Moonlighting

I'm burning the candle at both ends, and so far, I've managed to survive. How, I don't know, because my day-job is over-the-top busy right now. Three high-profile projects - and all the little pesky have-to-do's - get me into the office early and keep me later than usual.

But it's been an expensive year - weddings, traveling back and forth to Atlanta, higher costs for food/utility/just plain living. In order to make ends meet, I've taking on a few freelance projects.

The good news is that I've actually gotten the freelance projects, since marketing/writing is what I do, and this is New York City, baby - competition's tough. But I've had to be a little inventive when offering my writing services.

First, I lucked out getting a project with hopes of an ongoing retainer for a biometric access company. It's mostly making all the technical stuff more palatable to read and market - from web writing to brochures and product sheets. That I can do. And fortunately the company was open to giving me a little up-front money, with the rest spread over the next couple of months. A life-saver, really.

However, I'm using my writing ability - specifically, my clear, neat handwriting ability - to do such for-hire jobs as addressing birth announcements and writing and addressing wedding thank-you's (the couple typed out the specifics; I just wrote them on the notes). It's good walk-around money and doesn't take much time to do.

And another potential money-making project was thought up by Bro after a recent visit to New York, land of the $5 street pashmina. Yep. I'm sending pashminas down to Georgia for re-sale at a bit of a mark-up. We'll see how they do in those trendy little mountain gift shops.

When things get tough you have to get creative. Yes, it means working after you finish the day-job. But that extra cash really comes in handy. And as long as that day-job doesn't suffer . . .

Have pen. Will write.