Anya Dee

I am a writer who has been working in the online market for over seven years now. Over the course of my life, a lot has happened! It's interesting how you can pack a lot of fun into thirty-something years of existence! I'm on a roll, really! I was born in Chicago and was destined for greatness...or at least that's how I believed it! My parents were very VERY traditional...mom a housewife full-time and dad worked for the city. They were "good" savers and managed to buy apartment buildings around the city. Some small two-flats and some huge 20+ unit buildings. Needless to say, I had a comfortable childhood. The one caveat was that my parents were a lot older than me, so I found myself without a dad at 15 and without a mom by 23. This isn't sad though. The good news was that the time I did spend with them was very educational…not in a ‘reading, writing, arithmetic’ kind of way, but rather in a life-skills sort of way. My parents were by all accounts high-performance people. They set their minds to do something and within a few months or years, they did it. Despite the fact that neither one had any college education to speak of and my mother was taken out of school after the 8^th grade, they were pretty smart people. Needless to say, though the time I spent with them was short, I am very grateful for it. They taught me a lot of early life lessons that have served me well over the past decade without them.

So how did this manifest in MY life? Well- I immediately knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. My first venture was into the concert promoting world and WOW WAS IT FUN! All the stories about rock stars and late nights having awesome parties?? YEP- it’s all true! I had a blast with the market but unfortunately it isn’t one that is very lucrative for everyone. I found myself out of a lot of money. Sure, I have some great stories, but there is a lot of financial loss to go with them.

Here’s how you KNOW that you are an entrepreneur though- you keep going! The thought of giving up and taking the 9-to-5 isn’t there…regardless of what happens to you. I regrouped and took some freelance work over the next ten years. I suddenly got a great job offer and loved the idea of just taking the easy road for a while. I ended up working for “the man” for a year. I made some money and then I was fired due to cut-backs. This is where that old entrepreneurial spirit came back into play. Getting fired was the best thing that could have happened to me because it gave me a shot in the arm of “What am I doing?!?” and “What do I REALLY want to do now!?!”

I started writing…something that I was good at because I just completed my Masters degree. Anyone who has gone through a graduate program knows how much writing you end up doing on a regular basis. One thing is for sure- you are going to end up a great writer by the end of your studies! That’s exactly what happened to me and I decided to put it to good use. I started my own writing company and initially my goal was to provide sales copy, marketing material and web content to small businesses. It morphed a bit to include blogging and press releases, along with editing and “ghost writing” services. This is exactly what I have been doing for the past three years now full-time. I love it. The best thing about being a writer is that I can take clients from all around the world and help build their businesses. I also can take my laptop out to the lake and “work” while sitting in a lawn chair with my dogs running around. Bottom line is, I love my work. I love my life. This is gonna be good!