Dick Margulis Discusses a Unique Niche for Business Writers

Freelance writer, editor, and book designer Dick Margulis recently shared some information with the FREELANCE email list about some interesting new work he had picked up, which as I understand it, involves rewriting Standard Operating Procedure guides for companies trying to show that their business practices comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (I think that’s the gist of it—perhaps Dick can expand on that). I thought it would be fun to find out more about this work and share it with the rest of you, in case you’re interested in tapping into this market, as well. So I arranged to email Dick a set of questions and what I got back was not only informative, but showed Dick has a droll sense of humor, as well. Here’s what he had to say:

I have only a vague sense of what you’re doing, so can you describe the work in more detail? What kind of SOPs are you rewriting? Is this primarily editing work?

This is primarily handholding work in the guise of management consulting (Dress better than your clients: wear a jacket and expensive tie if you’re a man or high-end-looking business attire—buying it at Goodwill is permissible—if you’re a woman. That’s how you justify the big bucks).

If you’ll recall, in the wake of the Enron scandal, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). This law requires that publicly held companies be more strictly accountable to their shareholders. Corporations turned to their accounting partners to help them put the necessary procedures in place, and the big accounting firms took the opportunity to make the law sound very scary indeed, thereby justifying huge consulting contracts for implementing complex new procedures.

When you look behind the curtain, though, the SOX requirements are straightforward at the operational level and they are consistent with ISO 900x requirements and—for companies in the pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing industries—the FDA’s Quality System Regulation (QSR). All of these requirements boil down to this: Say what you’re going to do. Do it. Document that you did it. Be prepared to produce the documentation if you’re audited. That is, there are no detailed requirements for a given operation to be carried out in a particular way in all companies; there are no templates that everyone has to adhere to. Instead, there is a broad definition of what it means to be accountable for your actions.

For a writer, this is a simple concept to grasp. For people who have never had the need to express logical thoughts in an organized way, it’s apparently a very difficult concept to grasp. That’s where the income opportunity lies for the writer.

The deadline has passed for publicly held companies to comply with SOX. So that opportunity is gone. But the chain of accountability extends to the vendors the public companies do business with. And that market is still wide open. I’m talking about the small manufacturers and service companies, family-owned businesses for the most part, that provide parts for products or provide infrastructure services. And I’m talking about companies with 100 or more employees, not the sandwich shop that delivers lunch.

While these companies are not themselves subject to SOX directly, their publicly held customers have to show an unbroken chain (think in terms of the chain of custody of a piece of evidence) of accountability. So they are asking for documentation of the internal processes of these vendors, along with ISO 900x compliance or QSR compliance, as appropriate.

These companies need a set of documents that meet the requirements. Documents are written by writers, and most companies don’t have writers on staff. You’re a writer, right? Right. So write.

Is the material highly technical? Does the work require legal, financial or other expertise?

Typically, it is not at all technical, although a background in technical writing is helpful, because a lot of it consists of writing multi-step procedures. Even without a tech writing background, most writers can manage that, but there is a body of knowledge surrounding best practices in procedure writing that tech writers tend to have absorbed.

As far as legal and financial expertise, you should have some common sense and be generally familiar with the way businesses operate. If legal or accounting questions arise, the writer’s job is to create the framework for expressing the information and then query the details, so the company’s legal or accounting counsel can easily fill them in. For example, you might create a table that shows how long certain classes of documents should be retained before they are destroyed. Well, you have the concept, and you can create the table, but it’s up to the lawyers to fill in the actual periods for each class of document. You don’t need to know that. It’s not the writer’s job to set policy for the company, only to express it clearly.

You said that “privately held, midsize companies” are where the opportunities for this work lie. How would you suggest identifying particular companies that need this sort of work done?

Use all the techniques you would use if you were unemployed and looking for a job, except you can drive somewhat farther to meet with a client than you might be willing to commute and you can consult for companies you’d never consider working for full-time. Word of mouth; Yellow Pages; zoning maps (look for industrial zoning and drive around in those areas to collect company names); Chamber of Commerce; Better Business Bureau; etc. There are websites where you can search for businesses of a particular type within a specific geographic region. Heck, start with Google Earth. [Interviewers note: I think the matter of narrowing down which companies need this work is addressed a bit more specifically in the answer to my first question--i.e., "vendors the public companies do business with" and the stuff about them that follows].

Do you know if companies in particular sectors are looking for writers to do this work?

No. I don’t have any specific information on that.

