What do you do when you’re between major personal history projects and your bank account is dwindling? If you’re like me, this can be a stressful time. One solution is to look for smaller projects that can be done relatively easily and quickly to tide you over. Here are a few things I’ve done… Read more
Posted in Business, How to, Marketing, Personal historian, Self-employed, Tips
Tagged Business, cash flow, How to, income, Marketing, Personal historian, self employed, small projects, solutions, Tips
A successful personal history business is like a three-legged stool. Take away one leg and you fall on your butt.
So what are the three legs? Simply put, they’re passion, perseverance, and planning or the 3P’s as I like to call them.
Merriam-Webster defines passion as a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.
You’ve got to have a strong desire to tell people’s stories. It’s what makes you want to get up in the morning and get to work. It’s what gives you that extra boost to push you through the hard times. And believe me, there will be hard times.
Without passion you’ll find your work becomes a chore. Your lack of enthusiasm will inevitably lead to fewer and fewer clients finding their way to your door.
Passion is the juice that keeps you going.
Perseverance is that ability to keep going in spite of setback and difficulties. It gives your passion its backbone.
Research from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that “most failures of American startups will occur in the first two years of their existence.”
If you’re expecting to turn a profit within a year, you’ll be sorely disappointed. It’ll take at least two years or more to get your personal history business up and running.
Without perseverance it’s all too easy to give up when the going gets tough.
Planning is an unnatural process; it is much more fun to do something. The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. (Sir John Harvey-Jones)
There’s wisdom in Sir John’s tongue-in-cheek put down. It’s true that doing something is much more fun than planning. That’s why I suspect many small business owners don’t have a business plan.
But if you don’t have a business plan, it doesn’t matter how much passion and perseverance you have, you’re rudderless and you’ll almost certainly run aground.
I’m not suggesting you have to take a year to write a 40 page monster plan. What you need is something that’s relatively simple. According to WiseBread your plan should address such questions as:
For more help on planning check out these resources:
I see newcomers who go into the personal history business, full of passion for helping people tell their stories. This is good but it’s not enough. It’s just one leg on our three-legged stool. Without the other legs of perseverance and planning some of these same people sadly give up their dream.
What leg on your personal history stool is wobbly? Please share your thoughts by writing a line or two in the comment box below.
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Posted in Business, How to, Personal historian, Tips
Tagged Business, Business plan, home business, How to, keys, passion, perseverance, Personal historian, planning, self employed, small business, successful, Tips
Thanks to all of you who took the time to comment on my articles. Here’s my yearly roundup of the posts that generated the most comments. These aren’t necessarily the articles that received the largest number of viewers but clearly they got people talking.
For those of you who may have missed them, here’s your chance to see what caused the flurry of comments. If you’ve already read them and didn’t comment, it’s not too late to join in the discussion! 
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Posted in Business, Marketing, Personal historian, Questions, Self-employed, Tips
Tagged Annie Dillard, CUSO, Family, fees, Ghana, Home, Life stories, Marketing, memories, No, Parenting, Personal historian, Questions, self employed, Tips, West Africa
If I were able to go back to when I began as a personal historian, what’s the best advice I could give myself? Here’s what I’d say… Read more.
Posted in How to, Marketing, Personal Care, Personal historian, Self-employed, Tips
Tagged best advice, Business, Business plan, How to, key, Marketing plan, Personal historian, self employed, small business, Tips
Want to avoid some pitfalls as a newcomer to the personal history business? Read on.
We love our work. Right? But that doesn’t mean we can’t be blindsided by some unsuspected snag. Looking back on my seven years in this work there are a number of things I wish I’d known earlier. Here are just three:
It’s true and I have the scars to prove it.
For the most part, working with people on a personal history project is a satisfying experience. That’s why early on I was lulled into a dream-like state, believing all my clients would be simply wonderful. Wrong! One “client from hell” snapped me out of my reverie.
What did I learn? I now make sure that I only work with clients that are a good fit and that I like. In addition, I’m very clear from the outset about what I will or won’t do. And I always make certain clients sign a contract.
A few years ago I invested several thousand dollars in the latest prosumer camcorder. It was a beauty. Now it’s obsolete. It doesn’t shoot in HD and isn’t flash-based. I’ll soon have to purchase a new camera which will also necessitate an upgrade of my editing software.
It’s not just keeping up with the latest equipment and software. You’ve also got to budget for these upgrades. I’m embarrassed to admit that in this department I’ve been somewhat lax.
What’s the lesson? Build into your production budget a rental fee for your equipment. Make sure that those fees go into a designated new equipment fund. And keep repeating to yourself: “This too will soon be obsolete.”
There’s no certification or governing body for personal historians. Some are experienced veterans and others are just starting out. Some charge nothing or very little while others charge thousands of dollars. For potential clients this can be confusing. They may well ask why they should pay you a professional fee when someone down the street is offering a bargain basement deal?
