Selling Your BusinessD. Ann Gordon is a Senior Member of STC who has been active in the San Jose, Sacramento and Intermountain chapters and SIGs. (Ann served as president of Intermountain Chapter.) She has judged competitions and worked on the Region 5 conference two years ago. She will give a Progression presentation at the 54th Annual Conference in 2007. Ann received a Masters in Computer Information Systems, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Phoenix.
She has been a full-time contract technical writer for seven years. Her clients include Intel, IBM, BC\BS, and Utah DOT. Ann's work includes user manuals, online help, classroom training materials, ISO 9000 documentation, and test documents. Ann developed interactive multimedia courses for Alpnet, Intel, Amex and Northrop Grumman.
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Independent consultants need to find enough clients to match their overhead, and contractors need to land another contract after the current one ends. As a result, contractors and independent consultants need to know how to sell themselves. (Note: In this chapter, I often use the term “contractor” to include both contractors and independent consultants.)
According to an article published by Business Wire (June 1999), “…independent contractors, consultants and freelancers believe marketing and promoting themselves is the biggest drawback to being independently employed.” The article writer drew this conclusion from a Monster.com survey of over 5500 existing and wannabe agents. The article claimed that nearly half of the contractors polled believe that having to constantly market themselves is a drawback to being independent.
Contractors and consultants who do not like to sell or promote themselves may find it difficult to make ends meet. However, with practice and encouragement, people who want to work independently can master the basics of self promotion; then they go on to enjoy the freedom afforded those who work independently.