Disaster Recovery for Freelance Writers: Getting Prepared

So, I’ve talked for the past few weeks about some of the challenges facing freelance writers when it comes to disaster recover. I broke down the various dangers facing a freelance writing business into three distinct categories:

• Data Issues
• Communications
• Production

I’ve also talked about some of the things you can do to prepare for a disaster, from creating a data backup system to more effective management of your contacts and projects. If you follow the advice in those posts, you’ll give your business a good chance of surviving all but the most horrific disasters.

Today, I want to leave you with a few overriding principles to keep in mind while you’re making those preparations:

1. You can’t prepare for every disaster

There are situations you can’t anticipate. Disaster recovery is about looking at possibilities. You want to cover yourself for those situations that are most likely to occur and for those that do the most damage. You could spend years trying to identify every problem area and a solution. Don’t. You have more important things to do.

2. Learn risk assessment

In the business world, there’s an idea known as “risk assessment” that can help you when it comes to disaster recovery for your freelance business. Risk assessment is a process whereby you examine the likelihood of an event (such as a disaster), the impact of that event, and what it would take to prevent or recover from that event.

Unlikely events that don’t have a huge impact and wouldn’t take much to recover from should be identified, but not necessarily addressed. An event that is likely to happen that could completely destroy your business and can be prepared for with relative ease – that should be addressed.

Risk assessment is as much an art as it is a science, and you can’t be expected to master it right away. Still, you need to be aware of the formula and put it into practice.

3. Ignore disaster recovery at your own peril

Disaster recovery isn’t a flashy topic, I know that. But being able to pick up the pieces in rapid fashion after a disaster will do more for the long-term success of your freelance writing business than saving a few bucks at tax time. Don’t assume your business is safe just because nothing bad has happened yet, and don’t put all of your eggs into any one basket, whether it’s an Internet Service Provider, your laptop computer or a single client.

Be diligent, take the time to address the possibility of disaster, make some basic preparations and you’ll save yourself plenty of trouble in the long run.

Disaster Recovery for Freelance Writers: Communications

In many ways, making sure your freelance writing business data is safe in the event of a disaster is the easiest part of disaster recovery. Really, it’s just a matter of determining a workable solution (such as an online backup subscription) and turning it on.

Today I want to look at something a little more difficult and nebulous. I want to talk about disaster recovery for your business processes and systems. By “processes and systems” I simply mean the basic day-to-day things you do to keep your business going. These activities fall into two categories: communications and production. We’ll take a look at each one individually.

Communications

Perhaps the most important aspect of disaster recovery is communication. You can always recreate data, in a worst case scenario. But if you can’t communicate with your clients after a disaster, your business is going to take a severe hit.

Simply put, your business needs a way to get information to your clients when an emergency strikes. If you’re in a car wreck and unconscious in the hospital, your client needs to know that you won’t be delivering that eBook on Thursday. If the client doesn’t know what’s going on, they may take their business elsewhere. Even if the client likes you and is understanding, once the business is gone you run the risk it will stay gone.

In this case, it’s a matter of having someone who’s familiar enough with your business to be able to identify where a given project stands and communicate with your clients when you can’t. An administrative assistant can do this, if you have one. Many freelance writers don’t, however. Hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) can be a way to address this issue, as well as handle some of your other business tasks.

For other freelance writers, a spouse or other family member may be able to step in. Regardless of who is going to be handling communication in your absence, it’s worth it to take a few minutes ahead of time and brief them on your record keeping system. Provide them with access to your business email account, your contacts database and your editorial calendar. If possible, send them a weekly update to your editorial calendar so they know where exactly everything stands.

Next time, we’ll look at the production aspect of your freelance writing business and how to keep the words flowing in the event of a disaster.

Disaster Recovery for Freelance Writers: Data Issues

When it comes to disaster recovery for a small business, there are usually two types of issues that you must address: data issues and systemic or process issues. Today, we’ll look at the first of those two, and what the freelance writing business owner can do to minimize the impact of a disaster on her business.

A freelance writing business relies heavily on electronic data. Most of this data falls into one of three categories: product, communications and financial records. Each of these types of data is critical to the continuity of your business if a disaster should strike. Let’s tackle each in turn:

Product

The freelance writing business’ product is, of course, the writing. Whether it’s ebooks, magazine articles or web copy, the text you produce is the lifeblood of your business. It’s what people come to you for, and it’s what makes you money.

