My friend approached me with a great business opportunity in August. We have been working diligently trying to get it off the ground. I was trying to freelance while doing this, and I quickly exhausted myself. During my day of resting, I really reassessed my entire life. I figured out what was important,, and how I really wanted my future to be. I decided to modify my five-year plan. Yes, since I was 21 I’ve had a five-year plan for myself.

When I got to the career category, I really came at a standstill. I decided to look at art and photography blogs to get some inspiration. I came across a site by Alex Noriega, a cartoonist from Barcelona, called “Stuff No One Told Me.” He had this cartoon he had created, which made me make my decision on how to proceed in my career:

It really made me realize that right now, I will not be able to make much money as a Freelance Technical Writer. I’ve already had it happened to me the last five or six times. A company will contact me about something they need assistance on.  It’s usually a big job too.  I give them a quote, and they say that they only can give me 1/4 of that.  It actually could be a blog post in itself, but I’d rather not discuss it. I do want to say this:

Dear Companies,

Freelancers work hard!  Additionally, you aren’t paying them benefits, so their hourly rate won’t be the same as a salaried employee.  Also, you usually come to them because they know what they are doing, and they are good at what they do. It’s one of the reasons that they are working for themselves.  Quality is very important. I even lowered my hourly rate, and you still wanted to half that. Come on!

Sincerely,

A former freelance writer

I realized that I love blogging about technical writing more than anything.  Also, the opportunity with my friend is something that we already have people willing to pay for right away, and are not trying to lower our fee to a microscopic level.

What I am trying to say is that Chicwriter will now be a blog providing technical writing tips to writers trying to break into the technical writing world. I will no longer be offering writing and editing services.

I hope you continue to read this blog that I can share my passion for technical writing with you.

Written by: Shevonne on October 15, 2010.

Tags: no writing services, technical writing blog