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Freelancer of the Month January 2013 – Stephanie Hitch

Welcome to the new Freelancer of the Month feature. This month we caught up with Stephanie Hitch, a legal proofreading specialist and owner of www.legalproofreader.co.uk.

Hi Steph. Can you tell us a bit about the nature of your business?

I trained as a general proofreader but my specialist area is legal proofreading. I practised as a solicitor for over ten years before training as a proofreader. I own www.legalproofreader.co.uk, a specialist legal proofreading service for businesses, translators and law students.

Tell us about your journey to becoming a freelancer.

I graduated in Law and French in 1992 and went on to qualify and practise as a solicitor in private law firms in the South East. I took a break from law in 2000 to take my CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults) qualification and taught English as a foreign language abroad and in the UK until 2003. I then returned to law. While on maternity leave in 2007 with my first child I decided to change career and become a proofreader. I completed the Basic Proofreading by Distance Learning with the Publishing Training Centre in 2009 and went freelance thereafter.

What do you enjoy most about running your own business? What are the downsides to working for yourself, if any, and how do you overcome them?

Without a doubt, the best things are the complete autonomy and freedom that you have as a self-employed homeworker. The downsides are a tendency to work longer hours than you would if you were self-employed as it is very hard to get away from ‘the office’. You also have to get used to your earnings fluctuating from month to month. There are also health aspects – when you are sat in your warm office it can be hard to motivate yourself to get active or do exercise, so you have to try to eat healthily and get out each day. But for me the pros of homeworking outweigh the cons.

Have you got any advice for aspiring freelancers?

The first few years as a freelance proofreader can be hard. It’s very competitive nowadays; you have to sell yourself and be flexible in terms of work and working hours. It helps to have a particular area in which you specialise. It can also be a lonely profession so I would advise would-be freelancers to connect with other freelancers.

How do you go about promoting your business/finding clients?

I have my website, www.legalproofreader.co.uk, and I have Facebook and LinkedIn pages as well as listings on FreeIndex and, of course, Find a Proofreader. I always try to go the extra mile for clients so that they recommend me to their business contacts, fellow students, etc.

Have any particular developments occurred within your business sector that have affected the way you work or the way in which you are taking your business forward?

I think that the growth of social media in the past couple of years has changed the way businesses are targeting and reaching their potential audience. My aim this year is to increase my knowledge and use of social media.

What is your most treasured work-related possession?

I would have to say all of my reference books – my hardback dictionaries (general and legal ones), New Hart’s Rules, Butcher’s Copy-editing and various grammar books. I frequently use online language resources (particularly as modern language is continually evolving and published works can’t always keep pace), but there’s nothing like leafing through a book and finding the answer.

What do you enjoy reading when you’re not working with words?

After proofreading all day, I tend to go for something ‘light’. I am currently reading Derren Brown’s Tricks of the Mind.

What’s your favourite book?

The book that really blew me away the first time I read it was Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. There have been many film versions, but the book is infinitely more intricate and the pace really builds as the main character exacts his revenge on each person who wronged him.

Stephanie Hitch is a freelance proofreader based in Hastings, UK. She specialises in legal proofreading and runs www.legalproofreading.co.uk.

30/01/2013 | Admin

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Add a Find a Proofreader button to your website!

If you’re a freelancer, you probably have a website. And if you advertise with Find a Proofreader, you may wish to link your website to your Find a Proofreader listing. For instance, you may want to forward your site visitors to your listing so that they can read your positive customer reviews. Or you might want to encourage your existing customers to write a positive review for your business. Of course, you may just like the look of our shiny buttons! Whatever the reason, it’s very easy to add a Find a Proofreader button to your site. Read on to find out exactly how!

At present there are four buttons for you to choose from. Each one is coloured differently and has a different call to action on. Once you’ve decided which button best suits the look of your website, just copy and paste the code into your site or blog.

Please note: To make the button link directly from your website to your Find a Proofreader page, you’ll need to insert your listing URL in place of the bold text. If you encounter any technical issues, let us know and we’ll endeavour to help!

For the above badge, add this code to your site:

To see our other badges, click on the Link to Us tab in the navigation bar, or click here. Alternatively, if you would prefer to link to us with a text link, you can insert this code on your site instead (remember to insert the full URL of your listing where instructed):

<a href=”INSERT YOUR LISTING URL/” title=”Link to Find a Proofreader” target=”_blank”>Check out my listing on the Find a Proofreader directory</a>

The link should look like this on your website:

Check out my listing on the Find a Proofreader directory

These buttons are proving to be a real hit and many of our advertisers have already adopted them. Don’t be left behind – follow the instructions above and add your button today!

28/01/2013 | Admin

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Freelancer of the Month December 2012 – Alan O’Brien

Welcome to our new feature! Every month we’ll be asking one of our advertisers a few questions about themselves and their business. First to sit in the FaP hot seat is Alan O’Brien of AOB Proofreading.

Hi Alan! First of all, tell us about your journey to becoming a freelancer.

In 2005 I read an advert for a proofreader. Up until then it hadn’t occurred to me that this could be done for a living! I found out more about what proofreading was, and started on the Publishing Training Centre’s excellent distance learning course, later that year. And I’ve never looked back really. Finally a job I enjoy doing!

What do you enjoy most about running your own business?

Jobs I receive vary hugely in subject matter, even from clients who are similar, e.g. students with academic assignments. The variety makes it exciting because now and then you read fascinating material.

Have you got any advice for aspiring freelancers?

Getting a website is a must, and shows you are serious about what you do. If you can specialise in certain areas, e.g. you’re a proofreader or copy-editor and you have a physics background, then you are likely to have a niche in which to operate. From that you can target specific clients who will value your subject knowledge above competitors who don’t have your specialist subject knowledge.

What are the downsides to working for yourself, if any, and how do you overcome them?

There is that perceived lack of predictability regarding regular or sufficient income, which is a constant dynamic even for many established freelancers. But more and more in these austere times, ‘normal’ jobs, i.e. those where you’re on the payroll, are being made redundant. So, for me, that advantage of a 9–5 payrolled office job providing a safe, guaranteed income is now somewhat of an illusion.

How do you go about promoting your business/finding clients?

I email specific publishers who produce the subject matter that I am experienced in. I also have listings in paid and free directories and websites.

What is your most treasured work-related possession?

My Mountain Dew energy drink :-)

What do you enjoy reading when you’re not working with words?

Sitcom scripts (I have written a few myself); Liverpool Echo; books on the paranormal/unexplained, and spirituality; Facebook.

What’s your favourite book?

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.

What’s the funniest typo you have corrected?

Pubic sector, when it should have been public sector. I like situations like this where you’re one letter from disaster ;-)

What qualities would you say are required when proofreading?

Attention to detail is an obvious answer, but I’ve learned you really must be attentive in a methodical way! With medium to long jobs I will often need to write a list of tasks separate from regular proofreading that need to be done, e.g. checking the headings, cross-references and contents’ correlation with the contents page. Good time management is key to charging the right amount for your services.

Alan O’Brien is a freelance proofreader based in Liverpool, UK. He runs AOB Proofreading, a proofreading business for publishers, businesses and individuals.

21/12/2012 | Admin

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