Self-employed working with OpenOffice.org for 3+ years

Story: LXer Feature: Survival Guide For Women In FOSS: Striking Out On Your OwnTotal Replies: 3
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solveigh

Nov 11, 2005
11:17 AM EDT
I've been an OpenOffice.org trainer and author for several years and it's great. I was a bit over techwriting after 12 years and OpenOffice.org was out, so I saved up the money and headed out on my own. Never regretted it.

A couple extra tips are: - Have a worst-case scenario. I've done a few techwriting contracts to keep the money flowing as necessary; that works out fine. - Figure out when during the day you work best. I somehow have become a morning person, so I work from 6 to noon, take a break, and come back for a few hours later. - I want to reinforce the idea of charging enough. You have a valuable product or service that's worth paying for. - I tried incorporating and it's basically a huge pain. It works for some but it's simple to do a sole proprietorship.

Definitely as mentioned, network network network. Join the chamber of commerce, the local women's business group, whatever. Do talks at local __ Users' Groups. Be a little shameless when you meet new people and tell'em what you do; you never know what connection will give you huge benefits.

It can work!

Solveig Haugland solveig@getopenoffice.org http://openoffice.blogs.com http://www.getopenoffice.org

tuxchick

Nov 11, 2005
1:21 PM EDT
Thanks for the comments and links. OO is pretty nice- it handles labels/cards and mail merges better than any other word processor. and once you get the hang of using styles, it's fast to format long documents.

Congratulations on being the boss of you!
tadelste

Nov 11, 2005
1:34 PM EDT
Ditto
tuxchick

Nov 11, 2005
3:34 PM EDT
BTW, check out http://linuxchix.org/ to find more kewl Linux (and other geeky women) to hang out with. It's a great community with people from all over the world. Kernel hackers and other coders, sysadmins, authors, noobs- you name it, they're all there. And even some from the male species! The mail lists are where most of the action happens.

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