I was speaking with a friend the other day and realized that I may not be keeping every one up to date with what I am doing. Since it is the dead of summer and I need to scare up some business, I thought I would do what all sole-proprietors do and hit up people I know for contacts.
Expand my network.
I also plan to follow up with a series of one blog entry a week covering in detail some of the aspects of writing a good resume, proofreading v. copy editing, and why I have the company name and logo that I do, as well as other topics.
So, what do I do? On my resume it says:
*Book editing, proofreading
*Articles and reviews (book, magazine, and film)
*Resumes, letters, executive summaries
*Informational white papers and essays
*Fiction and poetry
Fifteen years experience in proofreading, copy-editing and other detail checking work.
Twenty years problem solving, trouble-shooting in customer service; some supervisory experience.
But what does that mean to you?
Contrary to popular belief, it's not just books and collections of short stories and poetry that need to be proofread or copy edited. EVERYTHING needs to be checked, proofed, sometimes edited, before it goes somewhere: Company, organization, and family newsletters; business and marketing proposals; thesis proposals and dissertations; personal and academic essays; resumes and cover letters; Power Point Presentations, lesson plans, and speeches; websites and blog articles. Just about anything in regards to the written word needs to be proofed and edited before it goes on public display or sent out to other people. Sometimes proofreading even means comparing figures to make sure those figures were correctly entered.
Sometimes, you can do that just fine on your own. Sometimes you work someplace where there are people hired to do that. But if you can't -- if you need a fresh pair of eyes to go over the spelling (spell check only goes so far), grammar, punctuation, and missed or wrong words, then that's what I can do for you.
What else do I do?
Copy editing, which is a more extensive form of proofing, checks for awkward sentences and whether or not what is written flows logically and makes sense. That is also something I do.
If someone needs content rewritten or reformatted from one type of document to another (PDF to Word or Excel for example). I also do that.
On top of all that -- I write! You may not need a writer at this minute, but what if one of the regular writers on your golfing newsletter can't make the deadline this month or this quarter or there's one more topic than writers available? I'm available for that as well.
Do you need a resume redone that you're not happy with? I can do that in a couple of hours. Or do you want a resume from scratch? You feel like just starting over? Give me an hour or so with you on the phone, we'll go over where you see yourself headed and what you want to do with the rest of your life and I'll get that resume done for you. And we'll talk about that cover letter, too.
Or do you have a new piece of art, music, book, poem, business, etc, that you have just gotten out and want written up and reviewed? I can do that (it helps if you can get me a copy of whatever it is you want me to review).
IN ADDITION to all that - if you're in Los Angeles and have a home office or regular office in need of some care and attention, I can come in and organize things for you. You've been putting off filing, organizing those receipts, and typing them into your account sheet for months now and January is just a few months away! I can come in, organize, tidy, file, and do data entry to catch you up so that next time you sit down to take care of business, it's not so frustrating.
Other things you might want to know about me:
If you feel more comfortable with non-disclosure agreements or confidentiality agreements, then I will sign those. No problem.
If you hire me to do something for your business, then you can take my invoice/receipt to use when you figure your tax deductions.
What do I charge?
*Proofreading: $20/hour
*Copy Editing: $30/hour
*If it's something in between we can negotiate on some price in the middle, depending on what is needed and how fast.
*Written content: .03-.08/word (also depending what is needed and how fast)
Resumes:
*Rewritten or just updated -- $20-30/hour depending on how much needs to be done.
*Written from scratch, including an interview with you, information gathering on you and what industry you are in, and the necessary revisions and tweaks we'll make to get it perfect -- $150 flat fee
*Cover letters: $25-50 flat fee
*Office Help: $10-15/hour, depending on what is needed.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Cross posted on every blog I have....
2 comments:
This is a good idea. Clear and to the point statement of what you can do. But written in an accessible, friendly style. Have you had any business cards made up?
Thank you! Yes, I have business cards. They're just those Vista Print things you can for free (well, cost of shipping), but they work.
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