Archive for February, 2007
In case I haven’t mentioned it in the last five minutes, I have a reading Thursday night at 7 p.m. at the University Book Store in Seattle. Here’s the info. Hell, here’s the info for all my March/April readings in Puget Sound area.
SEATTLE - Thursday, March 1, 7 p.m.
University Book Store
4326 University Way NE, Seattle
(800) 335-7323
BELLINGHAM - Tuesday, March 20, 7:30 p.m.
Village Books
1200 Eleventh Street, Bellingham, WA
(360) 671-2626
KIRKLAND - Thursday, March 29, 7:00 p.m.
Parkplace Books
348 Parkplace Center (at Third Street South), Kirkland, WA
(425) 828-6546
NORTH SEATTLE - Thursday, April 12, 7 p.m.
Third Place Books
17171 Bothell Way NE, Lake Forest Park (North Seattle)
(206) 366-3333
More event info — including my first two New York dates! — here. Thanks for playing. We will resume our normal newsy, tipster, and anti 9-to-5 profile programming any minute now, just as soon as I get these two copywriting projects off my plate and out of my hair.
February 28th, 2007
Dudes, it’s my big fat Anti 9-to-5 World Cybertour, only without the stadiums or rocking concert jerseys. (Though if anyone would like to help design and/or coordinate the latter, I’m all over it. Email me.)
First stop up on the Anti 9-to-5 World Cybertour, one of my top 5 desert island blogs, The Renegade Writer — virtual home of Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell, authors of The Renegade Writer and Query Letters That Rock (two books every freelance writer should have). In my Q&A with The Renegade Writer, I talk about why I wrote a career guide for women, what it takes to work for yourself, and how freelance writers can continuously strive for bigger and better gigs. See for yourself.
There is no official schedule for my Anti 9-to-5 World Cybertour. From time to time, I’ll do Q&As or guest posts on other people’s blogs. And I’ll of course link to them here so you can raise your lighters and revel in all the anti 9-to-5 glory.
February 28th, 2007
Last week Charlene asked how freelancers deal with sick days. (Answer here.) If you think self-employed people are the only working stiffs who have it rough when they’re sick, you probably didn’t see the ABC news report on Friday about how 59 million U.S. workers have no paid sick days and 86 million get no paid days off to care for a sick kid. A juicy nugget from the piece:
Of the 20 most competitive economies in the world, according to research by the World Economic Forum, the U.S. is the only one not to require businesses to provide paid sick days.
What’s more, according to this NewStandard report, the shortage of sick days hurts women the most and hits part-time workers the hardest, given that only one in six of them gets paid sick days. Behold:
The [Kaiser Family] Foundation found that 49 percent of working mothers report they must miss work when a child is sick with a common illness, compared to 30 percent of men, and half of working mothers do not get paid time off spent caring for a sick child.
None of this is surprising, given our country’s crappy work-life balance offerings. The good news is that change is afoot. San Francisco now requires businesses to grant paid sick days, and according to ABC news, “similar bills are pending in Madison, Wisconsin, and in the states of Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont.” Congress is even holding hearings on a federal mandate for paid sick days.
What do you think? Have you ever gone to work with a fever or brought a sick child to work because you needed the cash? Should smaller businesses that squawk that paid sick days hurt their bottom line be bitch-slapped? Should the government foot the bill for workers who have the flu? Do tell.
February 27th, 2007
Check out these hilarious fictitious office memos that people wish they had the heart or cojones to send, courtesy of Salon. I love the first one, from self-employed person to client. Although I think I like this “memo” best:
To: People who use the “priority” header in their outgoing email
When you set “priority” to “high” or “highest,” please do so only on the basis of the message’s likely priority to its recipient(s), not its priority to you. Taking your best guess is OK.
February 25th, 2007
“If you work for yourself, aren’t you throwing away your retirement?”
A producer from Seattle’s KING5 TV news asked me this when we were prepping for my February 16 morning spot.* My answer: Hardly. Workers under 40 are lucky if they get a 401k at all — especially one with employer matching. And pensions? They’re pretty much extinct, unless you work for the government.
If you’re not getting a 401k with employer matching, you’re basically in the same boat as a self-employed person: You still have to siphon money from each paycheck for your retirement fund, even if it’s one you get through an investment firm like Fidelity or Vanguard. (I use the latter.)
Why the hell am I thinking about this on a Sunday, when instead I could be scrambling to rent the last few Oscar-nominated flicks I haven’t seen? Because I contributed to Your Money 2007, a Seattle Times special section that came out today. Basically we hooked up a handful of readers with certified financial planners, gave them the money makeover of their lives, and then wrote about it for all the world to see.
Working on this project made me realize that I’m a bit behind where I need to be with my retirement savings, especially since I’ve been self-employed forever and am single. If you’re self-employed, too, or thinking about joining the ranks of solo workers, here are some resources that can help you get a better handle on your long-term savings:
*Sorry, no video from le TV spot. But my mom and friend Diane swear I did great.
February 25th, 2007
Ready to make the leap from slush pile to paid scribe? Jill Rothenberg, my fabulous (former) Seal Press editor, just announced that she’ll be teaching an online class on writing a winning nonfiction book proposal through Media Bistro this spring. I can’t say enough about how brilliant and hiliarious and savvy about all things publishing Jill is. I pretty much cried when she left Seal, even though I was excited that she did it to become a fellow freelancer.
