Engineering Ink

www.EngineeringInk.com

www.theDiscoveryBox.com

Why You Left Your Last Job:  I was one of 75 people in a computer company that were laid off, after I'd been in that industry for more than ten years. Another division of the same company offered me a similar job and I took it. Then, six weeks later, that group reorganized and put me directly under someone who put me on projects that a high-school graduate could do (but I had a master's degree). My dissatisfaction pushed me to leave and start my own business in technical marketing communications.

How You Started Your Business:   I networked with a professional society of which I'd been an active member for six years. I got my first client that way, then my second client was the same company that had laid me off - they phoned, needing my help again. I was happy to do so, for a much larger fee! I also offered freelance editing services to a software trade magazine which gave me projects for a few years until they also reorganized. Other steps that grew my business involved approaching a research group at a local university and helping them write reports, as well as pitching a story to another trade magazine that had recently started up. They've since given me as many assignments as I'd like. I've never had to advertise, as many of the companies I contact for article information end up hiring me to do their own corporate projects. I've also branched out into non-technical writing of both articles and books, which I do whenever I find a subject that interests me.

What Does Success Mean To You:   A reasonably steady income, challenging work and the flexibility to work around family activities - I'm a "sandwich-generation" person, with three teens and a live-in semi-invalid mom. Having my own business has enabled me to keep my sanity, save for college funds, travel when I want, help my mother for the past twenty years, be an intellectual "equal" to my husband, and be part of my children's lives in and out of school.

 

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