style="font-size:15px;"> 3.4 Check out potential competition
Ask friends and family if they know anyone who has done a family history book or memoir. Ask at the library, historical society, and genealogical society if they know any local people who provide this service. Search the library for self-published family histories or local histories, and take note of who wrote them, designed them, and published them. Take every opportunity to ask people if they have any interest in doing their memoirs or capturing their parents’ or grandparents’ stories. At this stage you’re just trying to get a sense of general interest and elicit responses like, “Oh, Ruth Jones hired someone to do that for her mom. I’ll get the name for you.”
3.5 Set up your office
Start planning your special space. For now, you need to decide whether you’ll work from home or rent office space elsewhere. There are pros and cons to both. Working from home is free — assuming you have room for an office and don’t have to build an addition — and convenient, and gives you a lot of flexibility. You can work around children’s schedules, appliance repair people, deliveries, or other commitments that require you to be home. Of course, distractions are ever-present and you need a lot of self-discipline to ignore them and get on with your work. An advantage of a home office is that you can use a portion of your expenses such as mortgage payments and utility costs as tax deductions. (Of course, you could also write off the cost of an outside office, plus your travel expenses.) If you decide to work at home, make sure your office is quiet and away from the hubbub. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does need to be yours. This is something you’ll probably want to discuss with your family.
3.6 Start spreadin’ the news
It’s not too early to tell friends, family, neighbors, former co-workers (and current coworkers if you have another job) that you’re going to offer personal history services. You might find that you get your first client from this casual announcement! Start keeping track of names and email addresses of potential clients.
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