I have just concluded a very busy week of marketing my writing business - a full time venture I had not planned to return to at age 55. However, a job layoff forced my hand.
For those familiar with the business, the busyness includes sending email and traditional mail LOIs (letters of introduction) and queries, while at the same time working on assignments current and future, and as well taking care of my business accounting. These activities offset the others and are a necessity for the keeping the business alive and, most of the time, smoothly running. And then there's the "escape stuff," like writing this blog post. Back to marketing, the main point of this post. It's one thing to do it as part of your job description for someone else, knowing a paycheck for doing so is (or should be) coming regularly. It's another when you do it for YOUR business. If you don't make a direct hit and sell your idea (and eventually writing a great article or specific project), there's no paycheck. That's where the "heart" comes in. You're extending an idea, better yet yourself, to another to serve their need, but many (make that most) times the percentages aren't in your favor, and this can be determined by numerous factors: distance, not the right time for the idea, etc. But with every contact, "heart" must be present. How would I personally define it as relates to a freelancer? Moving forward without giving up. Not letting a "no" response deflate you. Not taking a rejection personally, just realizing that it's what the business entails and forging forward. But I think it's most of all having the following: belief (in your ability), faith (in your ability and universe), hope (never giving up this wonderful, freelancing life, for you never know what tomorrow, or even the next hour, holds for you), and learning from it all, rising the next day to do it all again. Entrepreneurs will understand, freelance writers the most. A challenging profession it is, and that rising to "do it all again" is maybe the most challenging thing of all. *"You gotta have heart..." Steve "Heart" - written by Richard Adler
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Steve Sears is a New Jersey based freelance writer
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