What’s the answer? I’ve learned not to sell myself short and not to be “nickel and dimed” to death. I sell myself on my years of experience as an award winning documentary filmmaker. I promise a professionally produced personal history that my clients will be thrilled with or they get their money back. If they still prefer to go with “Joe” down the street and are happy with a less qualified person and an inferior product, I’m not going to sweat it. Life’s too short.
So what are some of the pitfalls you’ve faced as a professional personal historian and what did you learn? Love to hear from you!
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Photo by iStockphoto
Posted in Business, Personal historian, Tips
Tagged Business, challenges, clients, How to, lessons learned, Personal historian, pitfalls, self employed, Tips, wisdom
Why do some succeed and others fail? In a word – persistence. It’s that ability to get knocked down, pick yourself up, and keep going. Success of course is entirely in the mind of the beholder. Success to one person is failure to another.
Increasingly people find their way to my blog looking for the key to a successful career as a personal historian. I don’t have a magic formula. But what I do know from years of experience is that without persistence nothing of real value can be achieved.
There are plenty of obstacles on the road to becoming a successful personal historian. I’ve selected four. Your success will largely be determined by whether you persist and overcome these obstacles .
Your home office can be a lonely place. This is especially true if you previously worked in a business where you socialized with fellow employees.
There are ways to minimize the isolation. You can network through social media, join professional associations, and participate in service organizations. But the truth is that a good part of your personal history work will be spent alone.
Failure to overcome this isolation and persist can give you second thoughts about being a personal historian.
This is the biggest obstacle to your success.
There’s so much to fear when starting a new personal history business. There’s the fear of marketing yourself, the fear of doing the wrong thing, the fear of not having enough money to live on, the fear of being a competent interviewer, and on and on.
Fear can paralyze. An ability to keep going in spite of your fears spells the difference between success and failure.
If you’re used to a regular paycheck, get ready for a shock. For the first couple of years you’ll find more money going out than coming in.
In order to persist through the lean times you’ll need to be able to call on all your financial ingenuity. If you don’t have a reserve of funds, or a part-time income or the support of friends and family or the thriftiness of a Scotsman, you may not be able to continue.
Personal historians come from a wide range of professions but no one comes to the business fully experienced. It’s the kind of work you learn over time and largely by doing.
There are a host of basic skills you need – marketing, interviewing, editing, project management, and sales, to mention a few. Being able to clearly identify your business shortcomings and showing persistence in overcoming them spells the difference between success and failure.
Let me leave you with these inspiring words on persistence by American naturalist and author, Edward O. Wilson.
You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.
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Do you want your business to grow? Then why not apply some basic gardening know-how to your enterprise?
It’s harvest time here in Canada. And I have a bumper tomato crop. Well, it’s just one pot but it’s outdone itself. It got me thinking that running a business is not unlike nurturing a garden…Read more.
Posted in Home Office, How to, Self-employed, Tips
Tagged clients, growing your business, Home Office, Marketing, self employed, small business, Tips
My cat Annie is full of useful lessons. And for those of you who say that lack of time is keeping you from getting your life story told, here’s what Annie knows about good time management… More
Posted in How to, Personal historian, Self-employed, Tips
Tagged How to, Personal historian, productivity, self employed, time management, Tips, Writing
Are you struggling to survive in these tough economic times? I’ve been self-employed for 30 years and know what it’s like to keep going through lean years. If I’ve one key piece of advice, it would be to watch the small stuff. You’d be surprised at how a few dollars a week can add up over a year.
Here’s are 16 penny-pinching ideas worth trying:
1. Check out thrift stores and garage sales. Don’t spend a fortune on office furnishings. Local thrift stores and garage sales are a good bet for desks, chairs, and filing cabinets. Even better get stuff free through organizations such as Freecycle.
2. Buy used equipment. I’ve used refurbished computers for years and been very happy with them. The savings are considerable. Make sure you buy from a reputable dealer who has a warranty on parts and labor.
3. Meet over a coffee rather than lunch. A few business lunches a year can add up. Your local coffee shop is a more practical alternative. Better yet, invite a client to your home. The coffee’s cheaper.
4. Save on gas. Consolidate your car trips. If you’re driving to pick up groceries, combine it with a trip to the post office, office supply store, or library.
5. Use VoIP. Don’t spend money on long distance calls. Use a VoIP service such as Skype . It’s free and easy to set up and use.
6. Become friends with your library. Stop buying books and magazines and renting DVDs. They’re all free at your Library.
7. Go online. Before spending your hard earned dollars, check out the wealth of excellent free resources available on the Internet. To get you started, here’s a previous post I wrote 100 Free Resources for Personal Historians.
