Serendipity

It's been an interesting week. Just got back from a grueling 3-leg trip: Chicago, St. Thomas, San Juan, DC. I'm physically beat-down but wide awake. But...I broke my phone and my Internet connection went haywire. I totally freaked out because they are my lifelines to work, my friends back home and I am starting to ramp up with my projects.

Laid over in Vegas. Lovely 85 degree weather and had amazing Ethiopian food. Laid over in Amsterdam and walked around in the hail, absorbing lovely Dutch design (and lovely Dutch men). Germany, Holland and Switzerland all have the best graphic and tangible product design. Soaking in all that simple, modern, clean design helped.

Despite working a lot and the technie mishaps, I've landed my first potential client. Because of the technie mishaps, I went to the library to check my email. The Small Business Development Center was having a seminar on starting your own business so I decided to stay for it. The cool thing is that they have this resource library and free counseling. The best thing of all: it opened my eyes to a gem of a prospect list. All these new businesses need brochures and marketing collateral.

I also realized that many of the small businesses in an area so close to cosmopolitan DC (don't laugh too hard, it is a big multiculti city even if they don't act like it) are run by immigrants. This big eyed girl understands English as a second language issues and cultural sensitivity. It looks like I may have a specialty, a niche.

So all weekend (I didn't realize today is Saturday), I spent on a plane, yes, but I also spent a lot of time brainstorming and focusing my brand, working on my colalteral.

I've been trying to decide whether to have a company name or just use my own name. I'm coolw ith using my own name but having a www.myname.com really strikes me as a vanity thing. I'm pretty disagreeable to the idea of it but I didn't want a cutesy, punny name like The Write Solution; The Write Girl; Write On; Write, Ink. ; Writers, Ink. (that kind of madness). So as I was deadheading to Chicago, the right (not write) name popped into my head. It's perfect. It conveys the feeling and image I want, isn't saccharine nor kitschy, conservative but modern. So I Internic'ed it and no one real owns the domain. Of course, the domains I want are parked. Shiznit. So am currently begging advice from my techie friends as to what to do. And begging info from all my professional friends on every possible thing I need to get up and running.

Meet with Mr. Potential Client mid-week. Previous clients are writing testimonials for my website and brochure. Designing basic business cards for right now and more involved biz cards, stationery, brochure, website for launch, hopefully by end of April. I need a graphic designer who'll barter/partner.