In many ways, making sure your freelance writing business data is safe in the event of a disaster is the easiest part of disaster recovery. Really, it’s just a matter of determining a workable solution (such as an online backup subscription) and turning it on.

Today I want to look at something a little more difficult and nebulous. I want to talk about disaster recovery for your business processes and systems. By “processes and systems” I simply mean the basic day-to-day things you do to keep your business going. These activities fall into two categories: communications and production. We’ll take a look at each one individually.

Communications

Perhaps the most important aspect of disaster recovery is communication. You can always recreate data, in a worst case scenario. But if you can’t communicate with your clients after a disaster, your business is going to take a severe hit.

Simply put, your business needs a way to get information to your clients when an emergency strikes. If you’re in a car wreck and unconscious in the hospital, your client needs to know that you won’t be delivering that eBook on Thursday. If the client doesn’t know what’s going on, they may take their business elsewhere. Even if the client likes you and is understanding, once the business is gone you run the risk it will stay gone.

In this case, it’s a matter of having someone who’s familiar enough with your business to be able to identify where a given project stands and communicate with your clients when you can’t. An administrative assistant can do this, if you have one. Many freelance writers don’t, however. Hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) can be a way to address this issue, as well as handle some of your other business tasks.

For other freelance writers, a spouse or other family member may be able to step in. Regardless of who is going to be handling communication in your absence, it’s worth it to take a few minutes ahead of time and brief them on your record keeping system. Provide them with access to your business email account, your contacts database and your editorial calendar. If possible, send them a weekly update to your editorial calendar so they know where exactly everything stands.

Next time, we’ll look at the production aspect of your freelance writing business and how to keep the words flowing in the event of a disaster.

When it comes to disaster recovery for a small business, there are usually two types of issues that you must address: data issues and systemic or process issues. Today, we’ll look at the first of those two, and what the freelance writing business owner can do to minimize the impact of a disaster on her business.

A freelance writing business relies heavily on electronic data. Most of this data falls into one of three categories: product, communications and financial records. Each of these types of data is critical to the continuity of your business if a disaster should strike. Let’s tackle each in turn:

Product

The freelance writing business’ product is, of course, the writing. Whether it’s ebooks, magazine articles or web copy, the text you produce is the lifeblood of your business. It’s what people come to you for, and it’s what makes you money.

When a disaster – such as a crashed hard drive – occurs and you lose your saved files, it’s akin to having a tornado hit a warehouse and wipe out all of your inventory. Depending on the kind of work you do, you could be looking at days or even weeks of rewriting material. If your hard drive crashes in the final stages of a 150-page ebook, you’re going to lose valuable time and money if you don’t have a disaster recovery plan.

The good news here is that disaster recovery for your product can be relatively simple. You might have a dedicated backup hard drive, for example, that backs up your files every night. You might instead subscribe to an online backup service. If you can manage it, I recommend the online backup service, just because the local hard drive option still leaves you in the lurch if, for example, you have a house fire.

Communications

Another key element in your freelance writing business is your communications records. Freelance writers deal with things like contracts, orders and client communications on a daily basis. If you lose all of this type of data, you wind up having to go back to your clients to try to recreate it. While most clients will understand if you say, “My house flooded and I’ve lost my records, can I fax over a second copy of this contract,” how much more impressive would it be to those clients if they know your house flooded, yet you don’t miss a beat?

For the most part, your communications are probably electronic. Here again, a backup service is probably the best way to protect this type of data. If you use an email client on your PC to POP your mail, a backup service should cover you.

However, understand that if you use an email service – such as Gmail – you’re at the mercy of that email provider. If Gmail experiences a huge data loss tomorrow, you could lose valuable client communications. You need to have confidence in your email provider. Think long and hard about what email service you choose to use for your freelance writing business. (I, for the record, am completely confident in Google today. I use Gmail for the vast majority of my communications.)

Financial records

The last type of data you need to keep tabs on in a disaster is your financial records. This includes everything from your monthly bookkeeping to your receipts for expenses. Portions of your financial records can be electronic, while portions of your financial records will be paper. The electronic portion can be handled just like your electronic communications, while the paper records deserve a few extra thoughts.

You have a couple of choices when it comes to dealing with paper financial records. One option is to eliminate paper records by scanning everything into electronic format. This can be time-consuming, but it can also save you worry (and the clutter of a physical filing system).

