the clock. I always imagined I'd use writing as a retirement plan, and now that I'm working for myself, I don't have to worry about ageism or sexism or a lot of -isms, real or imagined, that may have affected how confident I felt in a more conventional job.

I'm good at what I do. I'm glad I'm doing it. And my age at this point is just a number.

The "duh" of "duhs"

Yesterday I attended a free training from Constant Contact, the company I use for my eNewsletter and emails. I was excited about going for a couple of reasons: 1. I wanted to find ways to increase my eNewsletter open rate, and 2. I wanted to see how the company put on workshops to see if the concept would work for another of my clients.

Picture this: 75 or so small business owners looking to improve or start their own eNewsletters. What did they need more than anything? Guidance and content. What do I do for a living? Provide content and help for marketing efforts such as eNewsletters.

And what was I thinking about when I first got to the meeting? Whether or not I should have a muffin for breakfast.

(Please slap forehead here.)

As we were waiting for the session to start, the speaker greeted attendees. I introduced myself as a copywriter. The speaker turned to the other participants and announced, "Hey, people wanted to know where to get content... This woman has a company that produces content!" Within minutes three people came to introduce themselves. "Can you call me tomorrow?" one guy said. "We always need content!" another couple said. "Can you give me a price range..."

Holy smokes! How dumb could I be? I should have been networking from the get go.

The speaker really did all the wonderful things for me. When I raised my hand to respond to a question later, he said again, "And you're a writer, right? And you specialize in eNewsletters?" In a mock, cheesy voice, I announced, "Yes -- I am a WRITER WHO SPECIALIZES IN NEWSLETTERS." Everyone laughed, and the speaker said, "Make sure you get her card before you go.

I ended up with 10 leads and another half dozen people left with my card. And I was worried about muffins. Jeeze.

Let he who is least anal among you cast the first stone

I'm finding it a little hard to believe how anal retentive I've become in the last month. When things in my personal life went askew, I surrounded myself with a rigid schedule to further my freelance copywriting business, and I'm afraid to admit it gives me comfort.

I scheduled an hour or so in the morning to rise, shower, dress, talk to family, shuffle around (yep, that's how it reads on the schedule) and the like. The next thing on my daily list is to post a blog entry. After that I'm scheduled to spend several minutes rewriting my to do list from the day before. I keep two types of notepads -- one for to dos, and a spiral one for notes from projects (see the picture). In the project notepad, I've even taken to color coding and paper clipping the various notes together to keep things organized.

I'm scheduled to spend 4-5 hours on billable projects each day, but many days I switch those hours with marketing/follow-time, for which I had scheduled 1-2 hours daily.

I spend another two hours each night at they gym, with an hour for a workout and an hour luxuriating in the saunas and hot tub.

I scheduled time to work on a book I want to write, but I haven't delved in 100 percent yet. I keep flipping back and forth between fiction ideas and a couple of nonfiction projects. And I haven't started anything.

Right now I keep to the schedule at least 6 if not 7 days a week, since every day is Tuesday. The strict schedule gives me comfort and helps me continue to make a living while filling the hours that might be spent having a personal life.

An update on some recent setbacks

A few weeks ago I posted about the horrible thoughts that come to me when people stop returning my calls. Most of my entry was based on one company that hired me for one project, and I never heard from them again.

I was very worried that they hated me, and my skin is not thick enough yet. They hadn't paid me for the project I did do for them either, so I just called to see where my check was.

Turns out they've just been swamped. "I've still got you here on my list," my contact said. They made a last-minute change in strategy and have been running in a new direction.

In addition, another recent post talked about a false start I had with another client. I had totally missed the boat in my first draft, and I received a very harsh note. The second draft was "back on track," they said. So I'm doing fine again.

Oh, and the whole "I got dumped" thing that I referred to? Well, I'm still dumped.

Guess two out of three ain't bad?

The good and the bad of marketing efforts

As a new freelance writer, I've been making a strong effort to do a large marketing push at least once a week. Here's a summary of what's been working and what hasn't.

• Success: I sent a series of letters to vendors who sell goods and services to the professional association industry. I worked as an association director of education for many years before becoming a sales and marketing professional for a company who sold webcasting services to the association industry.
  
  These letters were fairly personalized, and I got a great response rate. I've picked up at least 3 jobs with this technique, and I've got more meetings scheduled.
• Success: Although I haven't gotten any specific jobs from my eNewsletter yet, I've gotten a lot of exposure. Each week I add probably 10-20 names to my list, and once a month nearly 2000 people get a reminder that I'm here and ready when they are.
• Success: I'm an active member of a listserv in the association community, and I regularly offer resources and ideas to the group. I've gotten quite a bit of exposure this way, including requests for articles and speaking engagements.
• Not So Good: I spent another $300 yesterday buying a list of top companies here in San Diego to send them a direct mail postcard with my services. I've sent several of these out, but I don't seem to get many calls back. The most effective postcard campaign came when I sent out the postcard then sent emails to the people who were going to be getting them (when I had the emails, of course). I met with a designer last week who will probably send me something to spec out soon.
  
