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- Welcome!
- [Not] Just for Newbies
- On the Radar
- Dollars & Sense
- TAMW Calendar
- The Savvy Marketer
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You're In Control!
It's 2:21 am on a Friday as we write this introduction. Crazy? You bet. Exhausted? You've got that right. Out of control? Not on your life.
Everything we do in our freelance lives is for a purpose. A decision we make, and no one else. We work at this hour because we have to, not because we have to. Okay, does that sound confusing? Think about all the staff people working in medical communications; working ridiculous hours to be a "team player" or because they feel there's no option if they want to (choose all that apply) keep their job, advance in their job, get a raise, get noticed, or just hang on until they're fully vested.
We work as hard as we do, and the hours we do, on the projects we do, and for the clients we do, because we have the control. We do it for us, and no one else. We have control over what we do and when we do it. If we don't want to, we don't have to. But if we want it, we better. Everyone defines success for themselves. In this issue of Pencil Points, we're talking all about the control we love to have as freelances.
Check out [Not] Just for Newbies, where we give you not only permission, but tips on how to be selfish. In The Savvy Marketer we share our thoughts and recommendations on how to take control of your online persona to make a better impact on yourself and others. In Dollars and Sense we talk about financial control, the kind you get by putting yourself out there as a freelance instead of strapping your life to the corporate mule. In On the Radar we've got a technology tip that may save you hours of typing and formatting so you can control more down time.
It's getting late now, with a 9 am teleconference just a sunrise away. But we'll sleep well because we're in control of what we're doing, and we want you to be, too.
Until next month,
Cyndy and Brian
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 [NOT] JUST FOR NEWBIES
Information and Inspiration for New and Experienced Writers | | |
It's OK to Be Selfish
For successful freelances, nothing comes more with the territory than a crazy work schedule (see the Introduction if you don't believe us). We juggle a number of our own projects simultaneously, and Brian manages even more projects that are being handled by the writers and editors on his team. Between the sheer volume of work and the logistics of spanning more than 15 different time zones, we could work around the clock if we wanted. But we don't--usually. And we don't recommend that you do, either. To stay on top of your game and deliver excellence to your clients, you need to make time for yourself. That may be the toughest lesson for new freelances to learn. Here are some ways we make time for ourselves.
- Take time to exercise. Since we work from home we never waste time sitting in traffic on our way into the office in the morning--unless we run into a cat or dog on the stairs. To capitalize on this extra time, we try to hit the gym or at least plug in an exercise video in the mornings. We used to exercise after work, but found it impossible to do it on a consistent basis--and we hear that our colleagues have the same problem. There's always a deadline or a teleconference keeping us at our desks. By setting aside time first thing in the morning, usually nothing gets in our way. Best of all, exercising energizes us for the day ahead.
- Treat yourself to lunch. During the day, writers can be so focused on work that they rarely take time for lunch. Don't let that happen, even when you're swamped with deadlines. Walk away from your desk, head to the kitchen (or local deli), and eat something nourishing so you have energy to get through the rest of the day. Your body and your brain will thank you.
- Let calls go to voicemail after 5 pm. One of the most important things to learn as a freelance is when to STOP working. Unless we know who's calling and what it's about, we try not to answer the phone after about 5:00 pm, and we make every attempt to get out of the office every night between 5:30 pm and 6:00 pm. Of course, that doesn't mean we stop working. At night, we may have to deal with logistical matters and other business-management tasks that it's difficult to make time for during the day. By 8:00 or so, we're usually pretty crispy and ready to decompress.
- Be selfish with your weekends. Whenever possible, reserve Saturdays and Sundays to spend with family and friends. Unless it's a medical-writing emergency, we don't work on the weekends, although there are times when work must be done. If we have to work on the weekend, we've found that it works best when we get up early and get as much done as we can before the day officially starts. Then we try to immerse ourselves in fun activities so we're too busy to even think about work.
- Take a vacation.For the self-employed, vacations can be too few and too far between. We recommend getting away from everything at least once a year and when you do, be committed to completely disconnect from work. Don't check voice mail or e-mail while you're away, and don't answer your cell phone when it's a business call. Not thinking about work for a few days, a week, or even longer can be heavenly! We highly recommend it.
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ON THE RADAR
Resources for Medical Writers | |
More PDF Conversion Tools
Have you ever been in this situation? You receive a huge PDF document that needs to be updated, and your client wants to make changes using Microsoft Word. What do you do, when cutting and pasting all the text and graphics just won't do?