Another way to deal with paper financial records is to invest in secure storage. This could include a fireproof and waterproof filing cabinet, or it could include an offsite storage option, such as a safe deposit box at your bank. This method isn’t as time-consuming as scanning all of your records, but it does require regular, manual use of the secure storage. In other words, you have to take your records regularly to your safe deposit box for this method to be effective. For me, the fireproof cabinet is the way to go, but I do know some small business owners who prefer offsite storage.

Next time, we’ll take a look at disaster recovery planning for your freelance writing business’ processes and systems.

When you read about disaster recovery, you probably think less about your small freelance writing business and more about bigger companies. Indeed, most of the advice you’ll find on disaster recovery has to do with things like redundant data centers, off-site storage facilities and cross-training. There’s big money in disaster recovery planning, and the a small freelance writing business isn’t usually the target of marketing efforts.

Still, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be ready for when disaster strikes. Just ask the folks at Equipment Express.

Equipment express was a small startup founded by an Indiana man named Jeffery Ake in his garage. Ake designed some specialized way to bottle water, and he traveled the world promoting his product. Equipment Express was a small business with just a few employees.

April 2005 was the last time anyone saw Jeffery Ake. He appeared on Al Jazeera TV with two radical Islamists pointing rifles at his head. He’d been kidnapped while doing business in Iraq. He was never seen again.

After the kidnapping and disappearance, Ake’s business struggled. Without him at the helm, sales dried up. Within a year and a half, Equipment Express was more than a million bucks int he hole and the company was liquidated.

Equipment Express had no plans in place to allow their company to recover in the event that something happened to its founder and primary salesperson.

Even if your freelance writing business is just you, the story still illustrates how vulnerable your business is. One big client goes under, and you could be struggling for months. And, while you can’t plan for every kind of disaster that your business might face, there are some you can plan for.

Over the next few posts, I’ll talk a little bit about the risks facing your freelance writing business and what you can do now to help protect yourself and your family if something bad should happen.

The story of Equipment Express has a somewhat bittersweet ending. In 2007 one of the employees purchased the business’ assets and opened a new company called Liquid Packaging Solutions. They hired most of the old Equipment Express employees and opened up a new plant in Laporte, Indiana. Today, the company has around $5 million in sales annually.

One of the most important factors in determining the trajectory of your freelance writing career is how you see yourself and what you do. I’m not suggesting for a minute that positive thinking always leads to success – I’ll leave that whole concept to other folks to debate. What I am suggesting is that how you picture your work and your business will, in some part, determine what kinds of choices you make. How you talk about what you do reflects what you hope to get out of your work.

Here are two of the most common models I’ve seen freelance writers talk about over the years:

Work-at-home freelance writer

There is a whole segment of the population that labels themselves WAHMs – Work at Home Moms. This category, in my mind, actually includes more than just moms (there are dads, too) and more than just folks with kids. For whatever reason, though, there are a ton of moms who see themselves in this light. Freelance writers are only a small segment of the work-at-home population that includes everything from professional eBay-ers to in-home craft businesses.

These folks got into freelance writing for a number of different reasons. Some wanted to be able to stay home with their kids. Some live in an economically depressed area and sought out freelance writing after they couldn’t get a job locally. Work-at-home freelance writers often (but not always) consider their work a secondary source of income, one that supplements their spouse’s income.

Work-at-home freelance writers tend to see themselves as employees. They might work for a hundred different customers, but they will talk about those customers as “bosses.” If you ask a work-at-home freelance writer what his vision is for his business, he might tell you that he wants to “provide for his family,” or “make a little extra money on the side.”

Small business entrepreneur

There’s another type of freelance writer, however. This category includes folks that talk about themselves in business terms, such as “small business owner” or “entrepreneur.” They are often men (although many women I know also identify themselves this way, too). They talk about their work in terms of their business. They probably work from home, but don’t really talk about that aspect of things.

Freelance writers who see themselves this way often came into the field from another direction. They might be professionally-trained writers: English majors, or out-of-work journalists. They might be someone who started a small business doing something else and found out they could make more money copywriting than whatever it was they started doing.

This type of freelance writer tends to see herself as a businessperson or an entrepreneur. In fact, that’s how she talks about her work – in business terms, not in terms of a “job.” Customers are “clients,” not “bosses.” If you ask a small business writer what her vision is for her business, she might tell you “to grow my client base to the point where I have a steady flow of business” or even “to become the McDonalds of the freelance writing world.”

