...So I had never started my own business before or worked for myself in any capacity. I was entering into a brave new world. The good thing was I had ideas and a plan beginning with putting a press kit together. First I would reach out to the professor at Penn and the counseling director at Stockton College for reference letters. They both replied immediately and were happy to provide me with one. While I was waiting to receive those I drafted my new resume. This one would be specific only to my speeches, media, volunteer work and education related to my story of date rape as my previous career achievements were irrelevant. I was surprised as to how much I accomplished in 5 years when it was only something I was doing on the side. Next I had to get professional head shots done to be used in the press kit, twitter page and later my website so I booked an appointment with a photographer Steve had used and liked.
Now that all of those parts were moving it was time to get on twitter but before I did that I had to create a name for my company and a mission statement. This wasn't all that hard because since the beginning I talked about what that was in my speech. It was simple and JoAnnSpeaksOut was born. I created my twitter page and was ready to become familiar and start connecting with other people and organizations who shared the same mission as mine of awareness and advocacy. I worked on it every day learning as much as I could and it was starting to pay off slowly.
In the meantime I had to get my information out there so I could start booking speeches. Thankfully research was a key part of many jobs I had in the past and that skill was going to come in very handy. Moving not just to a new area but another coast left me unfamiliar with the many colleges, universities, rape crisis centers and organizations I would need to contact. The good news there was no shortage of them and I took my other business skill for creating spreadsheets and began filling it with names, email addresses and other pertinent information to refer back to later. Then I drafted an introduction and began my email campaign. I was feeling very satisfied and productive, something that had eluded me for a long time in the course of a work day. My research was not only paying off but the information would then lead me into other directions that I didn't even know existed. I was also getting some responses which validated what I was doing was working.
The next big challenge was the website. I knew what I wanted and how I wanted it to look which was a good thing but didn't know how I would get to my end result. First I had to make sure the JoAnnSpeaksOut domain was available for purchase which it was so I snapped it up from GoDaddy and called for advice on website design. The told me my options and what it would cost and since everything else involved with my venture was new to me I figured why not design the website myself using one of their templates of course. I had no creative talent to speak of but what I did have was a vision and ideas and I took that as far as I could. Weeks later and countless phone calls to customer service I launched my website and even received a few compliments.
I am not ashamed to say that I was really proud of myself. Everything I had been doing so far was for the first time but the difference, I wasn't scared or apprehensive nor did I second guess myself. What drove me every day is that I committed myself to helping others and all the hard work I put in every day was for my benefit. I no longer worked myself to exhaustion for someone else's profit. The first few months of JoAnnSpeaksOut I had overcome obstacles and challenges but I finished my day feeling satisfied unlike any other time in my work life. This from someone who NEVER thought she could work from home and for herself. I'm living proof that you can do what you never imagined you could...
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