Last week I was interviewed by Rodney Schussler of ABCNews.com. Today the article appeared, entitled, Virtually There: Small Businesses Look Far Away for Help.
Fellow VAs Candy Beauchamp Nina Feldman, and Sue Kramer, whom I’ve all met in-person, are also mentioned in the article. I’m wishing I didn’t make the comment about the $20 bill, but it’s all true! Of course, a 20-minute conversation with a reporter is whittled down to 2 or 3 sentences!
So tonight, I’m enjoying my 15 minutes of fame!
On one of the online writers’ communities I read, someone asked what exactly a writing coach was, because, to her, it sounded like a scam artist. Some others of you may be wondering the same thing. So with this thought, I wanted to bring you the difference between a writing coach and an editor.
A writing coach helps you improve your writing. This can be a general skill-development project, or related to a specific piece of writing you’re working on. For this example, let’s say you’ve decided you’d like to write and self-publish “How to Market Widgets for Fun and Profit”. You’ve never written a book before. If you “just” decide to hire an editor and you didn’t really know how to write a book, you might get a very high editing quote because so much of your book needs to be re-worked and “fixed”. If you hire a writing coach, you are paying as you go. So you may pay an hourly rate or a monthly rate for a set number of phone calls or an “unlimited phone and email support” monthly rate. You can bounce your ideas off your coach, plan out the book, get feedback from the chapters as you go, and improve your writing over the course of completing the book. If your book wasn’t fine-tune edited during the coaching process, then when you move to the editing stage, your editor is working with a book that is in good shape. It won’t take him or her as long to fix it, and your fees should be less.
If you’re already written your book, you need an editor. If you’re about to start or have already started your book, you may want to consider a writing coach. If you’re a repeat successful author, you probably just need an editor. They are different services that work to achieve the same goal–a well-written book. In a writing coaching relationship though, you learn “how” to write a book, which is a skill you’ll be able to use as often as you want!
The Hidden Helpers provide writing coaching services. Please contact us for more information.
Two weeks ago, I posted about my first week this summer without a babysitter and whether I thought it would be feasible to go sitter-less in the summers. Well, it is. So, starting this week, the kids are home with me. They are now old enough to understand that if I say I’ll be on the phone with a client or prospect, they are not allowed to interrupt me (barring any emergencies, of course!). Today I was upstairs answering emails when I heard them say, “Mom, Deer, Deer!” and I ran downstairs to look, and sure enough, there were three deer on the hill behind our house. It was so nice to be able to join work and parenting and nature into one single moment!
Katie Baird over at Loose Ends asks how you know whether or not to keep long-term, low-value clients. You know, the ones that you have kept on because they’ve been with you from the beginning, or they’re just nice and they only take up a little bit of your time, so you don’t feel justified in turning them loose, yet are they really benefiting your business in any way or are they dragging you down?.
Here’s my 2 cents: When you answer the phone or read an email from one of these occasional clients, do you smile or groan? If you still don’t mind doing the actual task required, can easily fit it into your schedule, and you get some other value from these relationships (perhaps they refer you business, have given you a great testimonial, allowed you to use them as a reference or you just plain enjoy servicing them) then I would keep them.
If you resent hearing from them, dislike the actual work you have to do for them, or find they’re keeping you from pursuing the work and clients you’d really like to have, then you could consider subbing out the work or just referring them to another VA.
My clients can remain “inactive� for a long time and I expect that. But then again, I’m working mostly with authors on a project basis and they may go a year (or five!) without needing me. I have “resigned� from clients over the years as my business has changed and they no longer fit into my preferred business model. I would do this even before I “could� financially. But I also think this opens up space (physical and mental) to pursue the clients/projects you really want.
Thanks Katie, for inviting me to join in your conversation. Comments are welcome. What do YOU do with long-term, low-value clients??
My summer 3-day-a-week babysitter is taking off this week so I have the kids home with me all week (and no babysitter bill!). So this week I am conducting this experiment–will I get an adequate amount of work done in exchange for saving the money on a babysitter?
I am a strong advocate of VAs having at least some childcare when they have young children at home because it’s hard to get much done. But now my “little kids” have turned into a 7 year old and 5 year old who have become quite independent. My biggest concern is that I spend enough “quality” time with them. But at what point do you decide it’s “okay” to have the kids at home with you full-time and just juggle work and family the best you can?
And boy, the things I can do with that money I spend on summer childcare…HersheyPark passes, a new color laser printer, more “field trips” with the kids, etc. Hmm, it sounds really appealing, but I’ll reserve judgement until the end of this week! Stay tuned!
This year I will be attending Infinity Publishing’s Express Yourself! Conference for the second year in a row. On the “Writers’ Day” immediately before the conference, I’ll be speaking, which I’m very excited about.
It’s been on my mind because 1) I need to start preparing my presentation (though I’ve done similar ones before so I won’t be starting from scratch) and 2) I’ve gotten a few emails with questions from the organizers.
I was just over at Absolute Write and stumbled across a blog post on Tips for Attending Writers Conferences. It gives some great advice.
I’d like to add some other ones:
10. Be Yourself: Don’t be overly formal and stiff. Let some of your personality shine through. When a publisher buys a book, they are really buying your overall package, so don’t act like a life-size cardboard cut-out!
11. Don’t Forget to Network: You can’t possibly meet everyone, but try to meet and establish a connection with several people you feel comfortable with. Keep in touch after the conference.
12. Want to Stand Out to an agent/editor/other presenter?: Send them a note of thanks after the conference if you learned something valuable or especially enjoyed talking to them. I remember the people that do that. And I post the notes on my “feel good” bulletin board.
Writers conferences are great fun. Someday I’d even like to host one!
Learn how to become an expert in your field. At 8:30 Eastern tonight, Lauren is hosting a teleconference for DVVAA members. Hope you can join us!
The photographer came yesterday and took a few pictures. I know I won’t be too horrified because he had a digital picture and showed me the ones he thought would go in the article (two). He was a freelancer that just graduated from art school and was very nice which made it less intimidating.
Getting media coverage is such a roll of the dice. Corie and I put out this press release jointly. I think it’s the second one we did but the first one that got coverage. From comparing notes, they interviewed her more and only took photos of me, so I have no idea what the angle of the article will be, if it will balance mine and Corie’s business equally, or what will actually be in the paper.
I am excited to see though!
I got a call this afternoon that a photographer will be coming to my house tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 to take pictures of me and my office to run in a story about local virtual assistants (myself and Corie of Core Office Solutions), It should run in Sunday’s edition of The Carlisle Sentinel.
So since I got the phone call, I’ve been tidying up my office and looking for new decorations to hang up on my walls! I’m very excited to see the finished article spread! My kids are telling me I’m going to be “famous” and an “expert”. I’ve taught them well, haha.
It’s funny how you can find some great resources. I could spend every day just learning, learning, learning. If only I could figure out a way to get paid for it! I was going through some of John Kremer’s e-zines on his site and he listed some great free ebooks. One of them was from the guy who wears a nametag 24/7, “Hello my name is Scott”. I read the one about writing, marketing, and selling books, and then I emailed him for a copy of his one about creating, delivering, and marketing speeches. He promptly responded, and at the end, wrote:
“Hidden Helper”
Nice.
Thanks Scott! I will definitely be checking out his other books and more resources on his site. I guess I’ve just proven the theory that if you let people have some info for free, then they’ll come back and pay you for more!
P.S. Visit this page to read Chapter one of Entrepreneurial Freedom: How to Start and Grow a Profitable Virtual Assistance Practice–for free!!