Reflecting on a Year of Brewing TEA

Photo by Jaida Stewart on Unsplash

A year of business admin—more exciting than you might expect

In mid-May of 2020, I began offering The Editor's Affairs (TEA), my system of Excel spreadsheets for freelance editorial professionals, for sale to my fellow freelance editors. After celebrating my one-year TEA-nniversary last week, and after seeing colleagues posting on social media about taking solo business retreats (a brilliant idea that I hope to try one day!), I decided to check in with myself and reflect on what The Editor's Affairs has meant for my business so far.

Is TEA going to become my full-time job?

As much as I love my spreadsheets, I have no plans to stop editing. These two sides of my work life complement each other perfectly: with TEA, I help give editors clarity on the health of their businesses and where to focus their energy next, and in my editing I help authors achieve clarity in their writing.
 
My editor friends and I sometimes joke that editors are a particular breed of person: curious and analytical, delighting in both the whimsy and the structure of language, determined to bring out the best in a text and yet tactful almost to a fault. These qualities have always been part of my character, and so I will always be an editor.

Has helping other freelance editors with their business admin made me focus more on mine?

I’ve certainly had to add another layer of organization to my business records now that I offer a product for sale as well as editorial services. My own version of TEA currently stretches across eight worksheets (which is sometimes a little overwhelming, even for me!) and features 20 colours and shades (which soothes my soul and highlights important data). I spend more time on business admin than I did a year ago, but much of that has been long-term planning. I had a steep learning curve figuring out my TEA pricing structure, CPD, customer support, and marketing—and I’m still learning every day.
 
Apart from the admin of running my TEA business, simply hearing about other editors’ admin needs has inspired me to record and analyze more data in more ways. I’ve refined how I track HST and how I invoice clients in installments. Perhaps most importantly, talking to other editors about their businesses has inspired me to set aside regular blocks of time to invest in my own.
 
I realized that I need to apply the same self-care and business-care principles that I learned when I began freelance editing: scrambling to fill every minute with paid editing work left no time for monitoring the health of my business, developing my skills, or expanding into new areas of interest. As I’ve gotten more TEA clients and given more Excel presentations in the past few months, I’ve become braver about declining editorial projects that would cut into my TEA time. And not a moment too soon—in June and July I’ll be leading sessions on using Excel at Editors Canada's Editors Transform online conference, IPEd’s Editing on the Edges online annual conference, and in a SENSE workshop, so I’ve decided this will be my #SpreadsheetSummer.

Would I ever launch a new product again?

Ideally not during a global pandemic! But yes, in a heartbeat. I found it exhilarating to create something new from scratch, and I’m immensely proud to contribute in some small way to the freelance editing industry.
 
In fact, as I write this, I have a couple of ideas germinating. Stay tuned to see what I brew next…