Inventory, One Week After

Posted on November 22, 2009 by Nathalie Hamidi

One week has passed since my decision to become self-entrepreneur. Where do I stand?

My collaboration with ebookers goes well, many of my articles are published, which will be useful when I will have to check the financial results at the end of the month.

I have done a rewrite for a friend’s website. For now, the estimate was accepted, and I await patiently the results. Logically, if my work was pleasing, I should have other proposals for the same work site. I will get back about that as soon as I know a little more.

I thought I had a little difficulty getting back in shape for work, but apparently it’s like riding a bike, you never forget! It remains to see if it’s still as easy in the days to come.

My professional website is progressing well, the most important pages are done, it is presentable. I’m going to keep working on it, but slowly now. I relocated my personal blog here too, for those who want to hear from me more than my business. Not much over there for now, but it will happen soon!

Why a Minimalist Design for My Professional Website?

Posted on November 21, 2009 by Nathalie Hamidi

I noticed that, when building websites, the simplest ones are the best ones to really concentrate on content.

Unlike a more personal site where you can afford more imagination and fantasy, a professional website must first have good content, be simple to navigate, and should facilitate information sharing.

Soon, I’ll put up a personal blog, where I’ll just do what I want, but this site – which will talk about self-entrepreneurship, my professional activities, a showcase of my activities – has to remain clear and legible even for those who are not accustomed to the Internet and blogs.

I will try to keep my number of categories and tags to a minimum, use clear titles and minimize the scattering. I will use minimalism to keep focus on the important things.

Finding New Prospects

Posted on November 20, 2009 by Nathalie Hamidi

Selling myself has never been my thing. I don’t really know how to sell myself, and so far it’s never been an obligation, because people have always chose me to work with them based on what they know about me and the quality of my work

For my first “real” job, I met my future employeur on IRC. We were talking in italian because he was of Roman origin. So when he had the need for a secretary, he immediately thought of me (it was an Italian company based in Toulouse, and with a lot of phone calls to do with the other italian branches).

When Stephanie approached me to work for ebookers, she knew that my writing style was appropriate since we’ve known each other on the net for some years. I had also written a personal blog for some time, so she knew what I could or couldn’t do.

Two or three people I know told me they would probably give me some work, which is super nice. But the question is: how do I find customers outside of my friends’ range?

I’ll have to do a lot of research, and will need to find someone confident enough to let me prove that my work is worth it. I won’t let go, I know it will turn out OK!

Three Days Devoted to Self-Entrepreneurship

Posted on November 19, 2009 by Nathalie Hamidi

When I say three days, I speak a little too fast – of that I am well aware.

I have three days in the week when I have no appointment for my son Matthieu. Three days I am not forced to cut my schedule in four, to think before I start something because it is possible that I’m cut short because it is time to leave.

This (school) year, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are usually pretty quiet. So I think I’ll concentrate on my self-entrepreneur’s work these days, doing the rest of the usual chores on other days.

For now, work requests are easily managed, since I am not crushed (yet, hopefully) by requested work. So I know I can just work a few hours at night, or during one of my “free” days to do what I need to do. But I’d better think about how to manage my time for the day my business takes off.

I also have things to do (not necessarily funny, like dishes), obligations (pay bills, manage the construction of our house), and also time to spend with my children to laugh with them and teach them, and all that must be taken it into account in the planning. For example, this morning we laughed a lot while dancing the twist, they repeated many words, and this afternoon I am going to put a video on the television set while I am working on an article for ebookers.

Is it possible to combine work and family life by mixing all of them? I’ll find out. I’ll just have to do my best to manage.

Surviving Stress

Posted on November 18, 2009 by Nathalie Hamidi

The stress I have because of work is a good stress, I know that, and I appreciate this burst of adrenaline while I work because it allows me to be effective.

But once the work is completed (and sent back), is stress useful, or does it just make you nervous about your client’s reaction? What does it bring, besides not allowing me to sleep?

To survive the stress, I developed a few strategies over the last twenty-four hours, which I hope will help me survive stress better next time.

Knowing that I did my best

My client can like my work or not, I know I did my best. Returning again and again to make changes – on something that seems good and finished – may add errors and ultimately make my rewriting less appealing.

Giving myself a deadline to send my work

It’s easy to drag to send the work to be approved. The more I wait, the more this action is difficult. By giving a time limit (one hour after finishing, I can read one last time to see if there is a huge mistake that went unnoticed, and send it as is, without further amendments), I am forced to act and thus break the vicious circle of stress and doubt that makes me want to start over or correct.

Refocus quickly to something else

It’s not worth waiting for an immediate answer: most people don’t live twenty-four hours a day in front of their computers, and will probably not respond to me just after receiving my work, anyway. Once the work is finished and sent, I must constrain myself to immediately change activity, or else I’ll stress and lose a lot of time.

Anticipation and Anxiety

Posted on November 17, 2009 by Nathalie Hamidi

I’m really starting my real self-entrepreneurship tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll have my first real job for six years, for someone I don’t know if he likes my work or not.

But mostly, I must rewrite a text – in English – that is not “just for me”, to be grammatically correct and be pleasant to read. It’s not quite like when you rewrite an English text for yourself, and you could not care less if you leave some errors or if it’s colloquial.

I want to start right now, tonight, but I know I will not have the number of neurons needed to work correctly now. It is therefore necessary that I wait until tomorrow morning after a good coffee, when the children are playing quietly, because starting before that is a recipe for disaster.

The anticipation makes me feel good, however. That’s it, I am my own boss at last! I’ve been waiting for that for a very long time.

Computer Service Provider, Among Other Things

Posted on November 16, 2009 by Nathalie Hamidi

Hey! I made the leap, I did it! I am self-entrepreneur, the very thing I was hoping for since january 2009. I just needed to start, after all!

As activities carried out, I chose computer services, websites creation, proofreading, rewriting, editing, translation and training. It will cover most of the activities that I would like to do, allowing me to choose those that interest me most.

My goal is not to take anything and everything as long as it makes me money. Of course, when work is scarce, I will take anything that long as it falls within my skills, but I want to give first preference to projects that interest me and excite me personally.

For now, I have a few prospects. Some items for the ebookers travel blog (in french), and rewriting texts for a friend’s website. But I must start somewhere, don’t I? And the fact that the work comes slowly is a good thing, that way I can test my work time capacity, in comparison to the time I want to spend with my family.

Becoming Self-Entrepreneur

Posted on November 15, 2009 by Nathalie Hamidi

I’ve been dreaming about it for a while. Since forever, I’ve always wanted to be my own boss and to do activities that make me want to get up in the morning.

It will soon be five years that I am full time mom, juggling with my sons’ education, medical appointments, managing the construction of our future home, and some small personal projects like my blog or the site of Autism & Children.

It was time, for my own sanity, that I gave myself the means to do something else – because at the end of the day, I need a topic of conversation other than dirty diapers or the average height of the stack of dishes.

Self-entrepreneurship is the solution most suited to my needs. No need to make a big turnover in order to work – payroll and income taxes are calculated in relation to my turnover, and if I do not make money, I have nothing to pay.

I’ll be able to blossom, and who knows! – maybe make a little money in the process.

To begin, I chose to start on several fronts: the editing, rewriting, writing articles, translations (English, French, German, Italian), creating and managing websites, and programming (PHP) . I also want to start a few personal projects related to training, but that will come later.

Are you interested in my services? I suggest you take a little look at my achievements so far, and contact me to discuss a rate suited to your needs.

Nathalie Hamidi

High Maintenance and Deranged

Category Archives: Work