Wow, that's easy! Or is it?

We went on holiday to Turkmenistan, a country with a dictator, whose face is plastered everywhere, with monumental buildings and a reasonably good vibe. We had stopped for lunch at a wayside restaurant when I received a call from Armenia. I don't know anyone Armenian... The caller was a British guy, owner of a financial funds transfer firm who wanted to create an online version so foreign workers could transfer money using their phone. Kinneret Yifrah had recommended me to their design firm and could I start working as soon as I got home? Could I? Of course, I could.

That started a great working relationship between myself and NAFCA, the branding and design agency, and I did a voice and tone analysis, created the microcopy and wrote web content. I had a great time and the work was spread out over a few months.

Sometime after that (and microcopy for another business under my belt), a company creating software for product managers contacted me, could I come to visit them. I naïvly went along and only when there realized that I was one of many and I had to prove myself. I was shocked because until then I was the only contender and no questions were asked. Needless to say, I was totally unprepared - I had no portfolio, no ready-to-hand recommendations, etc. - and didn't get the job. I was mortified. Kinneret told me that this was the norm and that I had been living a charmed life until then.

So I created my professional website (jacquilicht.com) using Wix. I had a ball and it's really easy. I also created a basic portfolio. In addition, the microcopy community in Israel was putting up a resource web page and Kinneret listed me there (you needed a website so mine was ready just as the page went live - a happy coincidence). 

Now, whenever I'm asked for a portfolio, I customize my basic version according to their needs and present that. Nowadays, if I don't get a job it's usually because of the price.

Talking about pricing. Apparently, the hourly rate that I'd worked out in 2010 was too low for the microcopy market here in Israel. I was told to up it considerably and only go lower if more than 50 hours of work was involved. Over time, I've settled on two hourly rates, one for large corporations and the other for startups. This works for most customers. I refuse to lower the rate any further because then I believe that my work will be taken for granted.

How I changed focus

I hadn't realized how long it was since I last wrote a post! One of my sons is setting himself up as a consultant and I linked him to one of my earliest posts where I worked out how much to charge per hour. A lot has happened (good stuff) since 2014, so where to start? 

In the summer of 2015, I saw a post on LinkedIn from a friend of mine asking if anyone out there did English microcopy. I looked up "microcopy" and realized that I had been doing it for years. As a product manager, I always defined the interface and what to write where. For more about microcopy see What is microcopy?.

This company had heard about microcopy from Kinneret Yifrach but she doesn't work in English, thus the post. We met up, she told me more about today's microcopy and how first we would define the voice and tone of the brand. This was something totally new and fascinating. We decided to work together for this project.

I learned so much, especially in defining the brand personality and how to use that when creating microcopy. Today's writing is much more conversational and liberating. I went on to do the microcopy for two more projects for this company. Kinneret also entrusted me with translating her book, Microcopy - the Complete Guide, into English.

I'm no translator and told her so, but she was so disappointed by the results from real translators that she asked me to try one chapter. Which I did. Kinneret has her own personality and way of expressing herself, which by now I knew really well, and I attempted to keep that in the translation. She loved it and so did other people she showed it to, so I ended up translating the whole book. I got paid for this and don't receive anything for each sale, but still, it remains the ultimate guide to microcopy and I strongly recommend it.

I haven't gone into the translating area, only sometimes when a client needs me to translate web content for use on a site I'm corroborating on. What I have delved into, with some success, is microcopy. I define the voice and tone of brands, I create the microcopy for products and occasionally write content for websites. I still do technical writing, but it is a smaller portion of my workload. 

One last thing. What's the difference between microcopy and UX writing you ask? I don't know if this is the official differentiation, but for me, microcopy is writing when you have defined the brand's voice and tone, whereas UX writing is more generic. It still sounds good, follows all the rules, but without a defined personality. 

I'll write more posts about how I progressed after this first job, and what brought me to create my own website. 

Reliance - an exciting startup

In previous posts I mentioned that I am part of Reliance (רליינס), a startup that tries to make sense of the relationship between landlords and their tenants. 

We want to provide the means to make payments online, enable messaging between the landlord and his or her tenants, enable them to find quality maintenance personnel, keep the books so that they have a full record of income and expenses, and much more.

For example, John and Sue have rented an apartment from Mr. Smith. He has asked them to give him 12 post-dated cheques for the year's rent, plus other securities. Two months later, a pipe bursts and floods the hallway. John and Sue send Mr. Smith an urgent message. He instructs them to have it mended and provides them with the details of his plumber. He'll pay them back by cheque.

With Reliance, Mr. Smith enters the rent as a recurring expense, it is automatically deducted each month, and for the month with the burst pipe, John and Sue only pay the rent minus the cost of the repair. Not only that, but if they don't know a plumber, they can locate trusted maintenance people on the site. Once a maintenance item is identified, a docket is opened and its progress can be tracked by the tenants and landlord.

Both the tenants and the landlord can keep track of their detailed monthly expenses and income, and the landlord can quickly understand what each property is earning or costing.

So that's the idea, and currently we are getting close to releasing the MVP. This is the basic product, and will be used for the pilot. Not all the features I mentioned will be there, but they will be available soon after (we hope).

We have a web page up, www.reliancerent.com, that provides more details. You can sign up to be part of the pilot. 

