Overview
What’s the first step to becoming a writer? You’d think it would be “write”, but it’s not. In speaking to other writers and from what I know of my own journey to becoming a writer, I’ve come to realize that the biggest obstacle for new writers is that they don’t think of themselves as writers. They have trouble developing the belief that they are writers and yet it’s something you have to do. When you haven’t developed that belief, that conviction, it becomes a source of sabotage–you don’t value your work enough to give it the time and the space it needs. How do you come to think of yourself as a writer, especially when you’re not earning a paycheck as a writer? Here are a few tips:
What Happens When You Write?
If you want to be a writer, I’m assuming you feel you have something to say and a strong desire to say it. You may not know how you’re going to say it or in what form (poetry, novel, essay, etc.) but you know something is there. Okay, you pick up your pencil or pen or you sit down to your computer or typewriter. Write something. Whatever you write, just make sure your heart is in it. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be neat. It does have to be expressive.
Next, as painful as it may be, you have to show this writing to someone. It can be a friend, it can be a family member. Then, pay attention to what happens. Did the person reading your work cry, laugh or get angry? If so, you did that! It means you can have an effect with your writing. It’s worth something. You have to keep going!
A teenager recently wrote to me concerned because she’s writing fiction and she’s worried her mother will read it and get upset because she thinks it’s stuff the teenager really did. On the one hand, that is a bummer to have to explain yourself to your mother, but on the other hand–wow, that means the young lady’s work is believeable and effective. That kind of feedback is hard to ignore. It’s powerful motivation to keep you going–if you take the time to notice and honor that it’s happening. I once had a writer say to me, “I don’t know if my stuff is any good. I just know that when people read it, they cry.” I told her you can’t get a message any clearer than that kind of response. Now she just has to listen to it.
Cultivate Silence
If you’re having trouble thinking about what it is you have to say, it may help you to spend some time each day in silence. Some writers pray. Some meditate. The idea is to get used to clearing your brain space and tuning in to your inner voice. You’ll also be more aware of those little scraps of possibility floating around in your head that can later grow into big ideas.
What Do You Want to Write? Experiment!
It’s okay if you don’t know what you want to write about. It may take a long time journaling for you to see what keeps coming up for you. And it may take longer to find the form that fits you best. I went from poetry to essays to long-form letter writing before I settled on fiction. It took me years to do that. It doesn’t mean I won’t do anything else in those genres, but what I’m doing right now just fits. I encourage you to experiment until you find the form that suits your writing best.
Continually Remind Yourself You Are a Writer
As you develop your belief that you’re a writer, it’s helpful to set up reminders that will jog you back to that brain space that you need to be in to write. When you sit down to write it’s easy to get distracted and starting thinking about doing laundry or what’s for dinner. You’ll want to have something either on your desk or on the wall in front of you that reminds you to get back to work and that you are a writer.
It might be your list of values that remind you that writing is a part of who you are. It may be simple words such as CREATE or INSPIRE. Isabel Allende, who writes beautiful, historical novels will sit in her office with photos around her, old photos of people who essentially represent her characters so she’s surrounded by them. That puts her back into the brain space of her book because she is sitting in their world; these people are all around her.
What world do you need to be in? The journey you take to get there will be one of many you’ll take as a writer. I hope these ideas will help you take those first steps. What you write–and where you go from here–is entirely up to you. Bon Voyage.
Copied with permission from: http://plrplr.com/58592/your-first-steps-to-becoming-a-writer/
What You Will Be Doing
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Qualifications/Skills Needed
Startup Cost/Unusual Expenses
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Other/Ongoing Expenses
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What You Can Charge/Earn
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Other Services You Can Offer
Every business has other services that can be offered to its clientele. Here we will list some of those options.
How you Can Succeed
Promoting yourself is as important as writing your novel. It’s important to get your name out there, and allow people a sample of your work. People can’t buy what they don’t know about. Not only is promoting an important step of the publishing process, it’s a vital element to any writers career.
In the age of the information superhighway known as the internet, there are many opportunities to promote your work. It’s important that you utilize a good mix of all of them to maximize your exposure to readers. Why not take advantage of the vast resources available for little to no cost.
