Freelance Writing for Nonprofits

Some freelance writers have nice safety cushions in place when they start out, like spouses with six-figure salaries or inheritances. Others start freelancing later in life, as a second career, when they’ve had a chance to weave a safety net of their own. Neither was the case for me, when I took the jump into full-time freelancing at age 29. I had a little bit of savings and had just moved in with my husband (then boyfriend), who was paying the mortgage on his own. But other than that, it was pure guts.

I am the only person in my family who is self-employed. Most of my family members have comfortable government or military jobs. At the time, I didn’t even know that many self-employed people. But I was still confident that I could make it work, because of a healthy streak of independence and self-confidence that I thank my mom and my aunt for giving me as I was growing up.

My mom stayed at home with my sister and me, and my Air Force dad was often on assignments long from home, for weeks and months and, in one case, more than a year at a time. She took care of everything for us, including the more stereotypical “dad” jobs. Mom made all the big decisions in our house, whether dad was home or not (or at least it seemed that way). Even though she looked like a quiet housewife on the outside, that woman knew how to get any job done! She always figured out a way, no matter what the problem was. Watching her all those years gave me the confidence to know that I’d be able to handle anything that came my way as a small business person, without the back-up of a big office of support staff or management to solve problems for me.

My Aunt Robin also taught me about independence. Many times over the course of her life she has made up her mind about what she wanted to do, and then did it, without worrying about what others would think. She may have labored over these decisions in ways I never saw, but to me, she always looked like a take-charge, just-do-it, live-life-now person. She decided early on she didn’t want kids (she had great nieces after all), moved overseas for several years, changed careers, and always made decisions that were right for her. She describes some of her decisions as “selfish,” but to me, I saw a confident woman who trusted her instincts.

Thanks Mom and Robin for giving me the guts to go it alone in the business world!

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One of the beauties of being a self-employed professional like a freelance writer/editor is the ability to work at home and set your own daily schedule. The drawback is that those liberties can turn you into a sloth who sleeps late, works for two hours and then eats on the couch all afternoon, while telling yourself that you are simply trying to break through “writer’s block” with a little Oprah therapy. (Yes, I speak from experience, but this was way before I had kids — I haven’t had a slothy day since the first one was born three and half years ago.)

Both physical and mental fitness can be a challenge for work-at-home pros. I have found this to be especially true since my second child was born in January. My commitment to fitness is being tested every day as I work to lose the pregnancy pounds and stay mentally sharp on about six hours of sleep a night.

Here is how I’m doing it:

• I bought a treadmill. Getting to the gym just wasn’t going to happen with everything on my desk and my kids calling out to me all day. This way I can work out while the baby sleeps in her swing within my view and the toddler is watching TV or otherwise entertaining herself (she is good at that, thankfully). I can step right off if either of them needs me, and then step right back on. No loading everyone in the car; no excuses about bad weather.
• I made a public commitment. I write a quarterly column in our local newspaper and in the last one I wrote, I made a public commitment to do our local Susan G. Komen 5K. A copy of the article is posted right by my desk. There is nothing like telling thousands of people you are going to do something to make you actually do it.
• I keep up with current events. I make time every day to watch the local and national news and to at least glance at the newspaper, if not actually read it. Thinking about politics and what’s happening in the world helps keep my brain engaged in pursuits other than my work and my family, and I think that keeps me sharper than if I focused on my little world alone.
• I volunteer. I manage websites for two organizations as a volunteer (our local Democratic Party and our church). Again, this forces me outside of my own work and way of doing things.

Working at home is a wonderful experience, but it does require some extra planning on your part — including ways to keep yourself mentally and physically fit.
This post was written in response to the “Question of the Week” from the Work-at-Home Mom Bloggers.

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