About Writing Squared

It’s Okay To Tell A Client ‘No’ Or That You Don’t Know How

by LoriAnne

I’ve been working on a fundraising letter for my favorite non-profit. I’m part of the committee that helps raise money and usually the problem is just that – trying to get something written when I have to include or at least acknowledge the contributions of six or seven other people. It can be maddening at times, but it’s also a labor of love and I get plenty of praise and no real pressure.

It turns out that this particular letter will be sent via email and not printed.

Using an graphic from a previous letter, I picked a background color in Outlook 2007 and made sure the graphic matched the background color – it looks good. Except, the leader of this organization is on a Mac and I’m on a PC. She can’t see the background color on the letter, just on the graphic, which is a bit odd.

She suggested that a way around the problem of Mac/PC issues might be to put the letter in html.

That’s when I ran into into time eating trouble. I cannot find instructions I understand about how to use my own html in Outlook 2007. After posting on a couple of forums and doing umpteen Google searches, I created a copy in Word, adding the background color and saved it as a .pdf. I thought about using gmail, but they’ve changed their interface and I had already spent more than enough time on the deal. So I sent an email saying I didn’t now how to do it and that if someone else couldn’t handle that part, the the letter would have to go as a .pdf or in an email knowing those on Macs wouldn’t see the colors.

And that’s the point, really. [click to continue…]

The One-Sentence Client Magnet

by Lori

You’ve found a client prospect and you want to convince that client to hire you. So you turn on the charm, practice your elevator speech, dust off your credentials, and wait for the phone call.

That’s the hard way.

While there’s nothing wrong with talking with a client in that manner, it sets up an uneven relationship from the start. Essentially, you’re approaching the client as a job candidate would approach an employer – you’re applying for the job.

But isn’t that how we should be doing it, you ask? Yes and no. Mostly no. In fact, probably entirely no. Here’s why.

Your potential client may be like most clients – they understand that this is an alliance, a bit of a partnership. You’re a vendor providing a service and they’re contracting with you to get the job done. Sure, they have control over what it is they want. However, they don’t have control over you, nor are they looking for it.

Yet there are clients out there who cannot removed themselves from the employer/employee mindset. So when you approach the initial conversation as you would a job interview, that sends a message – you’re at their beck and call, and they’re going to manage you directly.

Do you really want that? No. Hell no.

There’s a better way.

[click to continue…]

Answer some questions for us please

by LoriAnne

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I’ve got no writing experience, how can I start?

by LoriAnne

Hi AWS,

I’ve worked in human resources for over a decade, but I don’t have experience writing in that field. All the writing gigs I’ve seen ask for samples in the HR field and I don’t have any. What can I do?

Lilly

Hi Lilly,

You’ve been in HR for 10 years and you don’t have any experience writing in that field? I don’t believe it!

Surely you’ve written a report or two as part of your job. In fact I’ll bet you’ve written all sorts of things, from job descriptions to rather lengthy reports about one thing or another HR related for your employers.

Okay, maybe you’ve never written a magazine article, but what about articles for newsletters? Or maybe even a complete newsletter?

Just because you’ve never had an article published in a magazine or book or blog doesn’t mean you don’t have plenty of experience writing in your field.

Start by making a list of such documents. My hunch is you’ll you stop before you finish because you’ve been doing way more writing in the field than you realized. And it’s possible that you might be able to use one or two of those as samples; if your not sure, ask – you may be pleasantly surprised.

You can actually use that list as the start of your writing credits for your website. (And if you don’t have a website yet make that a priority with these 8 steps.)

You can write a few sample articles for your website.

You can use your experience to write an article or two for magazines on spec – you submit the whole article.

You can cite your work experience in a query to magazine editors.

You can cite that experience in your response to ads; if you also link to your website samples you’re all set.

It may help to remember that none of us was born with writing credits! We’ve all had to get our first one and then our second, etc.

If you really want to start freelance writing the thing to do is to start writing and submitting, and responding to ads offering reasonable rates for writing. There really is no secret – as Nike says, just do it!

You may also want to read No Experience Needed To Be A Freelance Writer.

Do you have a question about freelance writing? Send it to Freelancewritingsquared @ gmai l. com with Q&A in the subject line and we’ll do our best to answer it here.

Now it’s your turn. Tell us, in comments, how you got started or describe the problems you’re having getting started.

Image: Some rights reserved by Jeremiah Ro