Blogging is a great way for an author to interact with readers. Services such as Myspace, Ning, LiveJournal, Yahoo 360 and Bebo are great services that allow you to customize the message you want your readers to see. You can post updates, excerpts, contests and more for your readers. When using these services it’s important to remember interacting with those on your list is important and more likely to earn you a fan base than simply hard selling your work.
Review sites are phenomenal places to get exposure for your book, gain a fan base and allow others, specifically the reviewer, to offer an unbiased opinion of your book. It’s important to get your piece to as many reviewers as possible. There are many readers out there who consult these review sites when making choices about new books and new authors. Don’t feel left out, utilize their services.
MSN and Yahoo offer the option to create and join in many groups on many different subjects. There are hundreds of groups out there specific to reading and writing. There are critique groups, promotions groups and just general chat groups. Often you will find that publishers have groups as well. This is a great way to network with other authors and publishers. These groups tend to be very active and provide a lot of information that can be useful and necessary to the aspiring author.
Finally don’t forget the power of building your own website. Not only can you customize this specifically for you, you can give extensive information about your releases, you and projects you are working on. Often you’ll find people in the writing community would like to have your website address. This is important because it provides readers a link to you. You can start a blog on your page, you can run contests on your page, you can post excerpts of your work. Ultimately, the importance of a website is giving your reader a way to connect with you.
Success as a writers is dependent on your skills at self promotion. There are so many avenues out there for exposure it is simple, cost free and often a lot of fun. Remember that readers can’t find you if they don’t know about you. So make it a point to put yourself out there and let people know who you are.
Copied with permission from: http://plrplr.com/58599/importance-of-self-promotion/
How to Attract Clients/Customers
Three places to find new clients without a lot of work
1. Don’t ignore your own “Acres of diamonds” – ask your existing clients to refer some of their family, friends and associates to you. If they’re happy with your service they will be more than happy to do it and your job will be much easier since they are coming recommended by someone they trust.
2. Former employers and associates, both in your current field and in other related fields, can be a great resource for finding new business. Give them a call, talk about what you are doing and ask for referrals or better yet – have lunch and catch up with them and again, don’t be shy about asking for referrals!
3. Ask your current prospects who they know that may need your products or services. It may sound odd at first but give it a try and your opinion may quickly change. Especially if you’ve gone out of your way to help them.
Remember that the vast majority of people generally enjoy helping others. Everyone wants to feel good about themselves and one of the quickest, surest ways of doing that is to help others. When you ask the people in your circle of influence to help you by referring new clients, you’re helping yourself, you’re helping them by enabling them to help you, and you’re helping the potential clients by providing a quality product or service that they need.
For more information about obtaining and maintaining your client base, check out the resources in the "Where to Begin" section.
Where to Begin
How to Start Your Own Business
Having a great idea is only a part of the formula for success. Business planning molds and defines your idea, your product, your company, and your goals. Your business plan is your road map for the future, it plans the course you will follow. Arriving at sucess on time and in the most efficient manner does not happen by accident. It comes from careful planning.
Some of the Features of this Book:
- Understand how to best set up your business and what to plan for, now and in the future.
- Identify and improve your product or idea.
- Understand your company’s industry and how your business will fit.
- Understand the ingredients to successful manufacturing.
- How to track your success and plan for even greater business ventures.
- Understanding the value of and the potential of business websites.
- And Much, Much More!
Doing Market Research
Some of the Features of this book:
- Detailed information and instructions of how to plan, develop and write your questionnaire.
- Ways of issuing questionnaires.
- Types of questions for the questionnaire.
- Structuring the questionnaire.
- Doing your sample survey with the questionnaire.
- How to write the questionnaire.
Office/Computer/Equipment Needed
A good office setup is critical to smooth running business operations. Controlling purchases and expenses are a key ingredient to a healthy business, especially a new start up venture. This book gives you the information you need to professionally set up your office operation.
Some of the Features of this book:
- How to determine the office supplies, equipment and furniture you will need for your business.
- How to buy or lease office furniture and options for second hand furniture.
- Complete listings on filing systems, desks, shelving, and chairs.
- How to maximize connectivity, size and legal software.
- 100 ways to increase your business.
Obtaining Customers
How to get the new customers you need to provide the income your business requires is a matter of prime importance to survival and growth. Many businesses, large and small, approach new customer acquisition in a haphazard, unplanned, and uncoordinated way. The results are usually disappointing, expensive, and inadequate from the standpoint of a contribution to the profitability and success of your business.
