Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | T&D

Publish this: nothing says "SME" like your name in print.

Article Excerpt
Years ago, as an employee of a small consulting firm in Connecticut, I approached my boss to ask what I could do to help the firm--and bolster my personal credentials. He suggested writing an article, an activity that would never have occurred to me, a B-minus student in English composition. After several false starts, I hit on a formula that helped me through my first piece. The concept was simple: I came up with 10 different tips, each acting as the inspiration for a paragraph or two. Next, I added opening and closing paragraphs. The end product was my article, relatively pain free. I titled that first piece, "Ten Tips on Survival for Small Business."

For me, attaching a number to the title--such as "Eight Ways to ..."--helps organize the article in parts. Instead of being overwhelmed by the article as a whole, I concentrate on one tip or step at a time. Even if I don't come up with exactly eight ways to perform this or that, I inevitably derive six or four--enough to sketch out an article.

With much anticipation, I mailed my first manuscript to a publication, which sat on it for five months and then rejected it. I then mailed it to another magazine, The New Englander, which sat on it for four months. One day without advance notice, however, a package arrived. It was thick. My article, "Ten Tips on Survival for Small Business," had been published. It was the last article in the issue, yet it was glorious....

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!