Mahesh Raj Mohan

Two days after I parted ways with my job, I had my first client as a solopreneur.  How?  Because of networking.  Networking has been one of the biggest power boosts to my career as a Portland freelance writer. In fact, my current active client list is composed largely of referrals from my networking group, the Portland-based Northwest Networking Professionals.

So, if you’re a freelancer, how do you find a networking group?  My advice is to get in touch with your local chamber of commerce.   Another option is to poll businesses and vendors, especially financial planners, insurance agents, bank managers, Realtors, and any other businesspeople who rely heavily on referrals.

Keep in mind that once you find a networking group, it may take some time to build a good client base.  I had a good start with my group, and I stayed steadily engaged with local and non-local gigs, but the bonanza really occurred this summer.   Members of the group had the first part of the year to understand my skill set and how it could apply to people they knew.

If you’re a freelance writer, you’ll have an edge because many of these groups don’t have members who are writers or editors.  This allows you to tap into a rich vein of clients.

Another benefit is that you will have several trustworthy service providers that you can retain for yourself.  I found a better insurance agent and a reliable construction contractor through my group.

So, what are you waiting for?!  Go forth and network!

Employee happiness and short-sighted bosses all over the U.S. are on my mind lately.  I currently work for myself and have been the happiest I’ve ever been in my life, but the life of a freelance writer may not be for everyone.  If you’re happy to just have a job right now, it doesn’t mean you should be treated like dirt.  But it seems to me that’s exactly what’s going on.  As this “economic recovery” plods along,  companies are sitting on piles of cash while squeezing every ounce of efficiency and productivity out of their supposedly valued talent.

A Florida State University Study (released in the Fall 2007 Issue of Leadership Quarterly) stated that a staggering 40% of us work for bad bosses.  I can only imagine that this number has increased over the past three years.

This frustrates me.   If you can’t compensate your best employees to the degree that they deserve, or hire new ones, then find alternate ways to make them enjoy working for you.  Inspiring passion and loyalty for your company is the greatest gift you can give them.  It also costs nothing!

Passion is the “ultimate productivity tool,” according to a recent article from WebWorker Daily.  The article notes, “when you’re passionate, your love is for doing the work, not for the shiny equipment, shortcuts or dental plan that comes with it.”  It’s something that comes entirely within and is formed out of an almost selfless desire to see your company succeed.

Passion can, of course, be a double-edged sword.  There’s a reason that William Butler Yeats wrote in “The Second Coming” that “the worst are full of passionate intensity,” because he could see passion at work behind the rise of fascist ideologies.  And some employees can become passionate to the degree that they become reckless and cause damage to your brand through their misplaced zeal.

But passion, when properly channeled, can be a beautiful thing. It results in top employees acting as unpaid evangelists for you and your brand, and truly enjoying their work.  You can help inspire passion by following the steps I mentioned in my last blog post, by allowing them greater freedom over their work and easing tight deadlines.

Not by micro-managing them, demoralizing them, talking down to them, or dismissing their ideas.

Or … just watch this brilliant video about what really motivates people, adapted from Dan Pink’s speech:

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

I have two other videos I’d like to share.  One is from the excellent film, “Runaway Train,” which concerns a jail break by Oscar Manheim (played by Jon Voight) and Buck (played by Eric Roberts).  Voight’s character is a hardened and violent career criminal.  But in one scene, he explains how life might have been different if he could knuckle under to a bad boss.

The second is Metallica’s video, “King Nothing,” about a person that cannot be pacified by anything, and whose greed leaves him with zilch.   “Where’s your crown, King Nothing?”

Both are presented below.  Draw your own conclusions, my friends.

The Little Bitty Spot Speech from Runaway Train

King Nothing by Metallica

I recently came across an article  (via Guy Kawasaki on Twitter) about how employers can boost the happiness of their employees.   The article is a Q&A between Matthew May and Gretchen Ruben.  Mr. May is a design/innovation strategist and author, and Ms. Ruben is the author of The Happiness Project, a memoir of  her year spent defining happiness.

The entire Q&A is fascinating, but I was particularly impressed by these passages:

Q: Why do happy people do better at work?