  What I really need to do is to add cold calling to these direct mail efforts. Perhaps I'll make some calls today. Ugh.
• Not So Good: I had high hopes that my column on small business issues in a local monthly newspaper would drive traffic to my blog and my site. I haven't even been able to find a copy of the newspaper myself, and I haven't seen a kabillion people stop by.
• Not So Good: I've been leaving piles of my postcard in public places here in San Diego: coffee shops, mailbox office counters, etc. I got a call from one guy who wants to market a product to prisoners, and another guy called me looking for someone who could put together a marketing plan to sell products to Hispanics who visited lunch trucks. Neither of these were really up my alley.

Funny how a synonym to "getting tough" is "growing ba(double L)s"

It's been an interesting week here on Avenue Z. I've had to turn to legal counsel to make a stand against a company that is refusing to pay me monies due. This has nothing to do with my freelance writing business but stems from LBAZ (Life Before Avenue Z).

As a business owner, it's important for me to protect myself and my business from injuries to both my finances and my reputation. As a woman from a primarily Southern culture, these actions completely and utterly contradict my nature and nurture. I can't describe how many times I've written off sums of money, outright slights, complete insults and more. "It's not worth the trouble," I'd think. Or, "I shouldn't move forward because I might be wrong." If I'm totally honest, I'll admit that what I'm really thinking is, "I don't want anyone mad at me."

I can't back down this time. Through my mind is running the self-admonition, "Ziesenis, For God's Sake -- GROW A PAIR." My legal guide told me, "Don't puss out now."

I write this blog from the point of view of a small business owner, not from the point of view of a female small business owner. But my testicular mantra coupled with my advisor's advice to "not puss out" have really brought to mind the characteristics and vernacular that are typically associated with tough business people. If someone backs down, he (she) is a puss, but those who step up have cojones. Interesting, isn't it, that people who don't step up are given female characteristics, and people who fight have male characteristics.

I have been preparing to take this action since the company starting making noises like they were not going to pay me. I had a very tough time committing to making the move I made, but now that I have, I'm prepared to amplify this far beyond the amount of money due. I am not naive enough to think that an idle threat would be enough. But the fact that I'm committed to following through on my plan doesn't mean I don't wish this would all dissolve and get back to normal. I am learning the painful way that it may be possible for me to stay the woman I like to be and to add a significant amount of testosterone to my position as a strong, independent business owner.

I am having a really good time

I added a new category to my blog this morning: Celebrate the successes. My intention on this site has always been to document my journey in setting up my own freelance copywriting business, showing the good and the bad and making people laugh along the way.

Of late, I think I've made the error of portraying my life -- both professional and personal -- as lonely, frustrating, nearly destitute and fraught with emotional land mines.

I think I've forgotten to say that I'M HAVING A GREAT TIME HERE!

My former company is having a really busy fall. The staff is stressed, frantic, scrambling and tired (but they're getting it all done). I would be right there in that mess if I hadn't resigned in early July. I resigned before I had a real plan for anything, but the idea of writing for a living and being my own boss seemed like the best decision I could make.

When I visit with people who knew me when I worked for the other company, they tell me how much less stressed my face looks. I haven't chewed a hole in the inside of my cheek. I smile a lot more, and I laugh aloud (even when I'm here alone, which is a little weird).

More than 10 companies have signed on with me since I officially opened the doors in late August. I've sent out invoices as low as $100 and some into the thousands. My dedicated marketing efforts of late have yielded some very strong results, and many of the gigs I'm going after now involve substantial rethinking of entire marketing campaigns, along with the corresponding writing.

Three of my clients have written me with the kind of emails salespeople love: "Hey, I know you and I have been working on X, but my colleague needs something done for Y. Is that something you can do?"

I've got a meeting today with the principal of a nationally known graphic design firm. I've got phone conferences next week with three new companies. I've got a lead on someone to help me with my taxes. I even contacted a literary agent I know and asked him to help me mull over some ideas I have for some nonfiction books -- and he said one of them sounds interesting and he wants to hear more! I'm truly making ends meet on the business I've created for myself and the work that comes from my brain. How friggin' cool is that???

Sure, sometimes things are tough. I still hate the isolation (though I've actually been a social butterfly the last couple of weeks). And I do struggle with rejection. But every time a client passes on my services or a bozo ex-boyfriend or former boss doesn't recognize what I have to offer, I've got more to offer to myself and to my business.

And I tell you, it feels great.