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Category Archives: New skills

Saturday freelance chat – Carl Nixon

25 Jun

Welcome to my second interview with a fellow freelancer.  These are running every Saturday, and are aimed at sharing our experiences in setting up and running our own businesses.  This does gives people a chance to showcase their businesses, but the main aim is to share and encourage.  Each interview includes the same questions, and I’ll be revisiting my interviewees a year after their original interview is published, to see how things are going.

Today we’re going to meet Carl Nixon; I first came across Carl on the 4Networking forums and he’s also on Twitter.  Carl is based in Wales and his business, Excel Expert, has been going for 2 years, so it’s about the same age as Libro.

What’s your business called? When did you set it up?

It is called Excel Expert and we are just coming up to our 2nd birthday.

What made you decide to set up your own business?

Mainly being bored of my job. I worked for Admiral Insurance for 10 years setting up and maintain their systems and procedures for the elephant.co.uk brand. Once all the bugs were worked out there was very little challenge left so I found myself just turning up for work at 9, wasting my day and going home at 5.  I should have left years before but it was a genuinely good place to work and I was a part of a great team

What made you decide to go into this particular business area?

I’ve been a geek and a lover of all things maths all my life so it was almost a no-brainer. I could have equally gone down the database route rather than the spreadsheet route, but I chose spreadsheets because there was less competition. It’s really strange, because databases are becoming our main focus.

Had you run your own business before?

Prior to working for Admiral I ran businesses for other people but never my own.

How did you do it? Did you launch full-time, start off with a part-time or full-time job to keep you going … ?

I started out with the aim of starting part-time and going full-time when I hit a certain turnover. However I was never going to hit that threshold because I never had the time to produce that much turnover. So I just bit the bullet and went for it.

What do you wish someone had told you before you started?

Expect to spend several times more money and time on marketing than you plan to.

What would you go back and tell your newly entrepreneurial self?

Spend more time on marketing and concentrate earlier on eliminating the marketing, working,  marketing, working cycle.

What do you wish you’d done differently?

Not left it until I was 40 to start up a business

What are you glad you did?

Making the leap from part-time to full-time. It is a big leap of faith but it just makes it so much easier to get your business really going.

What’s your top business tip?

Has to be fail fast – As soon as you see something not working or going wrong, get right on it. Either fix it or bin it.

How has it gone since you started? Have you grown, diversified or stayed the same?

We tried to diversify but it was a nightmare. By offering more core services you dilute your marketing message and as a result it becomes weak and doesn’t have so much reach and impact.

Where do you see yourself and your business in a year’s time?

Hopefully employing people so I can take on more work.

Carl’s website is here and you can call him on 029 2125 1450

Thank you for joining in with the interviews, Carl!  The information on going full-time from part-time was particularly interesting for me, and I’ll be interested to see how things are going in a year’s time, as we’re in fairly similar lines of business but with different expansion plans. Here’s how Carl is doing two years down the line …

Click here for more freelancer chat.

 
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Posted by on June 25, 2011 in Business, New skills, Small Business Chat

 

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Would you buy an e-book on lowering cholesterol?

03 Jun

I’m considering writing and publishing a short book on how I managed to lower my cholesterol levels through diet and exercise, spelling out exactly how I did it, and how it might be possible for other people to do it too.  I am not planning on making any grandiose claims for being able to solve people’s problems, and I’m certainly advocating a happy and food-filled existence.  I will make sure I add caveats for those who have very high levels and other issues, etc., etc.  I’ll make sure I present properly researched medical facts as well as my own experience.

I’m planning to use my new Kindle publishing skills to publish it for Kindle and make it available via Amazon.

What I need to know is – would you buy this (for yourselves or someone you know).  And if you’d buy it, how much would you be willing to pay?

Thanks for your help!

 
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Posted by on June 3, 2011 in Business, New skills, Writing

 

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On (not) taking risks

18 May

What do you think of when you think of an entrepreneur? Richard Branson grinning from a hot air balloon basket, secure with his millions? Those people who started off selling eggs when they were 3 and were always selling something, so now they’ve got an empire? After writing the introduction to my latest guest post, I was thinking about what an unlikely entrepreneur I am. I never showed a flair for business as a child. I kept my head down, did mainly admin jobs; was a good problem solver and solid worker, but not that exciting or, frankly entrepreneurial. Did anyone who knows me see Libro coming, and being the success it is now?