Our colleague, Faith R, recently pointed us to PDF to Word, a free downloadable resource from Nitro PDF, Inc, that converts a PDF document into an editable Word document. We haven't tried it yet, but we've heard from some of our fans on Facebook who use the program and recommend it.
Even better, the company offers other conversion tools, including PDF to Excel, PDF to PowerPoint, and many more. Add them to your list of resources. They will come in handy some day, we guarantee it!
And in a nod to this month being Health Literacy Awareness month, we wanted to remind you about Health Literacy From A To Z , an excellent book by our colleague and friend, Helen Osborne, who has been promoting health literacy for years. This is a book that should be on every writer's bookshelf. |
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DOLLARS & SENSE
Advice on the Business of Freelancing | | |
As If You Need Another Reason to Freelance!
Sitting in one of our clients' offices recently at a project start-up meeting, the president of the company (who loves working with us) lamented that she would really like to bolster her freelance team with more staff writers, but she just can't find anyone who wants to work on staff anymore. Music to our ears! But this is a long-time client and we wanted to be a bit more helpful, so we shared the following insight.
Every medical writer and editor who is great at what s/he does and wants to work for somebody else, already does. If s/he isn't happy at the current job, moving to a new company is as easy as picking up the phone, because there just aren't enough great professionals who want to work on staff anymore. Why is that? Because there's no money or security in it!
You've heard us or read us saying it before, there's nothing more secure than having your own freelance business. Sure, cash flow can really stink sometimes, and you have to do everything from delivering the work to making the coffee and marketing yourself. But if we don't have enough work, we can look for more work and make more opportunities to get more work. No decisions from corporate leaders trying to appease their investors can put us out of a job. Nobody can downsize us, right size us, supersize us, or excise us. We'll never be caught off guard without a current resume and sharply honed interviewing skills.
But why don't we want to work for anyone besides ourselves? One major reason is the money. Within a few years of being freelances, people couldn't pay us enough to come to work for them in a staff capacity. Seriously, we never received more sincere and generous job offers in our lives than after we no longer wanted them! By estimating accurately, charging by the project, working like crazy, and always looking for the next new client and the next new opportunity, it's easy to earn more money than you ever received in salary. A study reported in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year confirmed it!
Neil Shah wrote about More Americans Working Remotely in the March 6, 2013 issue of the Wall Street Journal. We've kept the article around because it makes us so darned happy to see how many people are now working and making lots of money independently. Mr. Shah's data come from the US Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), which you could access through the hyperlink if the government wasn't currently shut down. When they're back up and running you should definitely check it out.
Although the SIPP census didn't specifically identify medical writers and editors, we were certainly among them. The census found that nearly half of home-based workers today are self-employed. Whether you classify us in the service category, which has experienced a 24% growth in the number of people working from home between 2000 and 2010; or the management, business and financial category, which has experienced a nearly 42% growth in the number of people working from home, we're clearly not alone. Best of all, the census found that people who work at least part time from home earn more money than their on-site, office-based colleagues. A lot more. Forty-five percent more, according to the census.
That's a difference you can take to the bank, and we do. We hope you do, too. If you're still having trouble kicking your freelance business into high gear, we're thinking about introducing a mentoring service. Let us know by email or on Facebook what you think about this, and whether you'd be interested. |
| WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE BRIAN AND CYNDY?
The Accidental Medical Writer Calendar
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The AMWA Annual Conference is the ultimate resource for medical communicators around the world, offering educational and networking opportunities beyond compare in the field. There's still time to register.
Here's our line-up for the 2013 AMWA Annual Conference. We hope you'll join us for one of our sessions, roundtables, or workshops.
- Mining the Internet: Online Resources for Medical Communicators. Cyndy will be presenting this roundtable on Thursday and repeating it on Friday.
- Fundamentals of Freelance Business Marketing. Brian is teaching this workshop on Thursday November 7, from 9:00 to 12:00 pm.
- How to Write a Manuscript from a CSR. Brian and Cyndy will be presenting this open session on Thursday November 7, from 1:30 to 2:30 pm.
- The Great Freelance Rate Debate. Don't miss this panel discussion with Brian and our colleague Elizabeth Smith on Friday November 8, from 11:00 to 12:00 pm.
- Use a SWOT Analysis to Rejuvenate Your Freelance Career and Better Market Your Business. Cyndy and Brian are presenting this open session on Friday November 8, from 2:00 to 3:00 pm.
If you'd like us to come and speak at an event you're organizing, don't wait too long to contact us. Our schedule is filling fast!