Some of the Features of this Book:
- The Six Steps to getting your new customers, clients and accounts.
- How to understand your customers needs.
- How to know who your clients are and where they are located
- How to conduct your own full scale market research with emphasis on the two ways to conduct your market research
- The four methods for getting your first customers for start-up businesses!
- How to implement a successful marketing program!
- How to use direct mail, telemarketing, printed materials, exhibitions, surveys, websites, promotions, press releases and public relations to acquire new customers, clients and accounts.
- How to develop a customer retention program.
- How keep your customers coming back!
- How to establish Loyalty and Rewards programs!
- Includes six bonus sections with information regarding community work, advertising, exploring business opportunities, financing your business, pricing policies and income goals.
Maintaining Customers
Good customer relations will give you a sense of achievement, satisfied customers and the improved chance of further promoting your business. So, how can you ensure that your customers will stay loyal to your business?
Some of the Features of this book:
- How to improve customer care and customer relations.
- How to establish your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program.
- Selling and building customer relationships over the telephone.
- How to handle customer complaints and establish solutions.
- How to establish the programs that will reflect your business.
- How to establish automatic email responses, set up telephone call centers, direct mail campaigns and loyalty cards.
- How to handle gatekeepers.
- How to establish customer loyalty programs.
- How to keep customers loyal to your business.
- How to make telephone sales and appointments.
- How to expand your customer database.
- How to encourage old and new customers to buy again.
- How to generate more profit with direct mail and email marketing.
- What you need to know about customer retention.
Associations/Organizations
National Organizations
These are associations and organizations that offer broad and generalized information that affect all businesses, no matter what their size. All provide support, education and resources about running your business.
Small Business Administration
Here you can learn how to start your own business and finance it. The site also provides information on business opportunities, local SBA offices, laws and regulations, and much more.
National Small Business Association
Celebrating more than 80 years representing America’s small-business owners, NSBA is a staunchly nonpartisan organization with 65,000 members in every state and every industry in the U.S. We are proud to be the nation’s first small-business advocacy organization.
National Association of Women Business Owners
Founded in 1975, the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) is the unified voice of over 10 million women-owned businesses in the United States representing the fastest growing segment of the economy.
EO - Entrepreneurs' Organization
The Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) is a Global business network of 14,000+ leading entrepreneurs in 196 chapters and 62 countries. Founded in 1987 by a group of young entrepreneurs, EO enables business owners to learn from each other, leading to greater business success and an enriched personal life.
NFIB -
Exclusive Focus on Small Business: NFIB stands for America’s small and independent businesses. This sole focus distinguishes us from other business organizations in the country.
National Association for the Self-Employed
The NASE provides its self-employed members with support, education and training. The organization conducts surveys relevant to the needs of the self-employed and posts articles business owners can use.
Industry Specific Organizations
These associations and organizations provide support, education and resources about running your business that are specific to your field of interest.
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Books/Magazines/Periodicals
General Business Books & Publications
The information contained here are broad and generalized information that affect all businesses.
From the very first steps conceptualizing your venture to winning your first customers, delivering value, and turning a profit, this book acts as an invaluable blueprint for your path to entrepreneurial success. Colwell’s clear voice, extensive experience, and easy-to-understand presentation come together to make this book a must-have resource in the library of every budding entrepreneur!
Through stories of young entrepreneurs who have started businesses, this book illustrates how to turn hobbies, skills, and interests into profit-making ventures. Mariotti describes the characteristics of the successful entrepreneur and covers the nuts and bolts of getting a business up, running and successful.
With the right knowledge and resources, you can take action to start the online business you’ve been dreaming of. This comprehensive guide provides tips and tricks for turning your dream into a reality.
From developing your brand to designing products to identifying your legal and tax needs, this comprehensive guide will take you through every step of the process and help you create a unique and customized roadmap for your business. Mind Your Business is for aspiring entrepreneurs who are driven, ambitious, creative, and determined to build a business and life they love.
Industry Specific Books & Publications
In this section you will find resources that are specific to your field of interest.
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Education/Courses/Training/Videos
General Business
Training Program for Starting Your Own Business
Are you ready to start a new business? This training program takes you through the process of determining if your idea is feasible and can really be successful to the actual startup and management process. Support is available for you through StartYourBusinessHelp.com and MyBusinessTraining.org. Call them toll free at 866-900-7887 for more information
With This Training Program, You Will:
- Assess the feasibility of your business venture through a series of self examinations and case studies.
