Taking care of business: Having plans and systems in place

This month’s meeting features Sally Asnicar JP, who will talk to us about having plans and systems in place to take care of business.

You can attend either in person or via a Zoom webinar. To register to attend in person visit the Trybooking page by 3 pm on 27 September. Registering helps us with catering, but isn’t essential.

Date: Wednesday 27 September 2023
Time: 5:45 pm (on site), 6:30 pm (webinar)
Dinner to follow at La Rustica by the Lake, 21 Eastlake Parade,
Kingston Foreshore at 8 pm.

Beyond the intensive nature of the work itself and communications with clients, running an editing business by ourselves can be demanding and stressful. Everything is “in our head”: marketing, assessing projects and the level of work required, scheduling, admin, client records, invoices and payments, managing a website and finances, tax – everything!

We don’t necessarily keep meticulous records or share with others (e.g. family members) what we are working on, where we keep things, how we run things, who our clients and suppliers are, where we’re at with our taxes and our finances, and so on.

About the presentation

Our guest speaker, Sally Asnicar, will talk about how having plans and systems in place can make running a business less stressful and more productive and profitable.

These plans and systems safeguard a self-employed business owner and their clients, not only in the day-to-day running of the business – for example, ensuring that an editorial agreement is in place should a problem arise with a client regarding scheduling, pricing or payment – but also in the event something unforeseen occurs that prevents the editor from operating their business, temporarily or permanently.

A focus is on encouraging all self-employed editors to create an ICE (in case of emergency) Plan, so that should the worst happen, clients aren’t left in the lurch, the business won’t collapse, and others – usually loved ones – aren’t left with an unholy mess that could take weeks, months or even years to sort out.

Sally has created a template for an ICE plan that covers the process (based on order of urgency), which designated people (the ICE person/s) are aware of, briefed on, and can implement and follow should someone need to step in if the editor is suddenly unable to fulfil the work for whatever reason. 

About Sally Asnicar

Sally is a Sydney-based editor who founded her business, Full Proofreading Services, in 2007. With a lifelong passion for reading, writing and languages, she developed a meticulous eye for detail during her early career working at law firms, and then as a researcher and report writer (in English and Japanese) for sōgō shōsha Mitsui at offices in Australia and in Tokyo during the mid- to late 1990s.

Sally’s clients include businesses of all sizes, industries and professions, as well as government departments and agencies, not-for-profits and, of course, writers. While she has edited manuscripts across a range of genres, including romance, comedy and self-help, Sally particularly enjoys and specialises in life writing, and mystery and crime thriller genres. She offers writing services and manuscript appraisals, and is proficient in all types of editing, from developmental editing to proofreading, but prefers line and copy editing.

A long-time Professional Member of IPEd, Sally volunteers as a mentor for IPEd’s Mentoring Program, is a member of the Fiction Style Guide Working Group, and was previously an IPEd ambassador, as well as serving on the Editors NSW committee and the Pay Rates Working Party, for which she still maintains the rates tracker on Memnet.

In her spare time, Sally volunteers as a justice of the peace. She enjoys reading (of course), and the more active pursuits of dancing, Pilates, hiking, birdwatching, and skiing – on water and on snow.

To attend in person

Please register on the Trybooking page by 3 pm on 27 September if you wish to attend in person.

Where:

The Durie Room
St Mark’s National Theological Centre
15 Blackall St (not Blackall Place)
Barton
See MAP.

When:

The room opens at 5:45 pm. The presentation begins at 6:30 pm.

Need to cancel?

Return your ticket directly into the TryBooking system to make it available for someone else.

Dinner

We plan to dine at La Rustica by the Lake on Eastlake Parade, Kingston Foreshore at 8 pm after the meeting. Please join us. You can find the location and menu at: https://larusticabtlcom.wpcomstaging.com/.

If you’d like to join us, please register by 3 pm Wed 27 September so that we can finalise bookings.

Please also bring cash with you as the restaurant does not split bills.

To attend the webinar (via Zoom)

A link for the Zoom meeting will be supplied to all members by email. If you are not a member and wish to attend by Zoom, please send an email to the contact email address you will find on the About page and ask to be sent a link. Please do not pass on your link to other people.

The webinar audience can use Zoom’s Q&A functionality to ask questions or offer opinions. (You will not be able to see the presentation or participate in the Q&A if you attend by phone call.)

The webinar will not be recorded.