Show of hands – how many of you have received projects from your clients and found out their deadline is of the next-to-impossible variety? Whoa. That many of you? Me too. I understand where it comes from. A lot of clients have to walk these things through various committees, through meeting upon meeting, and through…
Author: lwidmer
Marketing When You’re Busy
It’s true – schedule just one half day or a few hours off and the client projects come out of the woodwork. Today is a much-awaited hair appointment to cover up the stress remnants of the Labor Day client crunch. Tomorrow, I’m off in the afternoon to try making it to Erie by bedtime. And…
Giving What’s Expected
I had a client recently who needed me to rewrite something they’d just paid someone else to rewrite. In fact, the rather large document, which was supposedly updated by a marketing firm, looked suspiciously familiar – except for a few minor word changes, it was basically the copy I’d supplied this company two years ago…
Kristen King Announces Giveaway!
If you’re in the market for a neat invoicing system or if you just can’t pull together or make sense of invoicing and billing, listen up. Kristen King is giving away a 3-month basic membership for Invotrak, an online invoicing and tracking system. All you have to do is visit Inkthinker between now and 11:59…
Building a Writing Group
I’ve been in writing groups pre-computer, email-based, and face-to-face. In every case, the groups were different. Way different. Yet they all worked because we set the ground rules at the outset and followed them. In the first group, we were a group of five or six. We met for a few hours every two to…
More Fun with Verizon’s Dick and Jane (and Doug and Vickie and….)
I just spent a good 35 minutes on the phone with Verizon. See, on top of my credit card numbers being lifted, my husband went through the same thing a few months ago. We’re still getting caught up with what automated bill payments we’ve changed and what ones we’ve forgotten. Today, I was dealing with…
Writing Group Etiquette
At a writing group meeting I was once part of, a new person dropped by the group to check us out. We knew within 20 minutes that he wasn’t going to fit. See, our meetings were an hour and a half long. He took the first 20 minutes to avail us of his “vast” experience…
Do-Gooder Friday
Amie over at Written Expressions recently posted aboutVolunteerism interrupted. While it sucks that her attempts at helping out were interrupted, she brings up an interesting point – how can we as one-person shops be socially responsible? Generally, we’re not an ultra-wealthy bunch. But there are ways we can help others that don’t break us financially….
Credit Card Woes
I got a call from my bank yesterday checking on some recent charges. This happens a lot, and I’ve always been very glad for it. I wasn’t sure about one charge yesterday, so the woman on the phone put my account on hold. Thank God she did – today the charges appeared. I had no…
Is That Your Final Answer?
I just picked up a brand-new client the other day. It was one I’d mentioned a few posts ago that a friend in the company had recommended me to. Mind you, I don’t have any assignments yet, but I’ve now completed paperwork that’s put me on the list of “approved contractors”, according to the contact…