Comments on: Top Ten Things to Do While Waiting for that PERFECT Writing Gig

By: How long is too long – when to give up freelance writing | Blogging for a Living| Part of the Freelance Writing Jobs Blog Network

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:52:59 +0000

[...] Clients respond to you but don’t quite hire you. If clients take the time to respond often (a good sign), but don’t hire you there’s probably a little something in your application game-plan that you can tweak. You may be close to getting hired. [...]

By: #13

#13 — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:41:45 +0000

@Phil – Sorry to say, but it makes me wonder why people are so prone to get into debt in this country to begin with that we always need booklets, self-help guides and pamphlets to get us out of our financial jams. It is just so foreign to me since I am married to a European man who knows nothing about credit card debt -except what he reads in the local papers here in the US.

@#7 – Glad that you took the leap of faith, too! Just remember to continue to write what you’re passionate about and you won’t have regrets. (Just writers must stop agonizing over their own words and get some more confidence! We’re just a real train wreck on the inside, aren’t we?! LOL!)

By: #7

#7 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:45:44 +0000

#13, thanks for your tip about inner critics. Mine almost stopped me from trying out for this contest.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:37:12 +0000

No. 13,

Not accounting per se, but SCORE just sent this to me.

Washington, D.C.—SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” and Corporate Turnaround have created a free 16-page workbook, How to Pay Business Debts You Can’t Afford. This valuable resource will help small businesses survive when facing economic and financial challenges.

The guide covers some of the most crucial parts of settling commercial debts, including:

How to determine a monthly budget to pay past due debts

How to create settlement offers with real-world information

How to write settlement letters using fill-in-the-blank templates

How to negotiate affordable settlements with the toughest creditors

How to stretch out settlements over time
How to Pay Business Debts You Can’t Afford is free and available as a PDF download on SCORE’s home page at http://www.score.org.

SCORE CEO Kan Yancey says, “SCORE mentors can help small businesses with a variety of financial issues, including loans, cash flow, accounting, taxes and cost reduction.” Yancey adds, “This new workbook will help give small business owners the tools they need to satisfy their creditors.”

“The easy-to-understand strategies in this guide have helped settle more than 25,000 business debts,” says Jerry Silberman, CEO of Corporate Turnaround and co-author of Small Business Survival Book: 12 Surefire Ways for Your Business to Survive and Thrive. Silberman adds, “SCORE clients will learn how to explain their hardship directly to their creditors and gain the best possible settlements.”

By: #13

#13 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:29:40 +0000

@Morgan – Thanks for the confidence booster! ….I won’t tell you what level of degree I have. Just to keep it safe and less embarrassing.

@Phil – YES! Accounting. Great tips and THANK YOU for pointing that out. I’d need a book that was for dummies though. I’m right-brained ALL THE WAY. I just want to be paid at the rate we agreed upon… beyond that, “I got nuttin’” if I have to use any complex mathematics!

Oh and I truly love Chicago – it’s one of my very favorite cities in the US. (It ties with Manhattan for me.) I’m just a city girl living in the ‘burbs right now.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:09:45 +0000

No. 13,

Hope you enjoyed Chicago. Been in the area my whole life, though I have only one local account.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:08:01 +0000

Good list, but I will add a few that I’ve found invaluable (even though when I did them, I was still an employee).

1) Take accounting classes. Knowledge of bookkeeping (basically accounting 101) and cost accounting (102) are invaluale. Even if you have an accountant, the books are still your responsibility. The basics are also important to help you determine profitability, whether you are really making money (revenues and profits are not the same), etc.

2) Read sales and success books. If you’re in a business, you’re in sales or you will fail to be profitable. Success books like 7 Habits of Highly Sucessful People, Think and Grow Rich, etc., provide invaluable tips, attitude adjustments, and basically, excellent strategies to be successful.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:34:46 +0000

#13 I enjoyed reading your post very much. You have a lovely style. Don’t worry about the mistakes. I’ve seen plenty of professional blogs with mistakes not to mention the mistakes I see in my job daily made by Ph.D.s Everyone has a typo or two.

Good luck!

By: #13

#13 — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:26:07 +0000

Melody – LOL! Battlestar Galactica…

Jenna K. – nothing is wrong with you and you deserve the writing gigs that come your way!

chinamatt – I agree about the format, but since this isn’t my blog space where I can easily edit after posting, that changes the game a bit. I attribute some of the errors in my posting to two things: 1) wanting to get something ready as quickly as possible and 2) being incredibly tired after a 14 hour car ride from Chicago back home…. I know I re-read my work several times (and out loud), but I didn’t see the errors until it was posted. Again, that goes back to “if it were my blog and I could edit excuse….”.

(sigh) As if I’m not already critical enough of my own work…. LOL!

By: chinamatt

chinamatt — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:36:11 +0000

You have some terrific advice here for writers. I do like your voice and style. However, I don’t like the format all that much. A previous comment mentioned bullets–I’d agree with that. Also, you need to proofread more carefully–I found a couple mistakes that didn’t make the post look too good.