A: People like being around happier people much more than less-happy people. Happy people are perceived to be more friendly, warm, and even more physically attractive. Also, research shows that happy people tend to be more cooperative, less self-absorbed, and to be able to offer the empathy needed in close relationships. They’re more willing to help other people—say, by sharing information or pitching in to help a colleague. Then, because they’ve helped others, others tend to help them.

Q: So the big question is: how can employers help make their employees happier?

A: The research is clear: people’s happiness is affected by their sense of control over their lives. Being able to do your own work in your own way, or to influence your environment, gives a big boost in satisfaction. So employers can look for ways to amplify employees’ sense of control over their work, schedule, and environment.

Q: Any specifics?

A: Sure. Take commuting. Bad commutes are a major source of unhappiness. People feel frustrated, powerless and stressed. Employers can consider whether telecommuting or staggered start/end times for work might be practicable, to allow people to avoid rush hours.

Or take issues like wasted time and tight deadlines. According to one study, the factor that most upset people’s daily moods was having tight work deadlines. One way to free up work time to meet deadlines is to stop having long, inefficient meetings.

Years before I became a Portland freelance writer, I worked alongside my share of unhappy people at various workplaces (and I’ll be honest, I’ve fallen under the “unhappy” rubric myself).  It can be draining, particularly when the Grumpy Gus is in your department.

Unfortunately, some employers are “tone deaf” when it comes to policies that indirectly promote employee unhappiness.  They may believe the problem lies with the employee and point to a non-complaining employee as evidence that the policy works just fine.  They often don’t realize that the non-complainer fears for his/her job and doesn’t want to rock the boat.

Considering the sluggishness of the economic recovery, employers who have held onto their valued employees would do well to solicit employee opinions and do simple things that cost nothing (allowing employees more freedom to direct their work, for instance) or little (letting folks with long commutes go home early).  After all, these people are also your stakeholders and keeping them motivated should be your top priority.

I’ve stayed steadily engaged with freelance writing all year, but May has been my busiest month as a freelance writer.  I hope this is a good indicator for the rest of the year (or summer, at least!)

Here’s a run-down of May’s freelance writing projects so far:

• Technical writing project for the upcoming launch of Portland-based client PublicMarketspace.com. I delivered the documents a day early and then finished a quick pass of revisions in two hours.

• Several tech-oriented business documents for another previous client. All projects delivered at least a day in advance.

• Website content for a new client, which I turned in on time.

• Wrote brochure copy for another previous client, turning it in a day early.
• Currently writing a business proposal/presentation for a previous client, HILI Media.

If you’d like me to work on your project, whether it’s website content writing, technical writing, business writing, marketing copy, editing (or something other work), please e-mail me at maheshrajmohan@yahoo.com

Business plans are strange documents. Because they involve dream businesses, people tend to pour their emotions into them and lose all objectivity.

Depending on your requirements, a business plan is an internal roadmap with milestones that you define. Or it’s a document you present to a bank officer for a loan. Or it’s a proposal you submit to angel investors or venture capitalists for funding.

In my opinion, the best business plans are simple documents that state how you can solve a problem that plagues your prospective customers. The worst business plans are bloated behemoths with pages and pages devoted to redundant market analysis, over-optimistic pro forma financials, and needless paragraphs about your intended marketing tactics.

Business plans entered the mainstream in the late 1990s and early 2000s, due to all the “dot-com” start-ups that got funded by venture capitalists and angel investors. Lots of mistakes were made during the feeding frenzy. Check out the Business Plan Archive and you’ll see what I mean.

Shortly after the dot-com bust, my cousin put business plans on my radar. He wanted my help in creating a web-based comic book, and he had a business plan-in-progress (with a template from bplans.com, I think). I remember being intimidated by the scope of the business plan, and especially in writing all of the sections. Keys to Success, Management Summaries, and Market Analysis, oh my! I remember calling Diamond Distributors to determine statistics about buyers and bothering sellers at the San Diego Comic-Con about their demographics. I think I spent weeks staring at the plan-in-progress, paralyzed by all the moving parts. We ultimately abandoned the project, but what I remember most about the experience was how daunting an essentially simple process became.