When a disaster – such as a crashed hard drive – occurs and you lose your saved files, it’s akin to having a tornado hit a warehouse and wipe out all of your inventory. Depending on the kind of work you do, you could be looking at days or even weeks of rewriting material. If your hard drive crashes in the final stages of a 150-page ebook, you’re going to lose valuable time and money if you don’t have a disaster recovery plan.

The good news here is that disaster recovery for your product can be relatively simple. You might have a dedicated backup hard drive, for example, that backs up your files every night. You might instead subscribe to an online backup service. If you can manage it, I recommend the online backup service, just because the local hard drive option still leaves you in the lurch if, for example, you have a house fire.

Communications

Another key element in your freelance writing business is your communications records. Freelance writers deal with things like contracts, orders and client communications on a daily basis. If you lose all of this type of data, you wind up having to go back to your clients to try to recreate it. While most clients will understand if you say, “My house flooded and I’ve lost my records, can I fax over a second copy of this contract,” how much more impressive would it be to those clients if they know your house flooded, yet you don’t miss a beat?

For the most part, your communications are probably electronic. Here again, a backup service is probably the best way to protect this type of data. If you use an email client on your PC to POP your mail, a backup service should cover you.

However, understand that if you use an email service – such as Gmail – you’re at the mercy of that email provider. If Gmail experiences a huge data loss tomorrow, you could lose valuable client communications. You need to have confidence in your email provider. Think long and hard about what email service you choose to use for your freelance writing business. (I, for the record, am completely confident in Google today. I use Gmail for the vast majority of my communications.)

Financial records

The last type of data you need to keep tabs on in a disaster is your financial records. This includes everything from your monthly bookkeeping to your receipts for expenses. Portions of your financial records can be electronic, while portions of your financial records will be paper. The electronic portion can be handled just like your electronic communications, while the paper records deserve a few extra thoughts.

You have a couple of choices when it comes to dealing with paper financial records. One option is to eliminate paper records by scanning everything into electronic format. This can be time-consuming, but it can also save you worry (and the clutter of a physical filing system).

Another way to deal with paper financial records is to invest in secure storage. This could include a fireproof and waterproof filing cabinet, or it could include an offsite storage option, such as a safe deposit box at your bank. This method isn’t as time-consuming as scanning all of your records, but it does require regular, manual use of the secure storage. In other words, you have to take your records regularly to your safe deposit box for this method to be effective. For me, the fireproof cabinet is the way to go, but I do know some small business owners who prefer offsite storage.

Next time, we’ll take a look at disaster recovery planning for your freelance writing business’ processes and systems.

Why Your Freelance Writing Business Needs a Disaster Recovery Plan

When you read about disaster recovery, you probably think less about your small freelance writing business and more about bigger companies. Indeed, most of the advice you’ll find on disaster recovery has to do with things like redundant data centers, off-site storage facilities and cross-training. There’s big money in disaster recovery planning, and the a small freelance writing business isn’t usually the target of marketing efforts.

Still, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be ready for when disaster strikes. Just ask the folks at Equipment Express.

Equipment express was a small startup founded by an Indiana man named Jeffery Ake in his garage. Ake designed some specialized way to bottle water, and he traveled the world promoting his product. Equipment Express was a small business with just a few employees.

April 2005 was the last time anyone saw Jeffery Ake. He appeared on Al Jazeera TV with two radical Islamists pointing rifles at his head. He’d been kidnapped while doing business in Iraq. He was never seen again.

After the kidnapping and disappearance, Ake’s business struggled. Without him at the helm, sales dried up. Within a year and a half, Equipment Express was more than a million bucks int he hole and the company was liquidated.

Equipment Express had no plans in place to allow their company to recover in the event that something happened to its founder and primary salesperson.

Even if your freelance writing business is just you, the story still illustrates how vulnerable your business is. One big client goes under, and you could be struggling for months. And, while you can’t plan for every kind of disaster that your business might face, there are some you can plan for.

Over the next few posts, I’ll talk a little bit about the risks facing your freelance writing business and what you can do now to help protect yourself and your family if something bad should happen.

The story of Equipment Express has a somewhat bittersweet ending. In 2007 one of the employees purchased the business’ assets and opened a new company called Liquid Packaging Solutions. They hired most of the old Equipment Express employees and opened up a new plant in Laporte, Indiana. Today, the company has around $5 million in sales annually.

The One Way to Keep Your Freelance Clients Coming Back for More

I’ve already told you how to lose your freelance writing clients. There are plenty of things you can do to tick clients off and send them packing. Unfortunately, when you do, they take their business elsewhere. There are plenty of other freelance writers waiting in the wings.

