Welcome to Freelance Parent!  This is such an exciting endeavor for me, and I hope that it grows to be a useful tool for you.  I’m only three sentences in, and I already want to share my first goal with you:  I want Freelance Parent to become a community where those who strive to create their own freelance businesses can communicate with one another and get great ideas.  Sometimes I’ll be supplying the ideas, but I suspect that oftentimes the readers will be doing some of the heavy lifting in that department, too! 

So, who is the lady at the keyboard?  My name is Lorna Doone Brewer, and I have been working from home for two years.  It wasn’t until last month, however, that a former co-worker and I decided to put our heads together to pursue the idea of creating our own business.  Tamara (you’ll be meeting her soon) and I were both working for the same company when a few difficulties arose, and we found ourselves needing to supplement our incomes. 

Yeah, a phrase like “needing to supplement our incomes” is never followed by a simple solution, is it?  There were, of course, some complications.  For example, I’m pregnant with my first child, and Tamara has a one-and-a-half-year old that she wants to be near.  The prospect of job hunting while in the throes of morning sickness was more than I could bear.  I felt horrible and couldn’t imagine trying to interview in that condition.  While it’s illegal for employers to discriminate, I suspected that one look at my maternity clothes was going to be enough for many to decide I wasn’t “right for the position.”   

Perhaps most importantly, my long-held vision of working from home when my baby arrived was in serious jeopardy.  With only five months to go before the birth, I wouldn’t even have time to earn Family Leave.  I literally cried at the prospect of taking a quick week or two off of work and then having to put my new baby into daycare just so I could trudge to some office job. 

While at Tamara’s house one afternoon, I planted an idea.  “You know,” I said.  “What we need to do is come up with a business idea so that we can work together and not have to go to an office every day.”  I really was trying to gauge her interest, but I honestly didn’t expect there to be any.  Within two days, however, my phone rang, and Tamara told me that she wanted to start a freelance writing business with me.  I was thrilled. 

Freelance writing was something I’d dabbled in before, but striking out all by myself has always proven a little too daunting.  These humble beginnings were just more than one month ago.  Since then we’ve put a lot of work into figuring out how we want our business to run.  It’s been tricky, as it’s tempting to let the planning take a back seat to little things like . . . um . . . paying the bills; but we’ve managed to keep a good balance so far. 

Tamara and I invite you to join us here as we chronicle this experience.  We’ll share with you the things we’re doing and let you know what has worked and what hasn’t.  The idea of allowing our business to have this degree of transparency is a bit frightening, but we’re looking at it as an opportunity to learn and grow.  With any luck, maybe you’ll feel like sharing your expertise, too.  That will really help create the community feeling we want to develop!

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