Eventually, I moved to Portland, Oregon, and – wonder of wonders – worked for a start-up business plan writing company. During that time, I wrote or edited thousands of plans for all levels of intended investment. Under the tutelage of my managers, I saw how simple these plans truly were, and how they were made complex by the fears of our clients.

And, honestly, the vast majority of those documents were not true business plans. They were certainly full of business-speak and many were bona fide technical documents (with pages devoted to discussing virtualization, software-as-a-service, and net metering). But few followed the KISS (Keep it Simple and Straightforward) model, and quite frankly, I had to do what the clients wanted me to do. If they wanted bloated docs, that’s what I gave them.

What do I think constitutes a good business plan? Define the problem of your intended market, have a cogent solution, know your total addressable market (TAM), list your top services/products, have a marketing strategy in place, write concise bios of the principals, and build reasonable pro forma financials. Make sure the text is consistent, well-supported, and free of careless typos. Thirty-five pages, tops. That’s the baseline, of course. If you know your investor and s/he wants a 50-100 page document, then by all means … bloat away!

Dozens of the plans (even the big ones) I worked on went on to receive funding. I made sure the funded documents were either well-written or well-edited, but all credit for convincing the investor to fund the business lies with the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur pitched the concept/model well, understood the market, and knew how to deliver a return that was worth the initial cash outlay.

So, if you get paralyzed as I did several years ago, who can help you write your plan? Many people offer free advice. Martin Zwilling is one of the best advice-givers; check out his advice here.

There are, of course, numerous businesses that can write the plan for you. As a freelance writer, I can write or edit a business plan for a start-up or existing business. There are several amazing writer/editor friends of mine who can write business plans, as well. However, we can’t do the financials.

For the whole package, I suggest going to Google, typing “business plan writer” into the search bar and choosing the first name you see in the Sponsored Listings. You should be in good hands there. Good luck and happy hunting!

Contact me at maheshrajmohan@yahoo.com for more information.

If you’re interested in becoming a freelance writer (or simply doing more freelance writing), there are online resources and freelance writer blogs that can help (well, several helped me, anyway).

I am still compiling various resources in my online journeys, and will write a “sequel” post to this when I find sites that are reliable lead generators/job getters. Some sites that I regularly surf (including mediabistro, ProBlogger, and Craig’s List) are good for reference, but I haven’t used them enough to endorse them.

Freelance Writers:

Chris Bibey. As I mentioned here, Chris’ informative posts helped me make the leap to freelance writing. He writes every day on topics that can help freelance writers, including how to stay motivated, how to find clients, and when to take up freelance writing.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Ms. Rusch is an award-winning writer and editor who is currently writing “The Freelancer’s Survival Guide,” which is full of valuable information for freelance writers. It covers the economics of the profession to healthcare insurance and even vacations. She is the real deal.

Tobias Buckell. I mentioned Tobias in the same post as Chris. Tobias is a successful freelance writer, and he has recently begun writing a guide for writers entitled, “It’s All Just a Draft.”

I hope those blogs help some of you. Let me know in the Comments section if I can include anything else!

I love working with words. They are, after all, my main currency of exchange,

One word that has always fascinated me is, “freelance.” It has a nice, “Old World” ring, doesn’t it? It conjures visions of horsemen raising their lances for a charge, sworn to no king. The term “freelance” was first coined by Sir Walter Scott in his 1819 novel Ivanhoe, describing mercenary warriors:

I offered Richard the service of my Free Lances, and he refused them — I will lead them to Hull, seize on shipping, and embark for Flanders; thanks to the bustling times, a man of action will always find employment.*

Nifty, no? Although “mercenary” is not a terribly flattering title, it’s not far from what I do now as a freelance writer. I was a sworn sword for many years, and I certainly enjoyed it, but I’ve always been a self-starter. I don’t think I ever worked less than 55 hours a week during the height of the recent boom. I’m kind of hardwired to give 100% to writing and editing projects.

So now, as a freelance writer, I can help someone populate their new website with content, research a product/service, create an SEO copywriting campaign, write and edit technical material, and so on, devoting the most optimal amount of time to each project. There’s plenty of people in the world who need dedicated freelance writers to help them create words that sizzle, inform, and inspire.

Maybe I should adapt Sir Scott’s phrase … “a freelance writer will always find employment.”