Still, not all clients that don’t come back stay away because they’re unhappy. Sometimes, you’ll work for a client with big ideas and dreams. They really like your work, and want to hire you to do a bunch of it. They’ll laud you with praise after you give it to them. After a little while, though, they stop coming back.

What happened? Sure, it could be you screwed up and don’t know it. Some clients speak with their feet instead of their lips. But, especially if the client seemed satisfied with the work, there’s probably another reason.

In many cases, they just ran out of money.

Now, you might not think there’s anything you can do about that. After all, you need the client to give you money. If they don’t have any, there’s nothing you can do for them. But, that’s only true to an extent.

Those of us who write primarily for the web usually create content that generates revenue. It may not be sales content; it might be brand-building, perhaps, or traffic generating. If that content doesn’t do its job and generate revenue, your client can’t afford to keep coming back.

Let me say that again, this time in big, bold letters so that the people skimming this article don’t miss it:

If your writing doesn’t generate revenue, your clients can’t afford to keep coming back.

Now, I’m not just talking about sales writing. If your SEO articles don’t attract search engines, if your blog posts don’t engage the reader and establish your client as an authority in their niche, or if your ebooks don’t provide real value to those that buy them, your clients won’t make money.

Yes, you need to do all of the other customer retention stuff. Meet deadlines, communicate effectively, and everything else. But at the end of the day, if your work doesn’t produce the desired results, it doesn’t do you a lot of good. Your client might feel plenty of warm fuzzies about you and give you a glowing recommendation, but they won’t give you any more cash.

Business Blogs for Freelance Writing Business Owners to Follow

Something I’ve been talking about a lot lately (and that you’ve been talking about in the comments) is this idea of treating your freelance writing business like a business. That means learning business management techniques the same as anyone else in small business. While the freelancing writing business certainly has its unique aspects, in many ways it’s not much different from a building contractor or a traveling IT guru.

So, in addition to following some of the great freelance writing blogs, you ought to have at least a few business-related blogs in your feeds. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and it intentionally leaves off those freelance-specific blogs you’re probably familiar with:

Entrepreneur Daily Dose

http://blog.entrepreneur.com/

I absolutely love Entrepreneur.com, and the Daily Dose offers quick insights into the business world. They hit on topics of real interest to freelance writing business owners, from social media to negotiating rates. Some of my favorite posts include:

How to Save Money and Draw a Crowd

Are Your Customers Talking Behind Your Back?

Negotiating in Shark-Infested Waters

Duct Tape Marketing

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/

While short, this list of business blogs would be incomplete without at least one marketing blog. I almost went with Seth Godin here, but I’ve covered him recently.

Duct Tape Marketing is the blog of John Jantsch. Jantsch tries to deliver “simple, effective and affordable small business marketing.” More often than not, he succeeds. Here are a couple good ones:

The Simple Way to Innovate and Differentiate

The Three Natural Phases of Successful Small Business Growth

GTD Times

http://www.gtdtimes.com/

GTD Times is the blog of David Allen, author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Allen is the master of productivity, and whether or not you use his system, the tips and tricks here are amazingly useful. I am especially fond of the Live Blogging the Master Workflow Seminar series.

Some sample posts:

Live Blogging the Mastering Workflow Seminar: Are there any b…y actions on your current lists?

Looking at those monsters in the closet

So, what about you? What business-related blogs do you find useful?

How to Have a Rockstar Freelance Writing Business

The majority of small businesses fold within two years of opening. It takes five years, on average, for a small business to show a profit. If you’re within the first five years of your freelance writing business, chances are pretty good you’re still struggling quite a bit. While there are no magical cures, there are some things that exponentially increase your chances of success.

Here are 10 ways to push your business through the roof:

1. Plan

I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating. You can be a great writer and a kickass salesperson, but if you don’t plan it out right, you’re going to fail. You need to have a clear idea of where you want your business to go and how you intend to get there. You also need to be flexible enough to change course if your plan isn’t going well.

2. Know Yourself

You need to get a handle on what it is you do. You need to understand what your job entails. You’re not a tortured novelist. You’re not even really a writer much of the time. You’re a small business owner. That means you market, you do bookeeping, you administrate and you might even supervise personnel. Occasionally, you even write. Figure out the parts of small business that you’re good at, and the ones you’re not. Either get good at them or hire someone who is.

3. Know your Customer

Give your customer what she wants, not what you think she wants. If you do, she’ll come back and buy from you again. Yes, you can offer advice and enhancements to improve on what she’s asking for, but if it doesn’t work, she’ll know who to blame.

