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Our new Enterprise — Velvet Ink
Jun. 1st, 2011 08:46 pmSo this was what I was looking for that image for. This is NOT the one i had in mind, that one never turned up. But I found this one and it works for my partner, Nanette, and me.
We are now an official business with our own EIN. We work online, through a virtual business site called Elance. (Elance.com is like a big virtual temp agency.) We are editors, writers, proofers, helpers, etc. Nanette has worked through Elance before in the summer when she wasn't teaching and made some spending money. It was her idea that if we teamed up, we might could make serious money. She claimed it'd be just like Beta Reading, only for money, but it's not. Beta reading is relaxed, and I pick who I want to Beta and when. And it's fiction. In genres I like to read.
On Elance, the "providers" (authors, other editors, entrepreneurs with ideas, etc.) list their work (e.g. 105.000 word young adult fiction manuscript or 120,000 word diet book with charts and menus) and the contractors (me and NJ) write up proposal/bids. And usually anywhere from 10 to 20 other folks/companies bid on it, and then one gets picked. We've bid on 20-30 things, and gotten exactly one job, with one follow-up from that same provider. Hey, it's better than nothing. And we're learning more about how to write up bids, and which kinds of jobs to bid on. Some providers are obviously just picking low bid. Some jobs go for so little I'd have rather done them for nothing.
The bad part is that no one's sent me anything to Beta since I told them I've started to do this for money. I was quite clear I intended to keep doing Beta work for just love. Maybe they imagine I'm just covered up with paying work and don't have time. That is, of course, most definitely NOT the case, and never will be.
We are now an official business with our own EIN. We work online, through a virtual business site called Elance. (Elance.com is like a big virtual temp agency.) We are editors, writers, proofers, helpers, etc. Nanette has worked through Elance before in the summer when she wasn't teaching and made some spending money. It was her idea that if we teamed up, we might could make serious money. She claimed it'd be just like Beta Reading, only for money, but it's not. Beta reading is relaxed, and I pick who I want to Beta and when. And it's fiction. In genres I like to read.
On Elance, the "providers" (authors, other editors, entrepreneurs with ideas, etc.) list their work (e.g. 105.000 word young adult fiction manuscript or 120,000 word diet book with charts and menus) and the contractors (me and NJ) write up proposal/bids. And usually anywhere from 10 to 20 other folks/companies bid on it, and then one gets picked. We've bid on 20-30 things, and gotten exactly one job, with one follow-up from that same provider. Hey, it's better than nothing. And we're learning more about how to write up bids, and which kinds of jobs to bid on. Some providers are obviously just picking low bid. Some jobs go for so little I'd have rather done them for nothing.
The bad part is that no one's sent me anything to Beta since I told them I've started to do this for money. I was quite clear I intended to keep doing Beta work for just love. Maybe they imagine I'm just covered up with paying work and don't have time. That is, of course, most definitely NOT the case, and never will be.
