The End of Entrepreneurial Media

It’s the end of an era, folks. This week I had my last “Carol class” and today I write my last required blog post. The Jesuits have taught me that reflection on past events is vital, and below are some of my thoughts regarding my semester in Entrepreneurial Media.

This class was probably the most challenging journalism class I have taken. In past journalism classes, we never focused on the business side of journalism, but more of the basic skills required in order to get into the business. The main project of this course made us go through the process of what it would be like to start your own business: developing an idea, making a quick pitch, forming a business plan, and formally pitching the idea to potential investors.

At least I didn’t have to present by myself.

Doing all of that is hard. I usually don’t like group projects, but man, was I happy this one was a group project. I was lucky to have my good friends Leah and Mari by my side through the sometimes frustrating process.

I liked that we heard from people who are in our field in the real world. We heard from Andrew Norman of Hear Nebraska and @creightonotter from the White & Blue Review who both started their own businesses. We also heard from Daphne Eck and Cathy Solarana who started their own freelancing businesses. It was interesting to hear that some of them back in college never thought they would start a business, and now here they are.

I’m about to make that same assumption. This class made me realize that I don’t really ever want to start my own business. It’s a challenge too big for just me. If I ever do start my own business, you can bet it’ll be a dual-founder deal.

Because I never took a business class (which I will probably regret one day), I hated the financial part of the business plan. When we first took numbers into consideration and were practical about the numbers, it felt like we would never make a profit! However, at some point, through sweat and tears, businesses make more than they spend. Talk about the rainbow after the rain.

Reflecting on the whole experience, I took away three points:

1. Passion is so important. One thing I noticed about all the real-world entrepreneurs that came to visit us is that they all were focused on something they loved. If you don’t love it, you won’t put your time and energy into it. Passion makes a life worth living.

2. Doing the same job for 40, 50 years is no longer a trend, especially in the journalism business. With technology constantly changing, our careers will constantly change and at some point we may realize starting our own business is something we want to do.

3. It takes people with different skills (design, advertising, financial, etc.) to run a business, and (thank God) writing is still one of them.

Making Freelancing Familiar

As I look for a job and prepare to graduate, I hear the word “freelance” a lot. I hear it in the context of “you can always freelance until you find something full-time.” I know a few people who freelance in order to make a little extra cash; Anna Hensel, my classmate, is a great example.

However, people like Daphne Eck do freelance work full time, as a career. In a lot of ways, freelancing sounds ideal. You have the freedom to work when you want. You don’t have to report to an office and spend eight hours there every day. In addition, for the most part, you can write about whatever you want. Alexis Grant’s blog, “The Write Life,” is about helping writers, or people like herself, connect with each other and find freelancing opportunities. The sky seems endless as long as you can pitch an idea successfully to a superior, if you have one.

What I need when I write: a pen, pad and computer.

I don’t know if I’d like freelancing as a full time career. I think I’m much more productive when I have a scheduled time to work, so reporting to an office makes sense to me. However, I think it’s possible to schedule time to work and time for other things and have the self-discipline to stick to that schedule.

Something that I learned about freelancing that I didn’t know before I heard from Daphne is that it requires a lot of teamwork with others. I most often think of freelancing as writing for a publication, and writing articles doesn’t take a ton of teamwork with the exception of working with an editor. When helping others find their voice, you have to work with clients and as Daphne mentioned, a graphic designer. That made me feel better, since my design projects are sometimes less than desirable. Alexis Grant actually recommends teaming up with certain design experts, like Daphne does, because you’re more marketable as a team. I think that this type of freelancing, the type where you work with clients, is probably more rewarding. Helping others find their voice and making their voice matter is an important task, and Daphne is good at it, according to the reviews on her LinkedIn page.

I don’t think I could ever freelance full time (I’m too type A and without structure I feel lost), but I’m freelancing part time right now, and I suppose I could call it my first official post-grad “job.” I’m writing blog posts for a PR company in Milwaukee called ProPRCopy. Clients come to them to ask for content, either blog posts, news releases, web copy or articles, to help them establish a voice in the community. I’m really enjoying it so far, and I love that it’s a part-time gig. It’ll help me keep doing what I love as I move onto the next stage of my life.