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I was made redundant at the end of February when the company I worked for
failed to get 3rd round funding. My wife's been working so it's not been too
much of a strain so far and I've taking advantage of low cost courses for
the umemployed (HTML and C++ - basics) while watching the job market here.
I've also just finished a Business Start Program (grant for attending!) and
I'm just about ready to start up on my own and I'm after any advice from the
more experienced freelancers out there.
Here in N Ireland I've found only two companies that provide TW services
and, talking to local companies, there seems to be (at least potential)
market. I recently completed my MA and part of that involved surveying local
companies and this indicated quite a few companies who may be interested in
TW services (one of the Q I asked was 'did they think their documentation
could be improved by being professionally written/edited'). So far I've done
the following:
1 Checked local adverts for companies hiring (engineers/programmers etc) to
identify potential customers.
2 Working on web site to advertise services - also plan to sign on to local
register (new, therefore still cheap)
3 Designed some fliers highlighting skills/services to send to companies
identified in (1)
Anything else obvious I'm missing - bound to be something :-)
The companies identified from my survey I intend to call (I have contact
names of those involved in documentation) and I'm OK with that. What I'd
like advice on is the format of the cover letter when 'cold
calling/writing' - is there any particular format that you've found to be
particularly effective?
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