TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:RE: What would *you* do... From:Mailing List <mlist -at- ca -dot- safenet-inc -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 6 Apr 2004 11:01:33 -0400
walden miller [mailto:wmiller -at- vidiom -dot- com], who has
attained Veep-dom, sez:
> >6. Spent a lot of time ensuring that tech docs and training
> were profit
> centers.
> For docs, Vidiom is a services company with 11 writers. I
> set the billing
> rates and know the costs of my department. This is a simple
> billing vs.
> costs spreadsheet. Ensuring the profit means keeping rates
> high enough to
> earn enough that it pays for those writers "sitting on the
> bench," when no
> contracts are available. BUT keeping rates low enough that we can put
> writers to work.
I was the only writer in our little ( <80 people) company,
and now I'm the only writer at the division that we've
become, after purchase by a larger company. I write the
docs that go with the division's products.
We never sold docs. They were part of what was delivered
with the product, and we minimized printing, in favor of
PDFs on the software CD that comes with the hardware.
My most recent major achievement was to switch the bulk
of the customer docs (User, Reference, Integration, etc.)
from PDF/printable over to WebHelp.
As well, we don't sell to Joe Public. We sell relatively
pricey items (network security and crypto devices)
to major corporations and institutions and government
departments/agencies. My imagination fails me when it
comes to promoting myself as a profit center, or actually
making myself into a profit center.
Perhaps there's an opportunity here somewhere, but I'd
hate to start singling myself out for costing, only to
reveal that docs are a big drain on the corporate purse.
(Well, can't be that big a drain, there's only me and
very little printing.)
/kevin (if I cost so much, how come I keep so little? :-)
Have you tried the latest in Help Authoring from RoboHelp?
Try ROBOHELP X5 for Free - Now with Word 2003 support, Content
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more!
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