Which is better?

To be honest, I’m not sure either model is always better. For some folks in some situations, the work-at-home model is just fine. For others, an entrepreneurial approach is better. I tend to gravitate toward the second category myself, although I’ve been in the work-at-home camp too.

I do think that seeing your freelance writing business as a business has significant advantages, and is a key element of growth. However, entrepreneurs tend to lose sight of some of the reasons they started freelancing in the first place – to be able to spend time with their families.

I don’t have all the answers on this one. What do you all think?

What you’ve heard is true: you have to spend money to make money. Yes, you can get your freelance writing business started without really putting up much cash. You can do like I did, and start writing for a friend, or you can hire on to one of the larger content creation shops like Demand Studios. Both are viable, free ways to get into the freelance writing business.

However, if you want to grow your business and move into new and different types of opportunities, you need to spend some cash. Specifically, you need to spend some money on marketing. But, where do you spend it so as to get the most bang for your buck?

Here area few places you can drop some coin that will, ultimately, increase your freelance writing business income:

1. Get some business cards. I won’t go into all the merits here (click the link if you need convincing) but I will say that a business card with a quality design can bring you both attention and new business.

2. Put up a website. A website gives you a way to display your writing portfolio online, and you can direct folks to it via social media, your email tagline or even your business card. You can get web hosting for a few bucks a month. You can put up a blog on your site if you want to try to create attention or if you’re trying to break into the blog writing market, too.

3. Hire a professional designer for your website. You might have a good eye for design, but your website will look amateurish unless you hire a real professional. If you can’t afford a designer yet, do the best you can, but this should be a priority.

4. Join a freelance marketplace. Elance and Guru both come to mind. Both offer very limited “free” memberships, but putting a little bit of money into an actual membership can really pay off.

5. Educate yourself. I’ve been talking a lot about Seth Godin and Zig Ziglar lately, I know. Don’t worry, I go through phases with these sorts of things. The point is, learn what you can from marketing and sales experts, as well as from other freelance experts.

I’ve already told you how to lose your freelance writing clients. There are plenty of things you can do to tick clients off and send them packing. Unfortunately, when you do, they take their business elsewhere. There are plenty of other freelance writers waiting in the wings.

Still, not all clients that don’t come back stay away because they’re unhappy. Sometimes, you’ll work for a client with big ideas and dreams. They really like your work, and want to hire you to do a bunch of it. They’ll laud you with praise after you give it to them. After a little while, though, they stop coming back.

What happened? Sure, it could be you screwed up and don’t know it. Some clients speak with their feet instead of their lips. But, especially if the client seemed satisfied with the work, there’s probably another reason.

In many cases, they just ran out of money.

Now, you might not think there’s anything you can do about that. After all, you need the client to give you money. If they don’t have any, there’s nothing you can do for them. But, that’s only true to an extent.

Those of us who write primarily for the web usually create content that generates revenue. It may not be sales content; it might be brand-building, perhaps, or traffic generating. If that content doesn’t do its job and generate revenue, your client can’t afford to keep coming back.

Let me say that again, this time in big, bold letters so that the people skimming this article don’t miss it:

If your writing doesn’t generate revenue, your clients can’t afford to keep coming back.

Now, I’m not just talking about sales writing. If your SEO articles don’t attract search engines, if your blog posts don’t engage the reader and establish your client as an authority in their niche, or if your ebooks don’t provide real value to those that buy them, your clients won’t make money.

Yes, you need to do all of the other customer retention stuff. Meet deadlines, communicate effectively, and everything else. But at the end of the day, if your work doesn’t produce the desired results, it doesn’t do you a lot of good. Your client might feel plenty of warm fuzzies about you and give you a glowing recommendation, but they won’t give you any more cash.

Something I’ve been talking about a lot lately (and that you’ve been talking about in the comments) is this idea of treating your freelance writing business like a business. That means learning business management techniques the same as anyone else in small business. While the freelancing writing business certainly has its unique aspects, in many ways it’s not much different from a building contractor or a traveling IT guru.

