Today’s Write Out Loud interview features Yolander Prinzel. Yolander is a financial writer as well as a series 7, 66 and 2-15 licensed representative. During her decade of financial industry experience she has been an insurance agency director of marketing and director of operations, a life insurance underwriter, and a trading service specialist for Raymond James Financial Services. She was a featured speaker at the 2006 Hartford National Sales Conference and the 2006 Brookstreet Securities Annual Conference.

You may also know Yolander from her no-unpublished blog, Freelance Writerville, where she was a straight-shooter and brutally honest encourager of freelance writers everywhere. Yolander shut down her freelance writing blog in favor of the Ning community by the same name, a currently quite, but helpful and friendly community where freelance writers can interact, blog about their experiences and learn from one another.

Write Out Loud: Hi, Yolander. Thank you for taking time to share with us about your freelance writing experience. What type of writing and editing do you do? What types of clients do you take on?

Yolander Prinzel: I am a financial writer and I take on clients who need financial writing—insurance agents and agencies, financial advisors, insurance companies, financial publications and others.

WOL: I read and reviewed your ebook, “You’ve Found Your Specialty, Now What??”. In it you help readers figure out how and where to find clients. What would you say is the most successful strategy for snagging clients?

YP: Focus on one group of prospects and specialize in satisfying their needs.

WOL: Can you elaborate on that a bit? Why do you think it’s important that a freelancer finds a specialty and focuses on that niche?

YP: What good is sending a penis enlargement pill advert to a woman? No good. The same can be said of the service your freelance writing business provides. If you don’t have a specialty and don’t have a niche, then you don’t know who your client is. You could be marketing your product to someone without a need for it and wasting time.

WOL: In what other ways do you market your services and sell your work?

YP: Mostly networking although I do some querying and marketing. I also apply for financial writing gigs when I see them.

WOL: How do you schedule your day?

YP: Right now I don’t unless I have a phone appointment or conference call to work around. Otherwise I just do what I feel like doing when I feel like doing it. I write best in the early morning or late evening and I like to be in the mood to write when I do. This makes me at the mercy of the muse. I’ve found that as long as you do your work well before its deadline, this isn’t a problem. I work most of my networking and marketing in around traditional business hours.

WOL: What portion of what you do is writing/editing and what portion would you say is other business related work (e.g., marketing, networking, querying, etc.)?

YP: I spend anywhere from 2-5 hours a day writing, depending on my workload that week. I spend maybe another hour and a half or so marketing, networking, querying, etc. Another hour (sometimes 2) is spent responding to requests and preparing proposals for potential clients.

WOL: What are your favorite tools for making your work easier?

YP: Paypal invoicing because it works with the Outright accounting software I use and Microsoft OneNote because it allows me to collect my notes, emails and other research materials all in one place.

WOL: What resources (books, websites, courses, etc.) do you regularly use or have been useful to you in the past?

YP: I like Bob Bly’s blog as well as his books, Seth Godin’s blog and whatever Google Reader comes up with for my alert keywords in finance, investing, insurance, salvage, risk management and writing.

WOL: What skills would you say are most important to your success as a writer/freelancer?

YP: Specialized knowledge, the ability to communicate, and patience.

WOL: What strategies do you use to stay on top of deadlines and manage multiple projects?

YP: When I first started I really over-complicated this issue. Now, I just use a calendar and a whiteboard. I am convinced that over-thinking can equal the death of your freelance writing business.

WOL: What one piece of advice would you give to other writers who are hoping to build a freelance business?

YP: Be dedicated, driven and persistent.

WOL: Where is your favorite place to work? What is your favorite time of the day to work?

YP: My office. I have a great office with a reading nook. It’s completely private and away from the living part of the house. It’s perfect.

WOL: And my favorite question: Writers are often known for their vices. What’s your biggest vice?

YP: Food, television and laziness.

WOL: Thank you for your honest answers and willingness to help other freelancers build successful writing businesses.

If you want to talk more with Yolander, head over and join the Freelance Writerville community. You can also find her at www.biglittlefinanceblog.com or yolanderprinzel.com.