So this is the page I've been dreading writing...
I know there are some people in the world that love talking about themselves…it’s just I’m not one of them!
"as long as I can remember I have been a writer...
When I was seven we had a lady come into our school to teach creative writing.
She made the mistake of taking our first stories and binding them up into little books.
I was blown away, I can still remember my story (all 2 pages of it) and what she did remains with me to this day
So what do you do when you want to become a writer?
Yes that’s right you get a job as an accountant.
In fact I spent more than 20 years adding things up and taking away but during all that time I was still writing content.
Typically I’d end up writing the reports for the annual accounts, business plans, white papers and collaborating on producing marketing content for my employers.
Naturally as an accountant I got heavily involved in the analytical side of marketing and spent a fair amount of time working for large agencies.
Latterly my employers would often need training docs, blog posts or other types of marketing material that fell under my area of expertise.
Then I started to sell my work semi-professionally and eventually…
Yellow Tomato was born
Along the way I became a Chartered Management Accountant and did an MBA so my professional writing was mainly working for accountants and service businesses, especially when they wanted a really technical white paper.
But word spread and people started contacting me to do other stuff, especially recruiters but also a collection of other fairly diverse SMEs.
I even did a fair amount of white label work for other agencies which was a mistake because I can’t include that in my portfolio!
Anyway finally I bowed to the inevitable and started Yellow Tomato.
And I am loving it.
I get to work with some absolutely epic businesses, doing the thing I love and if I wake up at 3am (which I have a habit of doing) then I can just get to work and then have a little snooze in the PM or go for a bike ride.
Did I say I live in Bournemouth UK?
So what on earth do I do?
Well most of the time I work with B2B and professional services companies tidying up their marketing.
This can range from writing blogs for software companies, redesigning and adding new content to an accountancy website or working on a full marketing plan with a consultant.
I like to work with small to medium sized businesses because I just don’t do office politics and because of the person I am I like to know that I am making a difference.
The joy of being self-employed is that I get to work with people I like, for people I like.
And then I get to go out on my bike.
Fancy a coffee?
One of the worst things about being self-employed is that I don’t get to interact with as many people as I used to back in the day.
So if you are in the area and fancy a brew then give me a shout, and if you’re not then ping me a message and let’s have an ‘e-coffee’ and chat about your project.