Now, I’m not setting myself up to be a business guru. But I’ve been doing this for a few years now, and I feel I have some insights and experience which it might be useful to share. So: I think there are different ways of being an entrepreneur. Some people throw everything into it and take lots of risks (aha – the title is coming in now …). Others, like me, are more careful. And maybe we won’t get the multi-million rewards (and the failures, and the lack of time for family and friends, and the stress …) but we’re still brave.

I started my business. I didn’t know what was going to happen. But I didn’t take a risk with my finances and lifestyle: I ‘soft-launched’, which means that I started the business part-time while working, full-time at first, at my day job. Some people think doing this shows a lack of commitment – I don’t think I show a lack of commitment to Libro, but I do want to protect my own interests while proceeding with the business.

I went part-time at my day job. But I wasn’t taking too much of a risk, because I’d made sure in advance that I was making enough money with Libro to cover the loss of earnings – both times that I decreased my hours at the Library.

I’ve reached out to potential clients via Twitter and Facebook. But I did it more personally, subtly, answering tweets for help, reminding people of what I’m doing, rather than taking out expensive ads on all the social media. I’ve used social media and have gained clients through it, but at no cost apart from my time.

I certainly felt a bit nervous when I went to my first networking meeting. “Wear your normal business attire,” they said. What? My pajamas, or tracky bottoms and a hoody? But I suited up and went for it, and made some good contacts. Later on, I started going to the Social Media Cafe and now I’m helping out at the Social Media Surgeries. But I didn’t risk a lot of money on expensive memberships, or put everything into one form of networking; at the time of my first meeting, I was working full-time still and could not have coped if I’d suddenly developed lots of new customers. And I’m still evaluating the cost-benefit analysis of the bigger networking groups, and actively seeking new smaller, local ones to join.

So what I’m saying is, you don’t have to go out all guns blazing. If you’ve got an idea for a business but you’re not sure what to do next, think about it and start small. If you fail, you haven’t risked everything and lost it. If you succeed, you can grow slowly and carefully. It won’t work for everyone, but nothing does. This maybe offers an alternative to jumping in, if you’re not a natural risk-taker.

Good luck!

 
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Posted by on May 18, 2011 in Business, New skills

 

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Helping out at the Social Media Surgery

13 Apr

I usually post about words and editing-related things, but this time I wanted to share a great experience I had the other week. I was aware of the Birmingham Social Media Surgery but didn’t really know what it was and how it worked. Last Wednesday, I saw a few tweets asking for volunteers to help. But I didn’t really know what the parameters were and what constituted an “expert” who could help other people learn about using social media. So I waited until I was in town late that afternoon, and popped along to the Orange Studios on Cannon Street (Birmingham), which is where they are always held.

I met the organisers and explained I was there to help; they took my details and said they’d match me up with a visitor so I could start helping. They even lent me a laptop for the occasion (this was a Mac, which caused me some consternation and could have been embarrassing – “Yes, I know all about the internet; unfortunately I’m unable to use a computer!”) By this time, I’d gathered that the point of a Social Media Surgery is that people who know about social media and how to use it help people involved with community and charitable organisations to learn about blogging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

I was paired up with a chap who’d come in just after me. We sat down and I found out his background (he helped community organisations promote themselves and their events), established where he was so far, then chatted about how he could use social media more effectively. For example, I showed him how to link his LinkedIn account to Twitter, we chatted about the (lack of) etiquette for posting on Twitter, and I think possibly the most useful thing – the fact that, in this world of New Media and Social Media, if you see someone doing something you think is good, they usually don’t mind if you contact them and ask them how they did it! As I’ve worked for a New Deal For Communities project in the past, and have organised and promoted events, using social media, hopefully I had some background knowledge which would help.

I’ve enjoyed sharing my experiences and giving advice at Birmingham Social Media Cafe before now, but that’s more for other entrepreneurs. This is real grass-roots stuff, helping groups who may be digitally disadvantaged grasp the opportunities some of us take for granted or have been fortunate enough to have the time, education and resources to work out for ourselves. I came away feeling great about having been able to share some of my knowledge and help someone who can help people perhaps less fortunate, but definitely less digitally-literate, than myself. I didn’t set myself up as an “expert” but the team there were supportive and friendly.

I’d recommend any entrepreneurs and small business owners out there to “give something back” in this kind of way. It’s so rewarding, relationships can be forged which may well be beneficial to both parties, and I hope I’ll be back every month!

 
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Posted by on April 13, 2011 in Business, New skills

 

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Happy Christmas from Libro!

22 Dec

Happy Christmas / Season’s Greetings / Happy Holidays / Happy Solstice etc., etc.

