Tag: freelancing

My most essential tools

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Some may ask, “What tools are most essential to your editing business?”

Honestly, I have too many to list in one blog post, so I picked five. This list is in no particular order. If you are starting an editing business, you may wish to look into obtaining each of these.

  • A laptop computer dedicated to my editing and my business functions. I certainly don’t want to get important files on which I am working mixed up with other people’s files. The awful truth is that for my first two years as a freelance editor, I shared a desktop computer with my husband. Although it was not often that he and I wanted to use it at the same time, it was not a good setup. I am ashamed to admit that I got my laptop only during the COVID-19 pandemic, when my husband had to work from home.
    • A Dropbox account. Any cloud storage would have sufficed, but I prefer Dropbox. Another shameful thing I must admit is that for the first year of my freelancing, I saved all of my work on USB drives. *cringe*
    • Toggl, the timekeeping system, and a website that converts time in hours:minutes:seconds to decimal hours. My use of Toggl is very basic; I use the timer to clock my working time. Performing an internet search will give you a choice of time-to-decimal converters. You can also convert time to decimal hours with Excel. But you can’t get paid without knowing how many hours you worked!
    • My daily planner, courtesy of At-A-Glance, on which I plan which days I am going to work on what. Some people prefer planners that are computer software, but when it comes to scheduling, I am from the old school.
    • The bank accounts and credit card which are dedicated to my business. It is very important to keep business money separate from personal finances. It makes things much easier at tax time—not to mention in general.

    If you are a freelancer, what are some of the tools you deem absolutely essential?

    Motivated and alone

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    In my last post, I indicated that this week’s entry would be about how to stay motivated when you freelance and work alone every day. Here we go…

    When you are your own boss, it can be very tricky not to go too easy on yourself. Of course, you should not beat yourself up or call yourself incompetent every time you make a mistake. Still, you should not tell yourself that it’s okay to take every other day off or nap during every workday. You need to stay motivated if you want your freelance business to succeed.

    So how do you do that?

    Probably the most effective thing that motivates me is deadlines. Every project I have comes with a deadline that I had better meet. I am proud and happy to say that I have never missed a deadline in my years of running a freelance editing business. When I receive a project, I plan how much work I will do every day up until the day before the deadline. I always plan to finish a project at least a day before the deadline in order to give myself some breathing room.

    Another powerful motivator I have is my husband. He loves it when I work hard. Don’t get me wrong—he’s not the “crack the whip” type. But he does like to see me make money (let’s admit it—who doesn’t like to see their spouse do so?). And when he is happy, I’m happy.

    This might seem incongruous given that it doesn’t have to do directly with my work, but getting to the gym in the morning motivates me. Oftentimes, it’s the only opportunity I have to get out of my condo building. And having a good workout or a good swim makes me want to throw myself into work when I get home. (I don’t really know why, but it works.)

    If you freelance and work alone all day, how do you stay motivated?

    A website is what you make of it

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    If you are a freelance editor (or freelancer of any kind), chances are you have a website for your business. If you don’t have one, you really should—at least in my opinion. But this week’s blog post is not about why you should have a website. It’s about the essential things to have on it.

    There is always, of course, the Home page. This needs to pique the interest of potential clients. There should be visual elements, such as pictures, to break up the paragraphs. (Having a photo of yourself is optional.) Just make sure you have permission to use the pictures! The Home page should also explain why your services are necessary to the client. For example: “Why should you have your writing copyedited?”

    The Services page is also one of the most important. It explains exactly what you do. Be specific here; do you copyedit, line edit, or do developmental editing or ghostwriting? Some freelancers list their fees on the service page, while others choose not to.

    The About page is where you list your credentials and show the client why you are good at what you do. You can also slip in a sentence about, for example, your hobbies (“When not reading or writing, I enjoy traveling.”) This paints you more as human rather than an editing machine.

    The Testimonials page shows all the praise clients have given you. My advice is to ask for a short testimonial from every client who is happy with the work you have done for them. Do this right after the job is done, so that the client remembers you and your work clearly.

    A blog is optional for a website, but having one and updating it regularly shows that you are diligent. You must be disciplined about blogging and do it once a week (or however often you have decided) and not just whenever you feel like it.

    If you are a freelancer, what have you found is essential to put on your website?

    “You can tell who the lazy ones are.”

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    Many of us freelance editors exercise our right to mental health by taking major holidays off. “Major” holidays, according to society, include Christmas, New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day (the latter three being US holidays).

    However, what about the holidays on which the US federal government is closed, but many people work? The holidays like Presidents Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth, and Veterans Day? It rather begs the question: Should a freelancer work on those days?

    Before I answer this question, I feel the need to post the opinion of a scientist who once visited my alma mater and talked about the people who worked in his lab (which was part of a federal agency): “You can tell who the lazy ones are. They’re the ones who don’t show up on federal holidays like Presidents Day and Veterans Day.”

    I don’t necessarily agree.

    When it comes to freelancers, I believe that if there is a deadline of any kind, the answer is yes—a freelancer should work on these kinds of holidays, treating them like work days. I am, of course, speaking from my personal experience as a woman with no children. If a freelancer has children who have a day off school on such a holiday, they may need to rearrange their schedule so that they can care for and spend time with their children. After all, family comes first.

    Another thing that I believe comes before work is a freelancer’s beliefs. If they wish to celebrate Juneteenth or Martin Luther King Jr. Day or Veterans Day in a meaningful way, they should be able to rearrange their schedule so that they can. (And by “meaningful way,” I do not mean drinking to excess the night before and/or sleeping late in the morning.)

    What is your point of view about this?

    Friends in client places

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    When some freelance editors launch a new business, their first clients are their friends because they need work and their friends know this. This was the case with me five years ago when I first hung out my shingle as an editor. My first client was the spouse of one of my friends, and the project went very well—in fact, this person has had me edit other things for them since.

    Following this, the friend whose spouse employed my editing services began using me for editing a short time later. Years have passed, and I have done a lot of work as a contractor for the company for whom my friend works. It has been highly enjoyable and has paid me well, as has the scientific work I have done for clients whom I do not know personally.

    Some editors would not dare have friends (or family) as clients. I have read discussion list posts in one of my professional editing organizations in which a poster literally says, “No friends!” when speaking of their client base. Although I respectfully disagree in principle, I can understand why an editor would have this policy.

    Would you want to have one of your good friends as your boss? Although a freelancer’s boss is not the client (a freelancer is their own boss), they want to make the client happy, and will do whatever it takes to do so. If the friend/client is unsatisfied with the final product, this undoubtedly puts a strain on the friendship. If the friendship is strong, the subpar result can be forgotten, at least eventually. But if the friendship is not strong enough…you get the idea. Personally, I am choosy about which of my friends I would take on as clients. I must ask myself, “How would this person act if they were a traditional boss?” The friend I mentioned earlier in this post has been a wonderful “boss,” so to speak, but other friends I have, while being great people, I would not want as clients.

    If you are a freelance editor, do you have any of your friends as clients?