Be sure to check out Brian's interview in Breaking Into Medical Writing and Editing by Kristen Fischer that was published online on January 6 by mediabistro.com, a top site for communication professionals who create or work with content. If you're a member of AvantGuild you can access the article for free. If not, there's a $55 annual subscription fee, which gives you access to all the exclusive content the site offers. If you recall, Kristen interviewed Cyndy last year for the Freelance Switch blog, which you can read here. Thanks, Kristen.
For all our upcoming activities and appearances, keep an eye on The Accidental Medical Writer In Person.
We frequently speak and teach at medical writing conferences and seminars; we've also been interviewed online. Check out our Webcasts. Brian's interview with Danielle Hampson of The Business Authors Show is also available right on our website!
We would love to present at your next upcoming meeting or event, so invite us!
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| THE SAVVY MARKETER
Marketing Tips to Build Your Business | |
What Does Your Online Persona Say About You? Digital communications have changed forever the ways in which we interact with one another. No longer must we wait days for a written letter to reach a mailbox so the recipient knows what's going on in our personal or professional life. We don't even have to wait until we're at our desk to check our email or social-media accounts. Nowadays, with a few swipes on our smartphone or tablet we can respond to email, share a photo or post an update on a social-media platform, and comment on a news article or blog post. At the risk of seeming like dinosaurs, we must admit that we haven't decided yet whether such nearly instantaneous digital communication is good or bad. Certainly, being able to interact quickly with clients and colleagues makes our job easier and allows us to work more efficiently. Likewise, social-media marketing has proved an effective way to grow our businesses. On the flip side, social media have enabled a new and very different level of communication, one that, in our opinion, challenges us to set different boundaries and establish new kinds of etiquette. Most of us go online and join social-media communities to communicate, to be heard, and to hear the ideas of others. We are searching for shared experiences and collegial places where we can grow and learn. But once enmeshed in these communities we feel free to say things online that we would never say in polite face-to-face discourse. We've watched, at times with horror, the lack of etiquette and downright hostility that occur in digital communications, perhaps because we wrongly associate a certain level of anonymity with the digital medium. With so many ways to make our opinions known quickly, it seems as though some people have forgotten their manners. We judge, we give unwanted advice, we are rude, we attack people with our written words. There is an inclination to fire off comments in haste and rarely think about the repercussions until after it's too late. As social media have become more prevalent in day-to-day life, perhaps it's time to refine our notions of online etiquette and personal boundaries. Here are some thoughts to consider:
- People who use social media have made the decision to open up a part of their lives--whether personal or professional--to others. The fact that they have done so is not an invitation for judgment or disrespect.
- Treat your social-media accounts as your digital homes, which you have opened up to the public. As you would do in your brick-and-mortar home, create boundaries in your digital home. Expect those who visit to act as your guests. Don't allow people to stay who are rude, cruel, or mean.
- Similarly, act as a guest when you visit others' digital homes. That means being civil, thoughtful, and kind. Don't leave behind a mess they need to clean up once you've gone, that is, inappropriate, insulting, or hurtful comments they need to remove.
- Civil disagreement is acceptable and healthy, when presented in a mindful and respectful manner. Hostility and insensitivity are not.
- Make your digital interactions productive and useful to others. Mindless comments fired off in anger or with the purpose of attacking someone are simply a form of cyber bullying. They reflect poorly on your online reputation and, ultimately, may not lead to the result you were looking for.
Keep in mind that anything you say online becomes part of your digital footprint, for which only you are responsible. You can't unring a bell. Before you write something online you need to consider the impact your words might have on others with dissimilar opinions and how the words you write today could affect you--and your professional image--in the future.
Don't be fooled that current or prospective employers won't examine your online image and develop an impression of you based on what they find. A 2012 survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Career Builder found that 37% of companies used social-networking sites to conduct background research on job candidates.The nationwide survey included more than 2,000 hiring managers and human-resource professionals across multiple industries and company sizes. The results showed that hiring managers use social media to glean information about candidates' character and personality outside of the traditional interview process. Interestingly, 12% of hiring managers stated that they purposely used social media to look for reasons NOT to hire the candidate and 34% of hiring managers reported that certain social-media discoveries led to them not offering the candidate the job. If hiring managers are doing it for prospective employees, you can bet they are using social media to research freelances online, as well.
As human-resource professionals know, you can learn a lot about people from their online personas. Your social-media footprint is part of your personal brand. What does yours say about you? |
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