So, in addition to following some of the great freelance writing blogs, you ought to have at least a few business-related blogs in your feeds. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and it intentionally leaves off those freelance-specific blogs you’re probably familiar with:

Entrepreneur Daily Dose

http://blog.entrepreneur.com/

I absolutely love Entrepreneur.com, and the Daily Dose offers quick insights into the business world. They hit on topics of real interest to freelance writing business owners, from social media to negotiating rates. Some of my favorite posts include:

How to Save Money and Draw a Crowd

Are Your Customers Talking Behind Your Back?

Negotiating in Shark-Infested Waters

Duct Tape Marketing

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/

While short, this list of business blogs would be incomplete without at least one marketing blog. I almost went with Seth Godin here, but I’ve covered him recently.

Duct Tape Marketing is the blog of John Jantsch. Jantsch tries to deliver “simple, effective and affordable small business marketing.” More often than not, he succeeds. Here are a couple good ones:

The Simple Way to Innovate and Differentiate

The Three Natural Phases of Successful Small Business Growth

GTD Times

http://www.gtdtimes.com/

GTD Times is the blog of David Allen, author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Allen is the master of productivity, and whether or not you use his system, the tips and tricks here are amazingly useful. I am especially fond of the Live Blogging the Master Workflow Seminar series.

Some sample posts:

Live Blogging the Mastering Workflow Seminar: Are there any b…y actions on your current lists?

Looking at those monsters in the closet

So, what about you? What business-related blogs do you find useful?

A successful freelance writing business means being able to sell. You need to sell yourself and your product, and you need to be able to close the deal. If you can’t sell your freelance writing effectively, you’re eventually going to have to look for other work. That’s just the cold truth.

In the world of sales, there are few names bigger than Zig Ziglar. Over the past four decades, Ziglar has traveled more than five million miles giving his messages of life improvement and his perspective on how to win over the customer. He has shared the platform with three presidents, and figures as divergent as Paul Harvey and Dr. Robert Schuller. He’s also been recognized in congress for his dedication to the free enterprise system.

Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned from Ziglar over the years:

1. Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude

How you approach your business on a moment-by-moment basis will play a huge role in whether or not you succeed. Positive thinking doesn’t make sales, but negative thinking can kill them.

2. If you don’t see yourself as a winner, then you cannot perform as a winner

Self-image is key. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else is going to believe in you, least of all not potential clients.

3. Focus on relationships and not transactions

This is especially true in the freelance writing business. Your customers are not just buying a product: they’re buying you. Freelance writing is a very personal skill, and you need to be able to establish trust and reliability if you’re going to seal the deal.

4. Interpret your benefits, not your features

This is part of basic copywriting principle, yet many freelance writers forget about it when it comes to promoting their own services. Your customer doesn’t want to hear about how your writing is readable; they want to hear about how it will increase their sales, or establish them as an authority in their niche.

5. Every choice you make has an end result

Some choices in your freelance writing business will be good, others not so much. You can’t always predict the result, either. The main thing is being aware that your actions have consequences and doing what you can to make positive, beneficial choices.

6. Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street

Selling means getting rejected. Sometimes, customers pick the other guy. Depending on how competitive your particular niche is, you might experience a lot of rejection. Getting back up on the sales bicycle after a failure is essential.

7. People don’t buy for logical reasons, they buy for emotional reasons

Part of sales is being able to appeal to the emotions. You need to be honest here, of course, and not promise that your product can do something it can’t. But you need to be able to connect with customers on a level that makes them feel something good about you and your product if you’re going to succeed.

8. Success is dependent upon the glands – sweat glands

Yes, you need to learn to become more efficient, to work “smarter.” That’s even one of Deb’s mantras here, and I don’t disagree. But real results require real work. Learn better ways to sell, but don’t forget to sell altogether.

9. When you do more than you are paid to do, you’ll eventually be paid more for what you do

Going the extra mile isn’t just good customer service; it’s also a sales tactic. Don’t let customers abuse your generosity, but do try to do a little bit extra if you can.

10. The way you see people is the way you treat them

If you see your clients as ignorant schmucks, you’re going to treat them that way. People aren’t dumb; they can tell when you’re looking down at them or despising them. Your clients aren’t schmucks, and they aren’t just a meal ticket, either. They’re people, good people, who need your help and who are willing to pay you for it.

Want to get more Zig Ziglar? Here are a couple of places to start:

Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale

See You at the Top: 25th Anniversary Edition

The majority of small businesses fold within two years of opening. It takes five years, on average, for a small business to show a profit. If you’re within the first five years of your freelance writing business, chances are pretty good you’re still struggling quite a bit. While there are no magical cures, there are some things that exponentially increase your chances of success.

