First, let me start by saying thanks so much to all of you who have already gotten involved in yesterday’s post, “Want to Work with Us?” If you’re a freelancer, leave us a little info about yourself. Who knows? We might be able to get you some work!

But, that’s not what I wanted to talk about today. Instead of hanging out here, I’d like to encourage you all to head over WAHM Talk Radio. The podcast is hosted by Sparkplugging’s own Kelly McCausey of the WAHM 2.0 Blog, and Tamara and I were her guests this week.

So, if you’re interested in learning more about the ladies behind Freelance Parent, give it a listen. I was worried about figuring out how to download it and everything, and it was a matter of clicking one button…so don’t be intimidated! Not only that, but Kelly is just really awesome, and I’m in favor of supporting her show.

This post is a little long and meandering because there’s been some big exciting stuff going on for us; and we want to share it with you. If you’re a freelancer, make sure you read the whole thing, because we might be interested in giving you some money.

Here at Freelance Parent, we’ve been hinting around for a few weeks that we’re bringing more people onto the Berry-Brewer team. We started talking about it with “Weighing the Pros and Cons of Outsourcing.” Well, we’ve now hired a couple of folks but didn’t want to make any big fuss about it until we were pretty sure things were going to work out.

We forgot to tell the people we hired about that plan.

Oops. So Laurie Mapp from Halo Secretarial sort of let the cat out of the bag in her comment on Tamara’s post called “Keeping Trade Secrets, Well, Secret.” We have, in fact, brought her onboard in a limited capacity to act as our virtual assistant. It’s one of those deals where the more successful we become (with her help), the more we’ll have for her to do. We are absolutely stoked about it.

Part of the reason that we’re feeling so good about Laurie is because we’ve already been having a great experience working with another Freelance Parent reader. About a month ago, Genesis Davies of At Home Mom Blog joined our team, too. She’s done a great job with a variety of projects that we’ve been able to assign to her. We have a couple of local people who have been getting their feet wet, too.

Last week, Tamara and I were really, really excited, because we finally felt like we were at a point where we could hire a former coworker of ours. It was sort of emotional for us, because from the day we started our business, we’ve been trying to figure out how we could afford to bring this person onboard. Last Thursday we were finally able to sit down with her and offer her a very part-time contract with the Berry-Brewer Freelance Agency. It was awesome.

For four days.

Today we received an email telling us that after thinking it through, she realizes that she really needs to focus on finding full-time employment. We’re bummed, but she’s got to do what’s right for her. One of the reasons that we were so excited about this writer was because she has expertise in a particular area. We were looking forward to having a go-to person for a specific type of project.

When we got to looking at it, we realized that there are a few areas where we’d like to have a go-to person. Since we’ve had such great luck finding reliable folks through this blog, we decided to throw an invitation out to you all.

It may seem like discussing the differences between being a freelancer and having a freelance business are a bit like discussing the differences between the taste of Coke and the taste of Pepsi: most people think the differences are substantial, but in reality, few people can stand up to the standard taste test. However, when a friend recently asked me why I decided to do the latter instead of the former, I didn’t really have to search far for an answer. For me, the differences are substantial and change the entire way I approach this crazy scheme I call a career.

Start at the End

I think the primary differences between freelancing and running a “business” are in the way you structure an exit strategy. Most individual freelancers either plan to work forever, create a self-employed 401(k), or simply don’t think about one at all. However, because we have set up our company as a freelance writing business, we are essentially building a recognizable name with an extensive client list. The end goal is to find a way to make this business self-sustaining so that Lorna and I can either step away to enjoy our retirements or sell the enterprise to another budding writer-turned-entrepreneur.

How Much Do You Love the Work?

Of course, that’s not the only difference. Freelancing is like any other career – spend a good 10 or 20 years at it, and there’s a good chance you’ll get burned out. I like to think that having a freelance business saves me from a portion of this burnout. Already, I find myself splitting my time between writing, editing, marketing, project management, and accounting. This mixture comes in handy when I just cannot write one more SEO article for the week, and it also allows me the flexibility to choose which projects I want to work on and which ones I’d rather not do (while still meeting all my clients’ needs).

