October is traditionally a quieter month after the student Master’s dissertation rush of August and September, and I have certainly seen a slight drop-off in workflow, although it’s still kept ticking along. I’ve …

Edited some PhD theses – some ongoing, some in their entirety; some large documents and a PowerPoint presentation for one ongoing client (discovering that, even if you can’t Track Changes, you can stick sticky notes all over the slides); quite a few blog posts for a new ongoing client who is not a native English speaker (picking up a lovely reference along the way); and all sorts of business and academic writing for my translator client.

Edited and proofread my usual American magazine’s quarterly publication and the MoseleyB13 local magazine.

Edited two articles for publication, ensuring they conformed to the journal’s style guide.

Set up a coaching relationship with one PhD student, where we talk via email every week about the new work he’s completed in an effort to get his thesis written up this year.

Transcribed interviews for my journalist client, who’s got some cover stories in women’s magazines as well as the usual music magazine pieces, and a new client who presents teleseminars and interviews on writing and marketing your work (learning a lot as I go along!).

And I also …

Ran my fourth Birmingham Half Marathon, with a personal best time!

Wrote some blog posts on starting your own business, including starting a proofreading business, pre-launched my new Libro Newsletter by telling people about it and inviting them to sign up, and placed some more guest posts.

Attended a Social Media Cafe, where I talked through a business problem with my peers – very useful.  I attended the Kings Heath Business Association AGM and will hopefully be helping out on their committee in the New Year, and I went along to the Entrepreneur meetup and met some more lovely, enthusiastic people with great business ideas.

Phew! I’ve also received the 22nd questionnaire response for my Iris Murdoch research project, and this month/December I will be applying to present a paper on it at the next Iris Murdoch Conference and writing up some results!

Coming up …

The Big Decision is coming up now: when to take Libro full-time. Working part-time while running the business is getting tiring, and where I haven’t had to turn any work away, I have had to turn down a few opportunities for networking and other events which could potentially drive some new business my way. I also want to be able to be more flexible for my clients as to when I can do their work, and have time for my partner and my friends! So … it’s decision time this month!

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