Once you’ve identified potential clients, who would be the right person to contact and how would you recommend making your pitch to work for them (i.e., phone, email, one-on-one)?

I think the marketing approach you take has to be matched to your personal style and to what information you can gather about the prospect. I wouldn’t presume to advise a one-size-fits-all approach.

[When asked on follow up to suggest a particular person within the company to contact, Dick had this to offer]:

How you approach a company really depends on what you can learn about it. Start with the website and see if there are any names of executives or other contact points. Then start as close to the top as you can get [italics mine], because the top is where the pain is being felt.

A call to the switchboard can get you the name of the CEO and, if the CEO has one, the name of the executive assistant (where the real power is). But as with any marketing effort, you can't expect to land an account with one well-placed phone call or one well-written letter. Luck and timing will have more to do with success than sincerity and competence.

Do you think face-to-face networking could be an effective way to find more of these projects? Or is a more targeted strategy the way to go?

My sense is that most of the prospects I’m talking about are not highly networked in the modern, online sense. You might not find any trace of the key individuals online. They may be primitive users of email at best. The company website may be something they paid a web design firm big bucks for a few years ago but nobody in the company knows the first thing about it. Mostly, I think these are people who enjoy going home to their families at the end of the day and watching American Idol. They’re probably not watching PBS or CNN or listening to NPR.

But personal networking is another matter. Volunteering to speak on the subject at the monthly Chamber of Commerce get-together or at a Lions Club luncheon will get your face in front of people and turn you into the go-to person in the area. This is low-odds prospecting, in terms of the individuals who hear you speak. But when the question comes up back at the office, maybe one of them will pipe up with your name.

Reaching the right person at the right time (which is when someone is putting pressure on them to act and they first realize they don’t know how to do the job themselves) is iffy. Being known, available, and alert to the opportunity when they start looking for help is what’s important.

You also said geographic proximity or access to the client is important, because “Typically, [the company expects] face-to-face contact, even if you go away and do the work at home.” Is there a reason other than the client’s average age and lack of comfort with virtual business dealings for this?

It’s cultural. We’re talking about companies that are not out there recruiting at major engineering schools and business schools. Instead, they tend to hire people who show up looking for a job, at an entry level, and then promote from within. So a manager might be someone with a high school diploma or a couple of years of community college (and the first person in the family to attend college at all) who has always lived within a ten-mile radius of where he or she was born. This might be the only company where the manager has ever worked. Trust is based on a firm handshake and looking you in the eye. The Internet is a scary place. Dateline NBC told them so, and it must be true. The one PC at home is used mostly by the kids. The one at work is still running Windows 2000.

You also described this as “an easy project for good money.” I just have to ask—how easy and how good?

If you have a tech writing background and have ever done work on an ISO 900x implementation project or otherwise worked in a regulated industry or with policy and procedure documentation, it’s very easy. If not, you’ll have to do your homework before starting. As for how good, think in terms of management consulting rates. I don’t have the guts to charge more than $150 an hour, but that’s enough for me, and it makes me look like a bargain compared to the firms that come it at $250 an hour.

Any other suggestions for finding and landing these projects that we haven’t already discussed? Other points you’d like to make that I didn’t ask about?

A lot of writers, like a lot of actors, are introverts with self-esteem issues. In this market, that combination works against you, because the essence of these projects is to appear to know a lot more than the client (you do, but you also have to appear to). The solution—as for an actor—is to fake being an egotistical extravert. In other words, all business is show business at some level. Make a game of it so that the play-acting is fun rather than a torment, and you’ll be fine. Eventually it will even come to feel natural.

* * *

Thanks so much, Dick, for your enlightening (and entertaining) thoughts. And I hope this has given everyone food for thought about potential new writing services we can provide.

In conclusion, here's some more information from Dick about his business and experience:

Since 2004, I’ve worked full-time as an independent consultant, providing writing, editing, typography, and design services, doing business as Dick Margulis Creative Services (catchy name, huh?). My website is http://www.dmargulis.com/ and my blog is http://ampersandvirgule.blogspot.com/. I’ve been editing and setting type for close to half a century at this point. Along the way, I’ve done many kinds of writing for pay, too, including over a decade as a technical writer. But I never want to see the inside of a cubicle again, so I work from home. My clients are all over the world, and I’ve never met most of them. That’s one of the reasons the sort of local work we’ve talked about in this interview appeals to me: I enjoy meeting clients once in a while.