entrepreneur interviews - series 1

interview 3 - anne rainbow, the scrivernervirgin

Anne is a writer, editor, author and blogger. In this interview she talks about the life of a writer, how she ensures she covers all the bases in her business, and her favourite tools for writing, and marketing.

Anne, what do you do, why do you do it and how did you get into it?
I am the ScrivenerVirgin, blogging about how writers can make best use of this amazing software, and hosting the Simply Scrivener Special webinars to demonstrate Scrivener features and answer writers' questions. I am also the RedPen Mentor, helping writers to achieve their dreams!
I've always been a teacher at heart, and I love seeing others - especially writers - acquire knowledge and understanding and then enjoy success.

How long have you been an entrepreneur?
Even when officially employed, I've always also worked for myself: writing, teaching, etc. 
Although RedPen goes back more than a decade, the current 'portfolio' started when I set up my website and began blogging about Scrivener in September 2015.
I've been helping writers to learn how to edit their manuscripts through online writers’ groups and face-to-face workshops forever, but it was in September of 2016 that I self-published my book EDITING The RedPen Way: 10 Steps to Successful Self-Editing.
Since then, within the ScrivenerVirgin website, http://www.scrivenervirgin.com I've set up the RedPen Editing, Training and Mentoring service.

What are the biggest benefits of entrepreneurship... and the downsides?
Working as an entrepreneur means I have total freedom to work on what I enjoy, when I like and in circumstances that I engineer for myself.
At home, I have an office to myself, and technology means I can work, using my laptop, anywhere in the world... so we travel too.
Writers and other artists can so easily become absorbed in their work, and turn into recluses, cutting themselves off from the 'real' world. I think the same is true of entrepreneurs. 
When my children were young, they complained that I didn't show them enough attention. Now, on my second marriage, my partner is an artist, disappearing into his studio for hours. Individually, we are impossible to live with; together, we make a great team.

What are the most important lessons, or realisations you've had about life as an entrepreneur?
Although I am one person - one head and one pair of hands - I need to separate the various roles that need to be mastered.
I am the boss; I am the worker. I write the words, I have to market them too.
I am responsible for my own success - and need to apply myself to whatever needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and to complete everything in as professional a manner as I can. A very strong work ethic helps.
Waking early and having little need for sleep is a bonus, but it's also easy to wear yourself out, so time for recovery needs to be factored in.
Most important, is the time needed for the 'boss' to think ahead.

What are the top tools that have made a significant difference to your business?
I use so many...

• Scrivener is number one! I use that for everything I write, almost. (My accounts are in Excel.)
• I use WordPress, https://wordpress.com/ for the ScrivenerVirgin site (and my husband's website) and have recently taken on the Memberium membership site software, https://memberium.com/ and LearnDash, https://www.learndash.com/ a plugin for WordPress sites where I can create courses. Both our websites are hosted by BlueHost, https://www.bluehost.com.
• Everyone says "the money is in the list" and I bought into InfusionSoft, https://www.infusionsoft.com/ early on. I saw this email automation/marketing tool as another pair of hands, so was not put off by the cost. I was attracted to the potential - and willing to learn how to tap into that.
• I use GoToWebinar, https://www.gotomeeting.com/ or https://free.gotomeeting.com/ (for the free version of the software) for all my online training, such as the weekly Simply Scrivener Specials, and my monthly mentoring sessions, and for all the catch-up calls with my mentees.
• I rely on CoSchedule, https://coschedule.com/ to keep track of two websites - mine and my husband's - and all our social media activity.
• I use Hootsuite, https://hootsuite.com/ for keeping track of tweets, especially during the one-hour #writingchat gathering of writers each Wednesday.
• PlusThis, https://plusthis.com/ is a smart marketing management tool which integrates between GoToWebinar, InfusionSoft, Drift (see chapter 24 for more about Drift, and software for customer care) and much else besides.

You can connect with Anne at: http://www.scrivenervirgin.com.

Contains copyrighted material from the book: Entrepreneurial Espresso.