The 5 Best Places to Write Outside Your Office

by Mark Bloom | Sep 21, 2014 | Writing

When You Have to Get Out of the Office

Working from home has its advantages and disadvantages. Sure, it’s possible — although not always desirable — to work in your pajamas. We’ve found, at least through our own experience, that to be at our best, we want breakfast and a shower first. Then the words flow!

Professional writers can write anywhere!

Yes, our job is writing. While we often work in a home office, we also can work in other places. Here is a list of our top five favorite places to write outside of those rooms, out in the wilds of Asheville. Maybe you’ll find your creativity in one of them.

1. The Old Standby

The coffee shop has been a writer’s hangout for decades. Since most coffee shops now offer a free Internet connection, their popularity among writers has only grown. What do writers need to craft their magic? A laptop computer or just a pen and pad of paper, a table or desktop, a fairly comfortable chair and a good cup of coffee. A coffee shop provides all of the above.

2. Pack Square Library

The greatest advantage of working in the library is that it’s quiet. You can find a comfortable out-of-the-way spot — whether it’s in the reading room, by the main desk or even in the stacks — to do your writing. Surrounded by all those books, you don’t have to look far for inspiring words to keep you focused and busy.

3. Your Backyard

If you happen to live in a house, you may have a backyard that’s somewhat private and most likely comfortable. As long as you can find a spot that supports your body and your writing tools, you can enjoy the sunshine while doing your writing work. Because you’re outside but haven’t left home, you can go get a snack or a tissue or whatever you need without interrupting your workflow. Best of all, the bathroom is right inside.

4. The Wedge Brewery

Some writers thrive on coffee while others work best after one or two sudsy beverages. The Wedge Brewery offers lots of outdoor seating, including a few tables that are away from the crowd. As long as your laptop can stay charged without power, you can work outside. It’s best to go when it’s not swarming with clientele, but you can always disengage with an iPod and a set of earplugs.

5. Pritchard Park

Not all writers are social beings. Some prefer to write in a broom closet than out among the seething mass of humanity. But we like the occasional distraction that being out in public provides. We can disengage when we need to, but we’ve found that people don’t bother you while you’re typing intently away at the keyboard. And being in the middle of downtown has its advantages when you want something to eat or drink or when you need to find a restroom.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

The Occupational Hazards of Writing

by Elle Ray | Sep 11, 2014 | Writing

We Have to Sit at the Computer During Summer

We work in all kinds of weather, so you don't have to.

Ray Access is a content provider and content marketing business. That means we are writers and editors. In order to earn our income, we write. On a computer. At a desk. Inside an office. Regardless of the weather, the day of the week or even the time of day.

Fortunately, both Linda and Mark work at desks in rooms with windows that look out onto views with lots of green. We can see the sun shine and the clouds roll in and the rain begin. We can see the world pass by. Then it’s back to work.

Trapped in a Job?

That makes it sound as if we were chained to our desks, but the truth is far from that. We take frequent breaks. We stretch. We stroll around the room while thinking how best to help our clients. We do what we need to do to keep our bodies healthy and our minds sharp. Because we are writers, we get paid to write. If we’re not writing, we’re not making money.

So Linda and Mark of Ray Access have developed a term for the time we’re working. OK, actually, it was Linda who came up with the term, but now we both use it. It’s “B.I.C.” or “Butt In Chair.” If we don’t have our butts in the desk chairs, we’re not working. In other words, work starts when butt meets chair.

We All Sacrifice

Some people have to rise early to commute to a factory job where all the windows are 30 feet above them. Others drive around all day, stuck behind a wheel. Still others toil under the hot sun attaching shingles to wooden frames. Everyone has something to do for the job. Working — earning money to put food on the table — often entails some form of sacrifice.

So that’s how it is for us. Even on a gorgeous day, we’re usually inside typing away on a keyboard. Is it Saturday? Sunday? It doesn’t matter; you can still reach us on our cell phones, because we’re often still at our desks. Now that it’s September, we look up and realize summer has passed us by. It’s one of the occupational hazards of writing for a living.

Writing Is Our Passion

But it’s not that much of a sacrifice for us because writing is what we love to do. This blog post is evidence, since we don’t get paid for writing for our own blog. We do it out of love.

We like to think we’re adding value to our website by educating our readers about our business. But like most dedicated writers, we’d do it even if no one read our words. We’re writers; we have to write.

And that’s why we’re so perfectly poised to help your business. Because we love to write, because we’re so good at it after years of practice, we are the best options to rewrite your website, to create content for your business blog and to turn your company newsletter from a ho-hum read to a compelling one. Discover the difference professional writers can make to your business. Act now, you get not one, but two writers working for you, all for the same price!

Do What You Do Best

by Elle Ray | Mar 29, 2013 | Website Content

Spend Your Work Time Running Your Business

When you’re in the groove, doing what you do best, you feel energized. Everything seems to fall into place, and time passes so quickly that you barely notice. It’s why you got into business for yourself — to follow your passion, to turn your avocation into your vocation, and to follow your bliss.

When you work from your passion, it's fun

Unfortunately, owning a business requires entrepreneurs to engage in all sorts of activities that have nothing to do with the core of the business. You have to market your products and services to let customers know you exist. You need to do the books, pay the bills, write your blog, send out press releases, find suitable employees, and manage your time.

A Smart Solution

So if you’re smart, you turn to outside contractors. Using a third party to do those things that you aren’t very good at anyway can be a wise investment. Hiring local professionals to use their expertise to solve your challenges also supports the local economy. It’s not only big corporations that create a trickle-down effect to the local economy; entrepreneurs like you also drive those economics.

According to the Small Business Administration, hiring an outside contractor can save you money in the long run, too. The projects that you don’t want to do actually take you longer to accomplish, and you could be much more productive in those hours, doing what you do best. Because you only pay outside contractors for the work they perform for you, you have no payroll or tax issues to worry about.

Added Benefits

Hiring Ray Access can make you more of this In addition, the project is more likely to be successful because you’ve hired an expert to do it. We were so pleased this year to find a local accounting firm where we could just deliver our pile of receipts and return a few weeks later to sign the tax returns. We’ve all done taxes ourselves in the past, and while we did a good enough job, we learned that the time involved wasn’t worth it. In the hours it took to figure out all the codes on the various self-employment forms, we could earned twice as much money as it cost to hire the accountant.

At Ray Access, we’re writers. Our passion is writing and editing. It’s what we often do when we’re not even working. Our heads spin with ideas on topics to write about and angles to take them in. As writing professionals, we can save you time and money by writing your web content and your weekly blogs. Jot down all your notes, and we’ll put together a marketing strategy or business pitch you can present to your clients in readable plain language. It’s all part of what we do.

Since your time is money, spend it doing what you do best. Hire us to do what we do best. You follow your passion, and we follow ours. Everyone wins.