What do I do for this project? Well I started out by taking the concept and creating well documented user stories so that a developer would know the logic behind each step. Of course these are constantly being updated. In addition I do whatever is required - that's the great thing about startups; you are exposed to so many other facets of running a company. This is not the first startup I have worked at, but it is the first that I am so emotionally invested in. 

The view from our startup space and entering the Challenge Cup

The Library (the space that we call our office) is situated on the 9th floor of Migdal Shalom. Built in 1965, Migdal Shalom was Israel's first skyscraper, and the tallest building in the Middle East. But even though we're only on the 9th floor, the view is amazing. You see the oldest buildings in Tel Aviv, built at the end of the 19 century by people trying to escape the overcrowded Jaffa. And of course you see the Mediterranean.

View from Migdal Shalom with Jaffa and the Mediterranean in the background

So Reliance  (רליינס) was asked to take part in the Challenge Cup 1776 (http://challengecup.1776dc.com/). 

This is (as they tell it)

"a global competition to identify and celebrate the most promising startups tackling the biggest challenges. The competition will center on startups innovating in four primary categories: education, health, energy, and smart cities"

I think we were only asked to fill in the numbers for the Smart Cities section. All the other entrants are up and running with users, whereas we will soon start our pilot. Different traction entirely. But we are looking at it as a learning exercise as the guys receive pitch coaching.

Update after the event: It went brilliantly. Both co-founders learned a lot and also had exposure to other startups. Omri (the CEO of Reliance Rent - www.reliancerent.com) gave the 1-minute pitch, and though I may be biased, it was a good pitch. As we thought before going in, we didn't have a chance as some excellent up-and-running products were introduced. But a good time was had by all.

Working with a startup

Wow, it has been a long time since I added an entry to this blog. I have been working as a freelancer for three years. At the beginning I was very busy, and then life settled down. 

Me with the Reliance team

Today I work with four companies. I do the documentation for two companies and product management for the other two (plus documentation as required). There are times when I am rushed off my feet as all companies approach a similar deadline, and other times when I have hardly anything to do. Funny thing is that when I actually do a scan of my average income it isn't that bad; it isn't what I used to earn as a salaried employee, but then I work much less hours (which is a good thing as I find myself tiring a bit more). I have made the decision not to actively search for any more work, but am happy if someone approaches me to help them.

At one of the companies, Reliance (רליינס - www.reliancerent.com) I work for free. The idea belongs to my son and I believed enough in the idea to work on it with him. I'll talk more about it when the right time comes, but it is taking much longer than we anticipated, mostly because we are trying to get to the beta stage without external investment. As it is a company that will be dealing with payments, we made the decision that quick & dirty  was not an option. I do hope that we made the correct decision.

We have each (four of us) been working out of our own homes, and meeting once a week (or more as needed). We have just been accepted to "The Library" (http://www.thelibrary.co.il/). Tel Aviv municipality offers startups practically free facilities. So now we have an office - well a shared table - we can call our own. There is a meeting room where we can hold meetings, say with investors, and a number of other groups that we can brainstorm with. I see that the site is not yet updated, so we don't appear yet as residents.

The team at 'The Library'

Anyway, as I work less hours nowadays, I decided to offer my services as a mentor (no money involved) to anyone at the Library who needs advice on turning their idea into a product. That was yesterday, and that evening I saw that my LinkedIn profile had been visited my many people, and I also received new invitations to connect. Interesting.

It will also be interesting to see how I manage now that I need to get to an external site; I have become attached to my home office. 

Closing the Third Project

I was invited to Europe to pass across the project (#3). The trip was scheduled for just a few days before we go away on our 7-week trip, but that’s life. I made the most of it and saw friends in the evening. I believe that the project is in good hands and that they have hired an experienced technical writer.

I spoke to the CEO and head of product management to see how they saw our future connection. I was pleased to hear that they believe that there will be so much work that I will again be asked to help. If I am lucky, I might also receive some product management work as they are reopening a project that I was in charge of when it was created. So I come away feeling optimistic and knowing that I finished off in a professional way.


Notes on travelling and being a freelancer

I was told that I either collected receipts for everything or received ‘eshel’, a Hebrew acronym for food, drink and sleep. I did both and I’ll let the accountant decide. Company #3 paid for the air ticket, hotel and taxis to and from the airport. I only needed incidental expenses, such as food and local taxis.  So looking at that I think ‘eshel’ plus taxi expenses sounds about right.

This will be my last post until May as I will be in the far south with only satellite contact. But as that is a pleasure trip and not work, the only thing I could publish would be my diary…

Winter and Spring

Tel Aviv had a few days of absolutely wonderful spring weather. Clear atmosphere, small clouds lightly scudding across the sky, 23 degrees, absolutely the sort of weather we wished we had all year. Birds were busy singing and trying to attract mates, cats were hissing to get their females.

Then winter came back and that was also great, as we don’t have enough days of rain. I felt like I was back in London. Heavy rain then lighter rain; grey and perfect in its own right – especially as it is only for a couple of days at a time.

I am busy finishing off my large project (#3) handing over to the new and full-time technical writer. The release was delayed for a month, so she has time to get to know the subject and finalize the content. I have created a guide with steps of what needs to be done and how. Next release she can work out what the best process is for her.