Let’s Talk about the Money

I am open to a lively debate here, but I really think that a freelancing business is more profitable than individual freelancing. We all talk about feasts and famines, but the fact of the matter is, if you can keep your client roster full, you stand a better chance of keeping those famines at bay. An individual freelancer is necessarily restricted by the amount of man-hours he or she is physically (and mentally) capable of working. A freelancing business is only restricted by the number of independent contractors it has to draw from. And while leaving your independent contractors hanging in the event of a famine so that you can hog all the clients to yourself isn’t a very nice business practice, it can work in your favor – especially if you encourage your independent contractors to diversify their own sources of work instead of relying solely on you for support.

Of course, there’s also the small matter of the financial benefits of running a larger business. Large corporations are run by CEOs who make millions of dollars a year for a reason: there’s money at the top. If you can build your own empire through which you automatically get to play top dog, chances are you’ll be pulling in bigger figures at the end.

Where’s Your Passion?

Lorna and I have this dream of running a freelance business that is not only successful, but that pays an actual living wage and encourages WAHMs (and other professional types) to fulfill their own personal dreams. We want to run an eco-friendly company that gives back to the community, practices ethical business, and serves as a model for others.

This doesn’t make us any better than the freelancer who wants to get a good byline and make it into Oprah Magazine (hey, we want that, too); it simply means that we’re looking for something a little different out of our careers.

So, Which is Better?

Neither, I’m afraid. While running a freelance business has its perks, there are drawbacks, too. There are heaps of added administrative tasks, all the risks associated with independent contractors who don’t meet their deadlines and clients who don’t pay up, and legal and tax-related responsibilities to consider, as well.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to what you want out of your self-made career. Money is good, retirement plans are better, but no one can tell you what to do but you.

Hey, that’s why we do this at all, right?

The Internet is awash with people telling us how to make money online, how to be a better writer, how to get more jobs through Guru.com, and other important tidbits of information. Although I am the first person to tell you NOT to believe everything you read on the web, there is often a nugget or two of actual value in these blog posts and articles (especially if you’re reading them here on Freelance Parent!). After all, a blog like ours is designed to be transparent – we share what’s going on in our freelance business, what works, what doesn’t, our successes, and all the missteps we make along the way.

That being said, I’d like to let you in on a little secret…you don’t know all our secrets. That’s right. There are some business practices that Lorna and I keep to ourselves – and have no intention of ever divulging.

The reason I bring this up is because we just hired a virtual assistant to help us with some of our weekly administrative tasks. (Yay us!) In order to allow her to do her job properly, we will have to share one of these well-guarded trade secrets. Oh, it’s not the one-word answer to finding high-paying jobs or an instant code for access to Elance’s back door; these things are the Holy Grail of the freelancing world, and we gave up searching for them after our first attempt at the last crusade. Really, it’s just a neat little trick we discovered for landing clients who might be on the fence about hiring us. If we shared it, it would diminish its effectiveness, so we keep it to ourselves and reap a few benefits.

Now, I’m really excited about our VA, and I have no qualms about giving her this little secret of ours to further our business, but it did make me start to think about the other secrets being clutched to virtual bosoms around the freelancing community.

In reality, trade secrets are nothing new. Coca-Cola has one. The Colonel has one. They’ve been around for as long as healthy competition has been driving big business, and most of us aren’t really affected by them. Because, really, how many of us aspire to re-create the taste of Coke and open up a beverage conglomerate?

However, when you start to look at these kinds of secrets on a different type of scale – say on the scale of hundreds of freelancers vying for a single job and only one landing it – these secrets actually take on a pretty big meaning. They can even mean the difference between success and struggle.

While I’m certainly not asking anyone to divulge what they might guard as their own trade secret of freelancing, I am curious if this is more common than it first appears. Do you share all the tricks you’ve learned to boost your business, or are there just some things you nourish as your own?

Week two of NaNoWriMo officially started over the weekend, and I’m happy to report that I am still feeling really excited about the entire process. I have been happily neglecting my paid freelancing work (though this may not make me happy a week or two from now) in favor of the more pressing needs of my characters, and am looking forward to continuing on in this vein for the rest of the month.

However, on about Thursday of last week, I realized that I hit around 20,000 words and had yet to even introduce one of the pivotal characters in my plot. In NaNoWriMo terms, I was almost half done, but in actual book terms, I was just getting started.

This left me with several options. I could:

a) Slow myself down to be on target to hit the 50,000 word mark by November 30. (Definitely better for business.)

b) Realize I’m being far too wordy and not enough plot-ty, and therefore need to move things along in the plot now and add the filler later. (Definitely not as much fun.)

c) Stop being obsessive about my word count and just get the words out. (Definitely a good idea.)

d) Double my own goal so that I have to work like a maniac to hit 100,000 words instead of 50,000. (Definitely the one I chose.)