But don’t take my word for it. Read the course description and her impressive bio yourself. (I didn’t know this, but she worked on Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Path of the World’s Most Deadly Stones — you know, the book made into that bigass Leonardo Di movie.)
February 24th, 2007
Design*Sponge is offering independent designers a collection of handy-dandy business tip sheets on publicizing your work, dealing with the legal crap that comes up, setting prices, selling wholesale, selling online, manufacturing, packaging, and on and on and on. No charge. Just click and download. (Thanks to Boss Lady for pointing out this tiptastic treasure trove.)
February 24th, 2007
I never fancied myself someone who would (a) blog, and (b) spell “ever” as “evar,” but there, I’ve gone ahead and done both. And so far, the sky hasn’t fallen.
One of my favorite moments Saturday was when a licensed massage therapist of ten years asked if she could trade me some time on the table in exchange for picking my brain about the freelance life (and not at the same time, which every good LMP knows would be a no-no). First I squealed, then I hugged her, then I squealed some more.
Like anyone who’s been in the same field for a few years, I get a lot of brain-picking requests. I write about how best to approach a “career hero” for a brain-picking session in Chapter 2 of the book. There I say to read up on the field first so you don’t ask boneheaded open-ended questions like, “What’s it like to be a firefighter?” I also recommend being respectful of their time (ask for 15-30 minutes max, unless you’re paying them), picking up the lunch tab (non-negotiable!), and thanking them profusely (you’d be surprised how many people take the advice and run, without even a quick email reply saying “Hey, thanks!”).
But here’s something I didn’t say in the book: If you have something to trade, by all means offer it up, just like that LMP who made my day. Sure, it won’t always work out, like the time someone offered me free admission to a “Discover Your Career Calling” workshop in exchange for a free seat in a freelancing workshop I was teaching, or the time a friend traded me acupuncture sessions for my copyediting services and I discovered that I couldn’t hang with the needle-in-the-forehead thing.
If you do trade professional services, trade dollar value for dollar value rather than hour for hour (or product for product), so both parties feel they’re fairly compensated. And work out how many sessions or products you’ll trade ahead of time.
If you don’t have something to trade and money’s in short supply, send the brain pickee a thank-you note containing a $5 coffee gift certificate, or buy them a small item off their Amazon wish list, or send them a funny but relevant book you found at a second-hand shop (idea courtesy of Xina) — something affordable but thoughtful to show you’re no slouch. With so many strangers asking for resume critiques, hits off their Rolodex, and advice galore, career heroes are more likely to remember those brain pickers who showed them a little love in return. The next time they have a job opening or freelance lead to pass along, you just might be the happy recipient.
February 22nd, 2007
Whitney Smith — who’s featured in The Anti 9-to-5 Guide — is founder and co-CEO of Girls For A Change, a California-based nonprofit organization that teaches middle and high school girls to work for social change. Since 2002, Girls For A Change has served more than 4,000 girls, grown its volunteer staff to 500+, and increased its paid staff and annual budget tenfold.
How I transitioned to doing this full time: Although Girls For A Change hired its first paid (part-time) staff member in 2002 to help launch the program, I kept my 9-to-5 job as director of the Santa Clara County Office of Women’s Advocacy while working on my nonprofit baby 20 hours a week. Looking back, I wish I had taken the plunge and started working for Girls For A Change as my primary job earlier. I was scared at the time of leaving the 9-to-5 and the steady check. I love what I do now, and it is so satisfying to do this work. I only deferred my fear by waiting until 2004 to work full time for Girls For A Change. Looking back, I see that I could have done it earlier.
How I got my baby off the ground:
- Passion. First, and most important, you must have passion for what you are doing.
- Determination. It’s important to stay true to what you believe when others tell you that you are crazy… and they definitely will do this.
- Strong sense of self. This is something I discovered along the way. You must remember you are talented and that you do know what you are talking about. And you have to remember that very few people know truly what they are doing and have all the skills they need. What is truly important is that they are doing it.
- Balance. When you are trying to escape the 9-to-5, it is easy, ironically, to completely lose balance with your own venture. Remember not to do this!
My top tips for hopeful nonprofit founders:
- Get a coach. Seek out a paid life coach or executive coach who will be your voice and cheerleader and help you develop these skills. It is hard for people to invest the money in this, but there is truly nothing like having someone on the “payroll” who is a super-skilled coach who can unravel it all with you.
- Learn from others. It’s as easy as offering to take someone you admire out to coffee.
- Surround yourself with supportive people. Spend time with the ones who love you and won’t throw doubts in your path.
- Fake it until you make it. Not a lot of people will tell you this, but it is true that we all figure it out as we go along. I am definitely not telling you to misrepresent yourself or pretend you are someone you aren’t, but know that it is OK to assess yourself when presented with a challenge and to take that challenge on even when you aren’t sure you know how to do it.
What’s that link again? Girls For A Change, where donations and volunteers are always welcome.
[posted by Traci Macnamara]
February 20th, 2007
Evidently I do know JACK. You can now listen to the podcast of my interview with Kimi Kline of Seattle’s 96.5 JACKfm, which aired this past weekend. Kimi and I dish on the dreaded Sunday Slump before the workweek begins, ways to break into self-employment, and what not to do as a newbie fempreneur. Check it out.
February 20th, 2007
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