Fact Sheet - How I Work With You
This page provides information for prospects and future clients.
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Terms and Contracts
The Process - Research and Interviews
Technical Writing
Drafts and Revisions
Documentation Tools Used
Turnkey Web Development for your business
My Business Background
Initial Consultation is Truly "No Obligation"
The first step to any successful writing engagement is an initial consultation. Our first meeting may be by phone. If you are outside the Cincinnati, Ohio metro area, we will probably work exclusively by phone and e-mail.
Generally, you will tell me what you are trying to accomplish in your marketing. You will share with me your ideas regarding how your product or service helps your customers, and how you see your competitive role in the marketplace. In turn, I will share my ideas on possible approaches or I may ask more questions in order to clarify the subject matter.
An initial consultation may extend across more than one phone call or a few e-mail exchanges. I reserve the right to limit this extended activity if we are getting off-track or the dialog does not seem to be productive.
I work under a simple letter of agreement that assigns all copyrights and rights to the client upon full payment. (I often ask for the privilege to use clips and samples from the work in my own marketing materials, and that is at your option.)
I generally try to give you a fixed price (a price that does not depend upon hours of work.) If the project is open ended, which usually means that we are not specific about the deliverable, or if the deliverable consists of many segments that are too time consuming to estimate individually, then I will propose a block of hours and a set of less specific milestones instead.
Finally in this phase, if the nature of the work is well defined, and we are in mutual agreement on the direction and nature of the deliverable, I will propose a project price, or a fixed price, which will be all-inclusive.
Most fixed price projects require a 50% advance payment. Most hourly projects are conducted against a prepaid deposit (sometimes called a retainer.)
I will promptly refund your advance payment if you are truly not pleased with the first work that I have done for you and you provide a written letter to me indicating your specific reasons for rejecting the work.
If a project is killed through no fault of my company, full payment is due.
The Process - Research and Interviews
Here is how I work.
I will interview the stakeholders in your business, and I will read your existing marketing materials. I will use these resources to form a model of your business offering in words, that we then discuss. I will constantly challenge you as necessary to think about your business on your customer’s terms and to tell me about it. Then I will craft a message that makes your offering the only conceivable choice for your prospects.
This may sound time-intensive, but it pays dividends in gaining a fresh perspective on your business's offerings.
I will usually rely upon you, the client, to motivate each stakeholder whose input is necessary to the project in order to gain access to their time.
Technical writing and user documentation projects are fundamentally different in nature from commercial copy writing. In particular, detailed knowledge has to be scaled back to a form with which customers can work productively. I have worked in engineering and software departments for several decades, so I understand that busy programmers and engineers have a lot on their plates. At the same time, detailed technical knowledge often needs to be unraveled from the key technical people and laid out plainly for use by customers or users. My goal is always to operate unobtrusively but directly and to make your technical documentation project a success on all levels.
Depending upon the needs of the project, I will collaborate with your people by creating drafts, which I will send to you for approval and for discussion. I will incorporate your input into the final work. My work with clients is always collaborative. I will need your time, but probably a lot less of it than you would think.
Documentation Tools - Technology Issues of Authoring
I am an experienced user of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Viso, plus Photoshop Elements and a number of other word processing and graphics applications. In addition, because I am also a software developer by past experience, I can cope with almost any conceivable "home grown" web based content management system. I can also work with markup requirements such as markup of text with HTML or SGML tags, as well as legacy word processing standards such as nroff, Latex, and others.
My primary role as a writer is content generation. The value that I provide to my customers is in the molding of your ideas and your product and service concepts into a persuasive story. This means that I am not presenting my services as a turnkey design service at this time. Professionals with experience in the graphic arts can do this kind of work for you far more effectively.
There is one exception to this, which follows.
Basic Web Development Services
I can produce a high-quality, highly functional web presence for your small business very cost effectively.
Using the popular, award-winning Drupal web site platform, I can produce a web site that incorporates contact forms, calendars, news articles, your own blog, image galleries, and many other popular features. I use this tool as the "container" for content that I will write that showcases and effectively promotes your business. If you wish, upon delivery you can take over running of your site, without having to download and install complicated tools to your computer.
This web site, as well as www.tedesco-remodeling.com, were developed using Drupal. Prices for complete sites start at $750 and up.
Business Format, Location, Background
I operate an Ohio corporation called Cedar City Solutions, Inc. which is used for all invoicing, billing and collection activity in all writing projects that I conduct for clients. The corporation has been in continuous operation since 2001. From 1993 through 2000, I conducted software consulting activities as a sole proprietor.
I am located in Lebanon, Ohio, a pastoral and historic suburb of Cincinnati. I have a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Dayton.
Past Experience
My technology resume is at http://www.donwallace.com. In addition to the consulting background shown there, I worked in a number of permanent engineering positions earlier in my career in a variety of Fortune 100 and Department of Defense prime contractor environments.
Any Other Questions?
Please do not hesitate to contact me at 513-932-2236 or writer@cedarcitysols.com.