So here I am, now tied to a goal of 100,000 words – a goal I am working toward obsessively.

NaNoWriMo itself tells us that 50,000 words isn’t really a whole novel, and that you can go back in and add words later. But the idea of having an entirely finished first draft in my hands come December 1 just seems too good to let go.

100,000 words it is!

Now that election season has officially drawn to a close here in the U.S, it’s time for us to also bring an end to our ongoing debate with Men with Pens. We have a few more things to say on the subject, and since we called them out, it seems only appropriate to offer them the opportunity to get in the last word if they so desire. So, this will be our last post in this series on “how much does it cost to start a freelance business.”

First of all, I have to point out that—as is so often the case with debates—I think we all ended up practically “arguing” the same point, just in different words. I agree with the way James phrased it:

“We’ve determined (all four of us) that it’s possible (but not preferable) to start a freelancing business on less than $500.”

Yep. We agree on that. You can totally do it with less than $500, but you’d better have a backup plan.

So, here’s where I get a little rant-y. I hope you’ll bear with me, as I think I actually have two mini-rants brewing at the moment.

Point #1:

Tamara and I absolutely know that we are privileged. The mere fact that we live in North America means that we are privileged. Also, the reason that I mentioned our working spouses was to be clear to everyone that we knew we were in a fortunate situation. Of course, that’s not to say that we are (as Tamara so eloquently put it) “a couple of rich bitches who decided to take up freelancing because we got bored of sitting around and having our nails done.”

We started freelancing because we needed money and wanted to earn it on our own terms. When we decided to start our business, Tamara’s husband had taken on a second job, and I was trying to figure out which maternity outfit was going to work best for my upcoming job interviews. She even took a part-time job at the beginning to help her family meet expenses. So, while we are absolutely a couple of fortunate people, we want to be clear that this wasn’t just a lark or a hobby.

This leads nicely into my second rant…

I’m blogging about my NaNoWriMo participation for a number of reasons.

1. It’s my first time doing it, and I’m really excited. My family and friends only want to hear about it for so long, so this offers me an outlet for my enthusiasm.
2. I’m hoping that by making my intention public, I’ll be held more accountable for getting it done successfully.
3. Most of us are writers here, so it’s pretty relevant. While the bulk of my days are spent writing website content and SEO articles, there is a very strong link between writing fiction and writing nonfiction. Yes, the two require entirely different sets of skills and focus, but writing is a habit that, once gained, is hard to break.

This last reason is the one I’d like to talk about in this blog post. As many of us already know, the purpose behind National Novel Writing Month is that it forces people to really sit down and get the words out. Almost everyone claims to have a great novel inside them just waiting to get out, and NaNoWriMo says, “All right already. Do it. Commit to one month of intense writing, and you’re well on your way to getting that novel done.”

Even if your novel sucks and never gets published (or if it’s fantastic and still never gets published), you have proven to yourself that yes, indeed, you can do anything you put your mind to, including writing 50,000 words in 30 days. And perhaps more importantly, you’ve developed a habit of writing that can lead into your next novel, or the one after, or the one after. It is this habit that lends itself to success.

I once read an interview with Mary Doria Russell, one of my favorite contemporary authors. In it, she stated that she gets up each morning, sits down at her computer, writes ten pages, and then goes about the rest of her day - whether that means intensive research, going to lunch with friends, or (I assume) occasionally vegging out in front of the television. Ten pages, on a generous scale of 500 words per page, is 5,000 words. Ten pages, on a stingy scale of 250 words per page, is 2,500. Either way, that would place her well above the average necessary to meet the NaNoWriMo goals every single month of the year.

How is she able to accomplish so much? Well, first of all, she’s a professional author, which means that unlike the rest of us juggling our creative writing with freelance writing jobs or office jobs or raising the kids, she gets paid for those words she writes every day. But more importantly, she is a writer. It probably took her years to develop the kind of habit that allows her to sit down every day and make that kind of commitment.

I’m happy to report that as of right now, three days into NaNoWriMo, I am finding things easier than I expected. I am well past my 1,667 word per day average, and really excited about continuing in this vein. Perhaps I may change my tune a few weeks from now, but I kind of doubt it. Why? Because over this past year and a half, I have developed the habit of writing. On an average day, I probably plug at least 4,000 words of SEO content, website writing, nonprofit articles, and the like. Heck, as of right now, this post itself is 565 words.