8. Only buy what you absolutely need. It might be fun to have the latest iPad and smart phone but are they essential items in your business? I’m still using a cell phone I bought 5 years ago. It suites my needs just fine. Don’t be seduced into spending money on electronic devices and software that’ll do very little to help your business.
9. Be a savvy shopper. Clip coupons, check out sales, and compare prices. And find out the best time of year to buy things. Here’s a start: The Best Times to Buy Anything, All Year Round.
10. Negotiate a good deal. Whether you’re dealing with a salesperson or a subcontractor, don’t be shy to ask for a discount. I always ask salespeople if that’s the best price they can give me. Sometimes paying by cash rather than a credit card will lower the price on an item. With a subcontractors, pointing out that you’ll be using their services regularly might lead to a reduced fee.
11. Market on the cheap. This is not the time to be producing glossy brochures and business cards. I’ve written about some low cost or no cost marketing ideas here.
12. Try bartering. This involves trading goods or services with another business. For example, you might arrange with a web designer to create a website for you. In return, if you’re a personal historian, you could organize her photo collection.
13. Monitor your energy consumption. Shut down your computer when you’re not using it for a few hours. Turn off lights that you don’t need. And avoid phantom energy loss by literally pulling the plug on all equipment that operates in standby mode such as computers, monitors, computer speakers, and cell phone chargers. Phantom loss can add hundreds of dollars to your yearly electrical bill. To make it easy, plug these standby mode items into a power bar that you can shut off with the flick of a switch.
14. Tax deductions. Don’t forget that if you’re home-based, you can deduct a portion of your rent or mortgage interest. And keep in mind that some of your utilities and home services such as security, cleaning, and yard maintenance are eligible for tax deductions.
15. Use recycled printer cartridges. Printer ink is hugely expensive. Check for a recycle dealer in your area or go to an online source such as Whole Toner.
16. Consider free web hosting. It’s not perfect but the price is right! For a list of some of the best, check out Best Free Web Hosting.
What are some of your penny-pinching favorites?
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Photo by Alan Cleaver
Posted in Home Office, How to, Self-employed, Tips
Tagged frugal, How to, ideas, penny-pinching, self employed, small business, survival, Tips
Have you listened to your outgoing voicemail message lately? Does it sound professional? Like someone you’d want to do business with? If not, you could be losing potential clients. Here’s what you need to do:
1. Avoid old answering machines with poor quality audio.
What kind of business impression do you create if your prospective caller can hardly make out your voicemail message because of static and a barely audible voice? If I were hiring you to do a video or audio recording, I’d have second thoughts!
Be smart. Use a telephone company answering service or a good quality digital answering machine.
2. Make it clear as to the person the caller has reached.
You might say something like, “Thank you for calling. You’ve reached the voicemail of Kathy Smith, owner of Lifestory Productions.”
Don’t leave an announcement like, “Hi, I’m not in. Please leave a message after the tone.” Callers have no idea if they’ve reached the correct number or if their message will actually reach the right person.
3. Leave instructions.
Many voicemail messages end with something like “Please leave your name and number after the beep.” It’s a start. But if all you get is “Hi, this is Bob call me at 200-4000,” you have a problem. Who is Bob and what does he want? Does this call require immediate attention?
A better outgoing message provides the caller with some guidance. Here’s a sample: ” Please leave your name, the reason for your call, a number where you can be reached, and the best time for me to call you.”
4. Be concise.
Callers don’t want to listen to a lengthy monologue before they can leave a message. Your voicemail announcement shouldn’t be more than 20 seconds long.
5. Avoid being cute and clever.
Even if you have the wit of a Mark Twain, cleverness can wear thin if a caller is hearing your message for the third time. Keep it simple and business-like.
6. Script and rehearse you message.
We’ve all heard voicemail messages that covered the spectrum from flat and bored to breathless and rushed.
The tone of your voice is as important as the words being spoken. I once worked with an actress on some narration for a documentary of mine. At one point she said, “I can do that line with a smile in my voice. It’ll work better.” She was right. She actually spoke the line while smiling. It sounded friendly and welcoming.
Begin by writing down what you want to say. Read it aloud. Edit your message until it sounds right. Now try it on a friend or family member and get a critique. Before recording your message do several rehearsals so that you can deliver your lines flawlessly and with a smile in your voice.
7. Record your message in a quiet environment.
Nothing reeks more of amateurishness than a voicemail message with a background cacophony of dogs barking, kids screaming, and TVs blaring. Find a quiet room to record, preferably one with lots of sound absorbing material like a bedroom.
And finally…
Here’s a sample of an outgoing message that you can adapt to suit your needs.
Hello. You’ve reached the voicemail of Kathy Smith, owner of Lifestory Productions. Please leave your name, telephone number, the reason for your call, and the best time for me to reach you. Thanks for calling.
Photo by Christomopher
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