Here are 10 ways to push your business through the roof:

1. Plan

I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating. You can be a great writer and a kickass salesperson, but if you don’t plan it out right, you’re going to fail. You need to have a clear idea of where you want your business to go and how you intend to get there. You also need to be flexible enough to change course if your plan isn’t going well.

2. Know Yourself

You need to get a handle on what it is you do. You need to understand what your job entails. You’re not a tortured novelist. You’re not even really a writer much of the time. You’re a small business owner. That means you market, you do bookeeping, you administrate and you might even supervise personnel. Occasionally, you even write. Figure out the parts of small business that you’re good at, and the ones you’re not. Either get good at them or hire someone who is.

3. Know your Customer

Give your customer what she wants, not what you think she wants. If you do, she’ll come back and buy from you again. Yes, you can offer advice and enhancements to improve on what she’s asking for, but if it doesn’t work, she’ll know who to blame.

4. Know the Freelance Writing Business

You can’t get a competitive edge if you don’t know the business. Know the industry. Know what kinds of writing people buy and why. Figure out exactly where in that business environment you fit.

5. Develop Your Brand

Your brand is an important part of your marketing effort. Your potential customers create their perception of your business from your brand. Make sure the message is consistent, from your blog to your Twitter account to your Facebook page to your Elance profile.

6. Price for Profit

If you’re writing $5 articles that take you an hour to complete, you’re better off flipping burgers. Same holds true if you’re writing $10 articles that take you an hour to complete. For every hour you spend writing, you need to spend a certain amount of time in bookkeeping, marketing, sales and the like. That amount of time likely varies from one freelance writing business to the next, but I like a 1:1 ratio.

7. Keep Good Records

If you don’t know where your money is coming from, you can’t go back and ask for more. Good records are like instruments on an airplane. Without them, you’re flying blind. With them, you know which way to turn in order to move toward success.

8. Learn from the Pros

Look, you’re talented. That’s cool. But there are people who have been doing this gig for a long time, who can tell you some seriously important things if you’re willing to listen. They can save you a heck of a lot of headache. Listen to them. Take what works for you and ditch the rest.

9. Follow Up

Repeat business is the key to long-term success. Build up a solid client base, do outstanding work for them that helps their business grow and they’ll come back to you again and again and again.

10. Don’t Give Up

Good old-fashioned stubbornness is a virtue you must have if you’re going to make it in the freelance writing business. The reason so many small businesses close their doors within two years isn’t that they weren’t good at what they did; it’s because they couldn’t tough it out.

People in the marketing world either love Seth Godin or they hate him. I personally enjoy him; he has a new-millennium sort of wisdom, but he delivers it in something of a folksy way.

At any rate, I ran across this post of his last week. Go ahead and go read it, but the gist of it is that sometimes, in business, it doesn’t matter if you’re right. If your customer is unhappy, she’s unhappy. No amount of arguing can change that. If you want her to remain your customer, you need to acknowledge that she’s unhappy.

This got me to thinking about revisions.

I rarely get asked for revisions. I always offer at least one revision for any given project. Customers want to know they have recourse if they don’t like the product. On top of that, it doesn’t happen very often. If I get asked to revise one project in a hundred, that’s probably a lot.

In many cases, the revision represents a change in project requirements. It’s more of an “oops, I  needed to have these three keywords” or “hey, can you write this in Top 10 format?”

My instinct, when I am asked for a revision, is to recoil. I could argue with the customer. I could tell him that he’s changing the scope of the project, that my time is valuable and that I don’t appreciate being asked to do the work twice. Technically, all of those things are true.

But you know what? I don’t usually do that. Once I get over my goofy artistic pride (”WHAT?!? Did the Pope ask Michelangelo to revise the Sistine Chapel?!? This is OUTRAGEOUS!”) I usually just do the work.

And you know what? Those customers – the ones that ask for revisions – almost always come back. In fact, they come back over and over again. And usually, they don’t ask for revisions again.

So, what about you? What’s your revision policy? Will you only revise if you didn’t meet the project specs, or do you allow for customer error? I look forward to hearing how everyone approaches the issue!

(Oh, and if you’re interested in more Seth Godin, here are three of his best books to get you started):

The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)