*(Although the Internets are not always reliable for sources of trivia, I found attribution here, here, and, of course, here. N.B. I need to purchase a copy of Ivanhoe.)

Before I became a freelance writer, I knew I’d hit a point where I’d be near the end of a writing or editing project and wonder, “what do I do next?”

I needed to have a plan of action … or better yet, a plan to stay active. Staring at a project’s completion point, it can be easy to get complacent … but, before you know it, you’re on the self-pity, despair, dogs-and-cats-living-together-mass-hysteria route … and that’s just not a fun place to be!

So to avoid that unpleasantness, here are three things I’m doing:

Networking. Portland practically explodes with creativity. Aside from being home to microbreweries, strip clubs, and coffee houses, the Portland metro area teems with entrepreneurs, marketers, artists, freelance writers, poets, designers, and other talented folks. Networking has been good to me. I found one of my first clients at a meeting of the Northwest Networking Professionals. Beyond that, social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn have helped me as a freelance writer. Friends, former clients, and acquaintances are all good lead generators.

Writing every day. When I’m working with a client, freelance writing takes all of my energy. I stay focused until it’s done, which is why my turnarounds are pretty fast. When I am not working on a project, I tend to write fiction or work on screenplays. This is also a viable avenue for sales (albeit a much more, ah, challenging path), but it’s also a lot of fun. As long as I’m producing content, I’m keeping those mental “muscles” primed and strong.

Blogging. Okay, this technically falls under “writing every day.” And I’ve been less than good at blogging. I need to blog more. The main reason is that it will help drive traffic to my site. Direct calls and direct e-mails are still viable marketing options, but folks who find me on the Internet are quality leads because they’ve already decided they need a freelance writer. Weblog content will help them find me.

So far, I’ve been fortunate to have several projects on my plate since I’ve become a freelance writer and editor. As long as I stay active, I hope to keep them coming.

How do you stay active?

I’ve been a fan of mythologist/writer Joseph Campbell‘s books and appearances since I was a teen.  His famous phrase is, “Follow Your Bliss.”   It’s a lyrical way of saying, “always do what you love,” particularly in regard to your occupation.

I believe that we all have things in our lives that make us happy.  Sometimes, though, we have a hard time doing things that make us happy. I think it’s an American thing.

For instance, I have been a writer since I was  8 years old.  I’ve written throughout my life, and it brings me tremendous joy.  For several years, I had a day job that allowed me to write and edit all day in Portland, a city I love.  But my inner creator wanted to do more.  I wanted to write and edit lots of things, including my own work. But I (or my internal censor) held that desire captive, because of the usual fears:  failure, insolvency, writer’s block, and so on.  The internal censor held sway for a long time, but my inner creator would periodically put up a big fight.

Eventually, I came to realize that before I could actually do what I want for a living, I needed to tell the internal censor  to buzz off.  That inner 8 year old needed room to come out and play and just enjoy the joy of creativity.

Before I could really “follow my bliss,” I needed to liberate it.

That’s where I am at the moment.  I’m still a journeyman finding his way with this new writing/editing venture.  But I love every minute of it.

So, do you follow your bliss?  Or do you need to liberate it?

Milestones and goals are important when you begin a new venture.  They keep you grounded and give you something to work toward, whether you are paying off debt, losing weight, learning to play the guitar … or staring your own business.

When I decided to start my own freelance writing and editing business, I knew milestones would be critical.

Now, here comes the qualification.

They should be achievable milestones.

Financial analysts, personal trainers, guitar teachers, and publishing professionals will all tell you the same thing … start with what you know you can achieve, rather than a bunch of Mt. Everests.   The logic is that when you pull off the reasonable milestone, you’ll be much more confident to tackle the subsequent (and more difficult) goals.

For the first year of my writing and editing business, I created three milestones, dated on the third, sixth, and eleventh anniversaries of when I started the venture (January 18th).  To give you an idea of how low I set the bar for myself, my first milestone was due on April 18th, and was, “entice someone to have hired me.”

I had achieved my first goal by January 20th.  That might have been serendipity, but it sure as hell made me much more confidant about my decision!

So go forth and create achievable milestones and marvel at your success!