This means that not only are my fingers accustomed to moving pretty quickly over the keyboard, but I also have the self-discipline to sit down and just write. (Note: Not everything I write at first glance is roses, but I already know about the fine art of the first draft.) If you had asked me three years ago if I could write 50,000 words in a month, I would have laughed at you. Today, it seems par for the course.

As I mentioned before, this is my first time doing NaNoWriMo, so I may end up eating these very words. However, as a professional writer who uses words to make a living, I can’t help but feel that as long as the writing habit is a part of your daily life, you should be able to make the same kind of commitment that hundreds of thousands of people around the world made a few short days ago.

It’s getting to sound a bit redundant, but this month was once again a hectic one for us. (At some point, we are going to have to own up to the fact that hectic is, in fact, normal when it comes to being a freelancing parent. We’re just not there yet.) Not only did we develop a great long-term partnership with a web optimization company, but we also saw work pouring in from a number of previous clients. There seems to be something about this slow economy that is really working for us.

We set a large financial goal of $5,000 for the month for the pair of us, and I’m happy to say that we got there. This is pretty amazing, considering about a year ago we were struggling to find a way to reach even half that. As almost all successful freelancers will tell you, there seems to be a breaking point where all of a sudden the works just multiplies itself. It takes time and hard work to get there, but it is worth it!

We’ve decided to take a page from another brave freelancer’s first financial report and actually share dollar amounts this month. Hopefully, it will help everyone to see where and how we’re doing our business.

Total Income for October: $5337

SEO writing = $1832
E-books = $1405
Print media = $462
Nonprofit = $414
Blogs = $99
Web content = $1125

Next month should be an interesting one. Lorna has set some pretty high financial goals personally, so she expects to be increasing her workload as November wears on. On the flip side, I am actually taking a step back from freelancing (not stopping altogether, but definitely slowing the stream) to follow some goals of my own. That’s right – it’s NaNoWriMo time, and I fully intend to become a part of the mania that is 50,000 words in 30 days. Wish both of us luck!

So, we’ve been debating Men with Pens this week on the topic of how much it costs to start and run a freelance business. I love the fact that after we named our post “The Cost of Freelancing,” James went ahead and named his “The True Cost of Freelancing.” Competitive much?

What Did You Have to Say?

Anyway, there have been some really good discussions sparked by the debate, both in the comments here and over at their blog.

Some folks see things the way Tamara and I do:

Annette Elton has first-hand experience starting a freelancing business with nothing more than a website and an Elance account.

Tony Lawrence also has some experience bootstrapping, although he points out that it shouldn’t be a way of life.

Genesis Davies started freelancing by spending $1 an hour at an internet cafe!

Others feel that it takes more to be successful:

Heidi Blodgett is investing over time to allow her to make the leap from her day job.

Heike Miller is finding that it’s much more expensive to become a virtual assistant than he originally expected.

Trish Lambert feels like we need to get rid of the “starving artists” metaphor once and for all.

Some saw both sides of the story:

Laura Spencer notes that while it may not be totally cheap to run a freelance business, it beats the pants off of working for The Man.

Graham Strong also weighed out some pros and cons, citing that a freelance business is inexpensive to start, but there are some other benefits (and drawbacks) to working from home.

John Hewitt points out that you can get started on the cheap, but that it’s really a lot easier if you’ve got some cash to back you up.

A whole lot of the arguments we wanted to make were already brought up in the comments sections on both blogs, but we’re going to go ahead and make them anyway. After all, we started this thing, it seems only right we’d be bull-headed enough to make you listen to the rest of our thoughts, eh? So, what follows on the next page is the rest of our side of things.

If you tuned in for Monday’s post on “The Cost of Freelancing”, then you know that we challenged the Pen Men to a metaphorical duel.  We declared that it’s not really all that expensive to start and run a freelance writing business.  James and Harry, on the other hand, disagree quite a bit with our sentiments.

You can read James’ response to our first post on the topic by checking out Men with Pens and “The True Cost of Starting a Freelance Business”. Feel free to leave him and Harry a comment over there to say why you think Tamara and I have the right idea. (Or tell them why you think they’re right…really, it’s all in good fun.) Then come back here on Friday to see our rebuttal to their response.