- Take a complete entrepreneur exam with checklist to make sure that you are ready to start the business.
- Complete a study of your own strengths, weakness and possible corrective action to remedy problems before they occur.
- Complete a study of success possibilities and how to improve your chances of success.
- Complete a list of questions you should ask yourself before starting a business.
- Complete a preliminary analysis of considerations including project requirements, potential flaws, desired income, supply, expenses and much more.
- Learn the personal qualities of successful entrepreneurs and how to apply these to yourself and your business.
- Learn tips for starting a home based business and learn the pros and cons of operating a home based business.
- Determine a business structure.
- Learn about legalities, licensing and permits related to your business venture.
- Learn how to complete the business plan which is included with your training materials. This eleven (11) step business plan is very user friendly and prepared with the ProBP business plan solution.
- Learn business management strategy related to pricing, locations and managing the workplace.
- Learn how to conduct your human resource needs related to hiring people and outsourcing work.
- Learn how to develop and implement marketing and promotional strategies.
- Learn from an in-depth study of the financial considerations to starting the business from a funding position.
- Learn about the key considerations about setting prices.
- Learn how to develop new accounts and customers by implementing a New Customer Development Program, which is included in the training materials.
- Have on hand a large amount of resource material and government links important to you and your business.
- Available as hard copy workbooks, on CD-ROM or can be downloaded.
- And much more.
Industry Specific
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Websites
Forbes: Entrepreneurs
Forbes describes itself as "a leading source for reliable business news and financial information" and Forbes' Entrepreneurs section is a leading source for reliable business news and financial information for – you guessed it – entrepreneurs and small business owners. Once you get past the annoying pop-up screens, their blog has some top-quality content.
General Business
Entrepreneur.com / WomenEntrepreneur.com
Published by the same people who bring you Entrepreneur magazine, this is an excellent site for entrepreneurs, featuring a solid collection of articles and tips from experts, plus hundreds of links to other entrepreneurial resources on the web. WomenEntrepreneur.com offers additional articles, blogs and resources specific to women for starting and growing their businesses.
Better Business Bureau
Browse or search for a business or charity's reputation. Included are instructions for how to file a consumer or B2B complaint.
Business Owner's Tool Kit
With an emphasis on problem solving, this site features more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small-business owners and entrepreneurs.
National Association for the Self-Employed
The NASE provides its self-employed members with support, education and training. The organization conducts surveys relevant to the needs of the self-employed and posts articles business owners can use.
Industry Specific
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Blogs/Forums
Mashable
With a mix of breaking news, thought-provoking opinion pieces and a small dose of memes and internet humor, Mashable (particularly Mashable Business) is a one-stop shop for any online entrepreneur. We check it every morning to get our daily dose of what's trending in the digital world. Just try not to let yourself get distracted by all the fun "watercooler" type pieces in the sidebar - stick to the business portion of the blog.
Fast Company
Not only is Fast Company's blog incredibly visually appealing, it's also mentally appealing. Its creative, compelling articles and case studies are wonderful ways to learn about entrepreneurship, design, technology trends, industry influencers, and so much more.
Social Media
Not every social media company has industry specific links. Where I could find them I have tried to give you the best, otherwise I have provided links to general business social media accounts. Not all of these will meet your criteria, but things on the internet change on a daily basis and I will keep researching. If anyone accessing this site knows of a industry specific social media company please email me the information at
Business Manager Overview - Facebook
Business Manager is a Facebook tool that helps organize and manage your business. When you join Business Manager, coworkers can't view your personal ...
Flickr
Home to billions of photos and millions of groups of passionate photographers. Browse with ease, select and organize hundreds of photos with one gesture, and share in seconds. Unleash your creativity. Edit your photos, add filters, crop images, and more!
An American photo and video sharing social networking service owned by Facebook, The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can be shared publicly or with pre-approved followers. Users can browse other users' content by tags and locations and view trending content.