4. Know the Freelance Writing Business

You can’t get a competitive edge if you don’t know the business. Know the industry. Know what kinds of writing people buy and why. Figure out exactly where in that business environment you fit.

5. Develop Your Brand

Your brand is an important part of your marketing effort. Your potential customers create their perception of your business from your brand. Make sure the message is consistent, from your blog to your Twitter account to your Facebook page to your Elance profile.

6. Price for Profit

If you’re writing $5 articles that take you an hour to complete, you’re better off flipping burgers. Same holds true if you’re writing $10 articles that take you an hour to complete. For every hour you spend writing, you need to spend a certain amount of time in bookkeeping, marketing, sales and the like. That amount of time likely varies from one freelance writing business to the next, but I like a 1:1 ratio.

7. Keep Good Records

If you don’t know where your money is coming from, you can’t go back and ask for more. Good records are like instruments on an airplane. Without them, you’re flying blind. With them, you know which way to turn in order to move toward success.

8. Learn from the Pros

Look, you’re talented. That’s cool. But there are people who have been doing this gig for a long time, who can tell you some seriously important things if you’re willing to listen. They can save you a heck of a lot of headache. Listen to them. Take what works for you and ditch the rest.

9. Follow Up

Repeat business is the key to long-term success. Build up a solid client base, do outstanding work for them that helps their business grow and they’ll come back to you again and again and again.

10. Don’t Give Up

Good old-fashioned stubbornness is a virtue you must have if you’re going to make it in the freelance writing business. The reason so many small businesses close their doors within two years isn’t that they weren’t good at what they did; it’s because they couldn’t tough it out.

Choosing Your Freelance Writing Business Structure: Corporations and LLCs

Last time, we took a look at two of the most common business structures for a freelance writing business: the sole proprietorship and the partnership. That post has had several comments, and there’s a good discussion going on about the merits of each of these structures. Feel free to read that post, and to jump in to the discussions if you’re so inclined.

My approach in that post, as well as this one, is to give you the big picture on the types of structures available to you in your freelance writing business, to point out some of the pros and cons, and let you sort it out for yourself. It’s not my desire (at least not in these posts) to make a recommendation to anyone, so don’t construe what I’ve written as advice. Think of it more as sorting through the details to give you some framework from which to make your own decisions.

Today, I want to look at corporations and LLCs.

Corporations

A corporation is a unique entity, legally separated from its owners. A corporation can enter into a contract, be taxed and even sued. A corporation is owned by shareholders. Shareholders elect a board of directors to make the day-to-day decisions of the corporation, and the corporation doesn’t dissolve when ownership changes hands.

For the freelance writing business, a corporation is very rarely a viable business model. Corporations have the advantage of being able to raise cash through the sale of stock, and while most freelance writing businesses could benefit from spending some money on marketing, most of us don’t have the kinds of cash flow concerns that warrant a sale of stock to fix. Corporations limit your liability for debts of the company, but the LLC is a much less complex way to limit your liability. In addition, incorporating can result in a higher tax burden, as the dividends the company pays to shareholders are not deductible. You can actually wind up being taxed twice for the same income under the corporate model.

I should probably at least briefly mention the S-Corp. The Subchapter S Corporation model attempts to alleviate this tax burden, but the requirements are usually so specific as to be difficult for a freelance writing business to meet.

Limited Liability Companies (LLC)

The LLC is a hybrid business structure. It gives you the limited liability of the corporation combined with the tax benefits and the flexibility of a partnership. In the LLC model, the business owners are members of the LLC. The LLC has a built-in duration, which can be continued when it expires. An LLC is possible only when the company meets two or fewer of the characteristics of a corporation, including:

• Limited liability to the extent of assets
• Continuity of life
• Centralization of management
• Free transferability of ownership interests

Forming an LLC can be a good business structure for a freelance writing business. The LLC lets you have limited liability for the company, so that if it tanks your personal finances don’t have to do the same. In addition, the LLC features pass-through taxes, saving you the double-taxation situation that can arise from forming a corporation. Finally, an LLC requires quite a bit less in the way of paperwork than the corporation.

So, what kind of business structure best fits your freelance writing business? That’s for you to decide. Corporations seem to be fairly rare in our world, as do partnerships. The real choice seems to be between sole proprietorship and the LLC, and there are many individualized factors that can tip the scales between the two.

