Jack of all trades, master of ONE....technical author!

4 years ago, when I was first considering leaving the world of the employed and setting up as a freelance technical author, no-one told me I would soon have a list of job titles longer than my arm. Before I knew where I was I had become:

• Technical author
• Managing director
• Accountant
• Marketing executive
• IT purchaser
• Network manager
• Bid writer
• Cleaner

to name but a few!

It was only after I had been in business for a few months that my multidisciplinary role became apparent...at which point I started to panic!

In January 2009, my outlook started to change. I enrolled onto the mentoring scheme run by East Midlands Development Agency, and almost simultaneously I read an article in the ISTC Communicator entitled "A day in the life of Mike Unwalla". In his article Mike described how he spent a considerable part of his day carrying out "business development" activities, something which I had always struggled to reconcile. Suddenly I was able to see that I was running a (successful) business and that I wasn't "just" a technical author for lots of different companies.

With the help of my business mentor, I have developed my "non-authoring" skills and now I see myself not just as a technical author, but also as a successful business owner. The client list continues to grow, so I must be doing something right both as an author and a business owner. However, I still think the mark of my true success will only be seen when I can farm some of my new found job titles out to others! Roll on that day!