KIK
Kik Messenger, commonly called Kik, is a freeware instant messaging mobile app from the Canadian company Kik Interactive, available free of charge on iOS and Android operating systems. It uses a smartphone's data plan or Wi-Fi to transmit and receive messages, photos, videos, sketches, mobile web pages, and other content after users register a username. Kik is known for its features preserving users' anonymity, such as allowing users to register without the need to provide a telephone number or valid email address. However, the application does not employ end-to-end encryption, and the company also logs user IP addresses, which could be used to determine the user's ISP and approximate location. This information, as well as "reported" conversations are regularly surrendered upon request by law enforcement organizations, sometimes without the need for a court order.
LinkedIn is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. It's been around since 2003 and is mainly used for professional networking, and allows job seekers to post their CVs and employers to post jobs. Currently, LinkedIn has 740 million registered members from 150 countries.
Medium
Medium is an American online publishing platform and is an example of social journalism, having a hybrid collection of amateur and professional people and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishers on Medium, and is regularly regarded as a blog host.
Periscope
Periscope is an American live video streaming app for Android and iOS developed by Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein and acquired by Twitter before launch in 2015.
Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information on the internet using images and, on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboards. The site was created by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp and had over 400 million monthly active users as of August 2020. It is operated by Pinterest, Inc., based in San Francisco.
Reddit is a social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website, recently including livestream content through Reddit Public Access Network. Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, and images, which are then voted up or down by other members. Posts are organized by subject into user-created boards called "communities" or "subreddits", which cover a variety of topics such as news, politics, science, movies, video games, music, books, sports, fitness, cooking, pets, and image-sharing. Submissions with more up-votes appear towards the top of their subreddit and, if they receive enough up-votes, ultimately on the site's front page. Despite strict rules prohibiting harassment, Reddit's administrators spend considerable resources on moderating the site.
Snapchat
Snapchat is an American multimedia messaging app developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users' "Stories" of 24 hours of chronological content, along with "Discover," letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. It also allows users to keep photos in the "my eyes only" which lets them keep their photos in a password-protected space. It has also reportedly incorporated limited use of end-to-end encryption, with plans to broaden its use in the future.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website based in Berlin, Germany, that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio, as well as a DSP enabling listeners to stream audio. Started in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud has grown to be one of the largest music streaming services reaching over 175 million monthly users worldwide. SoundCloud offers both free and paid membership on the platform, available for desktop and mobile devices.
Swam by Foursquare
Foursquare Swarm is a mobile app that allows users to share their locations with their friends and create a record of their experiences in their personal lifelog. Swarm for iOS and Android devices launched on May 15, 2014. A spin-off from and companion app to Foursquare City Guide, Swarm allows users to check-in to a given location, and see who is nearby. These check-ins are chronologically listed to create a personal lifelog for each user, which serves as a digital library for all the places they’ve been, in a searchable database that can be revisited and shared.
Tumblr
A feature rich and free blog posting platform that offers customizable templates, photos, apps and more. Make a blog and put whatever you want on it. Stories, photos, GIFs, mp3s, videos, fashion, art, deep stuff. Tumblr is 500 million different blogs.
Twitter is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface or its mobile-device application software, though the service could also be accessed via SMS before April 2020. Twitter, Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, and has more than 25 offices around the world. Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but was doubled to 280 for non-CJK languages in November 2017. Audio and video tweets remain limited to 140 seconds for most accounts.
YouTube
YouTube is an American online video-sharing platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. The service, created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—was bought by Google in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion and now operates as one of the company's subsidiaries. YouTube is the second most-visited website after Google Search, according to Alexa Internet rankings.
WhatsApp Messenger, or simply WhatsApp, is an American freeware, cross-platform centralized messaging and voice-over-IP service owned by Facebook, Inc. It allows users to send text messages and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices but is also accessible from desktop computers, as long as the user's mobile device remains connected to the Internet while they use the desktop app. The service requires each user to provide a standard cellular mobile telephone number for registering with the service. In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app targeted at small business owners, called WhatsApp Business, to allow companies to communicate with customers who use the standard WhatsApp client.
Words to Know
B2B
abbreviation for business-to-business: describing or involving business arrangements or trade between different businesses, rather than between businesses and the general public
B2C
abbreviation for business-to-consumer: describing or involving the sale of goods or services directly to customers for their own use, rather than to businesses
e-business
the business of buying and selling goods and services on the internet, or a particular company that does this
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Featured Business
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Description
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History
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Marketing Tips
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What I've Learned
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Advice and Recommendations
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