Choosing Your Freelance Writing Business Structure: Sole Proprietorships and Partnerships

Let’s get into some of the nuts and bolts of the freelance writing business, shall we? Whether you’re new to the freelance writing business or whether you’ve been doing this gig as long as I have, you may not have stopped to consider the options when it comes to the structure of your business.

The vast majority of freelance writing businesses are sole proprietorships, not because that’s the best model for their business, but because they haven’t had a need or seen the possible benefits of another structure.

Today, I’ll look at two of these business structures, and talk a little bit about each one from the perspective of a freelance writing business.

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is sort of the default small business. A freelance writing business will usually start out as a sole proprietorship. With this business structure, you as an individual receive all of the income generated by the business, and the profits of the business go right into your own tax return. You’re liable and legally responsible for any debts the business incurs.

From a freelance writing business perspective, this isn’t a bad model. Because freelance writers typically don’t require huge investments in a storefront, inventory or equipment, the liabilities of a freelance writing business are usually smaller than other businesses. Unfortunately, if you want to spend some money on things like marketing for your writing business, your ability to raise funds is usually limited to your savings or a commercial loan.

Partnership

With a partnership, two or more people share the ownership of the business. A partnership is like a sole proprietorship, but with multiple people. That is, the individual partners receive the income of the business, and those profits hit their personal tax returns. The partners are jointly responsible but individually liable for the actions of the other partners.

A partnership can be a good thing in the freelance writing world. Most often, a freelance writer will partner with a freelance designer in order to offer more robust services to clients. Partners with complimentary skills can then work together to grow the business. On the down side, a business can dissolve when one of the partners withdraws. Make sure your freelance writing business partner is someone who can work through the kinds of difficulties that come with a business.

Come back next Tuesday, and we’ll look at the remaining options for freelance writing business structures. Better yet, just subscribe to Business Tips for Writers and you’ll get the update automatically in your feed reader or email inbox.

Understanding the Freelance Writing Market

There have been some amazing discussions lately going on right here at FWJ about writing at content sites, and about other aspects of the freelance writing market. They have to do  with working for corporate content producers like Demand Studios.

There is some controversy about Demand, and about freelance marketplace sites like Elance, and about the rates writers can make at these sites. There are freelancers – a vocal minority, it would seem – that object to FWJ (or anyone else) promoting these kinds of writing sites. They argue that rates are too low, and that it “devalues” the entire market.

While I won’t go into the merits and flaws of any site today, I do want to look at this part of the argument. I think it’s plain wrong. This idea of “devaluation” is, frankly, a myth.

You see, the freelance writing market isn’t special. It works just like the other markets in a free, capital-based society. The same principles that determine the price of bread, or a car, or brain surgery determine the price of freelance writing.

Here are three basic market principles, and how they pertain to the freelance writing market:

The product (your writing) is worth whatever a buyer is willing pay for it.

I know this is going to be an ego blow to some folks, but the bare fact is this: not everyone writes as well as everyone else. Some people are better writers than others. In the efforts to grow my business, I’ve paid $3 for an article. The result was atrocious. I’ve paid $10 for articles, too, and that work was better. To me, it’s worth paying more for the product if I know it’s a quality product. People who pay for your writing services are no different.

Some products (types of writing) are more valuable than others.

Not every type of writing is worth the same as every other type of writing. A 1000-word sales page is worth more than five 500-word keyword articles to the buyer, even though the time it takes to create them might be the same. Those keyword articles bring them traffic; that sales page brings them money. This is part of the reason that some folks, such as Michael Stelzner, choose to specialize. (For more on this aspect of the issue, check out the debate, Generalist vs. Specialist: Which Is Better in a Tough Economy? between Peter Bowerman and Michael Stelzner later this month.)

A buyer never pays more than she has to.

This is the area where the critics almost – almost - have an argument. They argue that freelance writers who work for lower rates bring down the market. They argue that those writers should be charging more – because the product is worth more.

That part of the argument is true. Unfortunately, some folks don’t know how much their product is worth. In some cases, they may not have the desire or talent to get better rates, simply because they’re not asking for them.

That’s a whole separate discussion, of course, but the short answer is this: sometimes, buyers get a good deal. However, this doesn’t devalue the market. Just because you can buy a particular toaster for a better price at Best Buy than you can at Sears doesn’t mean Sears won’t sell their toasters. In fact, they sell plenty.

Devaluation is a myth, folks. Yes, low-paid writers (good ones, anyways) need to ask for more for their work. But even if they don’t, it doesn’t create some huge drag on market prices.

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