Committing

I have finally fully committed to starting a freelance business, whereas before I was mostly using it for an interim measure until I found a suitable position. (Although, if someone were to offer me a fabulous full-time job, I would definitely consider it.)

I had an interview earlier this week, which materialized from a resume I had sent out over a month ago. I didn't feel great about the interview going into it and I spent a lot of time trying to convince myself that it would be good to get this job. I think my hesitation about the position came through in the interview as they grilled me about why I would want a position that would be a step down for me. Apparently, they had a hard time understanding why anyone would want to go from "director of communications" to "communications specialist" willingly. My thoughts about how I did were confirmed today when I received a terse rejection e-mail.

Although the idea of having no guaranteed income is still very frightening, the other aspects of freelancing are just too attractive for me not to give it an honest effort. I'm committed, and that means that if I have to do slightly undesirable things, such as temping, to help bring money in while I'm building my business, I will.

Today I showed just how committed I was by spending the entire day at a local business expo, pounding the pavement, er, carpet, handing my new cards out to everyone I could find, networking and squeezing all of my available contacts. I got a few leads out of the endeavor that I hope will turn into something.

This evening I also started a new blog, which I have been meaning to do for a while. Having a freelance writing blog will allow me to chronicle the whole process and hopefully attract some attention while I'm at it. It will also keep the saga of my freelance writing career off this blog and save it for its original intention, which is bikes, racing, training and bike-related topics.

It will obviously be more work to maintain two blogs, and it will be harder to find things to write about for this blog, since I don't always have bike-related things to write. However, for those of you who have no interest in my professional life, it means you won't have to read about it (although random postings about my life in general will probably still appear here). And if you just read this blog because you want to know about me, now you'll have two blogs to read!