2010 has been a great year for Libro – I started in August 2009 but things only really took off in April when I was able to devote more time to marketing myself, and gained some long-term repeat customers. Since then I’ve worked on dissertations on supply chain management, theses about Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Taiwan, on religion, economics, typography and the EU, among other things. I’ve helped with websites on sustainable nappies, falafels and accountancy, copy-edited a couple of novels and some books about religion and politics, and several editions of a yacht club magazine, proof-read a Bible concordance and index and a few tenders for business contracts, typed up 80 pages of someone’s handwritten notes and transcribed hours of journalists’ interviews. I love the variety of tasks and subjects, the fact that I’ve learned so much about so many different topics, and meeting (or “meeting”) lovely clients from around the world.

2011 will hopefully be just as interesting and varied. I’ve arranged to go part-time at my day job, allowing me to devote more time to Libro and to claim back a bit of time for myself too. This should mean I can be more flexible and react just as quickly when projects come in, and take on more projects. I’ve already got some blog posts, newsletters, magazines and theses scheduled in for the New Year…

Thank you to all my clients and friends for their support in this first full year of Libro. Thanks to my friends, who’ve put up with me rearranging things or dashing home to sort out someone’s contents page, or staring at my emails on my phone when I should be enjoying my cuppa! And huge thanks to Matthew, IT support, proof-reading widower and pillar of strength.

I’m having a little “office party” today (Wednesday 22 December) to celebrate Libro, my clients and friends, and to look forward to a happy and successful 2011 for everyone. Do join me on Twitter or Facebook today!

 
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Posted by on December 22, 2010 in Celebration, New skills

 

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New services and price offers

20 Oct

I’m now offering transcription services (prices from 75p per audio minute) so you can send me your audio files on .wma or MP3 and I’ll transcribe them onto a Word document for you. Suitable for journalists, researchers with interviews to check through, linguists, etc.

Do contact me to discuss this new services!

 
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Posted by on October 20, 2010 in New skills

 

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Keeping organised

26 Aug

I’ve been having a great week off the day job, doing just Libro work. I’d like to be able to do this all the time, but really late August / early September are my peak time during the year, with loads of Masters dissertations to proofread, all with similar due dates.

Although I’ve had a couple of longer jobs, and one big project from a repeat customer, it’s mainly been 2-4 hour jobs, and lots of them. Two problems – when to do the work, and how to know whether I can take on another piece of work from someone who just emailed me.

Ladies and gentlemen: I give you the Gant Chart.

I haven’t used anything fancy, just Excel. No project management software, although I’m sure you could use that if you want, and that’s where I got the idea from. But one of my rules is to keep it simple. A phone that phones, texts, and yes, now accesses my email. A computer and an email account. A spreadsheet with my accounts. And an easy gant chart.

So – dates across the top, one per column. Customers down the side. And you get to COLOUR IN SQUARES! Yes, it’s like O-level revision all over again – most of the time spent colouring in and underlining, some of it spent working.

When a customer books in, I colour in the squares for the days from when they intend to give me the document to when they need it back. In grey. It’s pending. It’s not here yet. But I can see what I’ve got hovering. The document comes in – and it gets coloured in red. Maybe the submission date gets moved, maybe the end date. Now I know what I have in hand – what I have to do. At this point, I shuffle all the rows round so the clients are in order by due date. This way, when I’ve got a lot of work in, I know what I need to do first.

Work done, I write DONE in the cells for the days on which I actually did the work, and colour it in yellow. Invoice submitted – orange. Invoice paid – green! And I leave it on there, to show me what I’ve been up to.

A hint: freeze the panes on your spreadsheet so you can see all the client names but move across the dates without losing them.

Along with email folders for all my current and completed customers, this has kept me organised over the past few weeks. I hope it’s helped some readers with some ideas. Maybe you’d like to tell me your favourite organisation tip?

 
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Posted by on August 26, 2010 in New skills, Organisation

 

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Learning something new every day…

11 Jun

So I’m a professional proofreader and I enjoy my work and take a pride in it… but sometimes it’s good to expand your horizons.

I’ve taken on a job sorting out the formatting of someone’s thesis this week. Page numbering, chapter headings forming a contents page, figures and tables; all of that stuff. At first I wasn’t convinced I could do it. But I persevered, took out the stuff at the front that had been copied and pasted, reminded myself of the theory (Word 2007 can be quite different from previous versions) and off I went.

Next time, I’ll know how to create separate figures and tables contents lists (ask me if you need to know how), I’ll know that Microsoft online help is a bit better than the help embedded in Word, and I’ll be confident I can do that little bit more to help my clients present the best possible version of their work.

 
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Posted by on June 11, 2010 in New skills

 

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