In 1997, Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich wrote advice for new graduates. Her column, “Wear Sunscreen,” was reworked several times into spoken word pieces. It’s inspiring each time I hear it. Enjoy.

When I quit my job in July of last year, I just simply quit. I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t know I was going to open my own business. I had simply had enough of … well… everything.

Luckily, I suppose, my former boss valued me enough to ask that I stay on for six or so weeks so we could transition me out. Less than a week later, the idea for Avenue Z Writing Solutions was born, and I was staying up all night working to start my own business.

My Gosh, people… there are better ways to do things! I jumped off the cliff first — then I looked around for what I could use as a parachute. This is not the natural order of things, and here’s how I would do things if I had been on better medication at the time:

1. Milk your insurance for all it’s worth
   I had vision, dental and a low deductible for medical. And what did I do? Nothing! I was too busy trying to come up with a logo to make a dentist appointment. The other day I made myself go to the eye doctor, and the total bill for new glasses, new contacts and full exam was $527. I probably could have saved at least half that by using the program.
2. Write a business plan
   No, really. They’re important. Really important. They would have helped me decide what type of writing I should have focused on from the beginning. I do very well in certain arenas, but most of my early marketing efforts were in every arena, so I wasted money and time.
3. Have some money in the bank
   I was very, very, very fortunate that my former sales job continued to provide commissions for several months after I left the position. Most of my early days were spent trying to come up with marketing programs and trying to figure out how to not hate cold calling (never got over that). But the money tied me over for a while
4. Pay your bills down before you quit
   As you prep to leave, make every effort in the universe to shrink your debt. Again, the commissions helped immensely, and beyond that, I created a strict budget. And then I made it even more strict. I learned how to make do on a monthly budget that I never thought was possible.
5. Stay up every night to prepare
   Do your homework before you write your letter of resignation. Work on your website until midnight. Start scoping out sales for office supplies while you’re shopping for groceries. Figure out where you’re going to get software during your lunch break. Find a great place to make business cards.

There you go. This is my “do as I should have done” list. I wish you better sense than I have…

I’m back to working 6 days a week, and today I’m sitting in my favorite coffee shop (picture at right), working on a handful of projects. The variation of this list is a good indication of the range of work that I do. All the tasks on this list come from my regular clients, who keep a running list of To Dos and things I can work on whenever I have time.

• Press releases for a pediatrician’s books, special engagements and awards (3 hours today)
• An article about security issues for online elections (1 hour today)
• Website copy for a company that does online job boards (1 hour today)
• Blog entries for a Web 2.0 technology that does group collaboration (1 hour today)
• A website for a property rental company (1 hour today)

I’ve also got a number of things to finish up for my own business, including:

• Asking for testimonials from speaking engagements I had earlier this year
• Billing clients for this and that
• Writing an article on wikis for my next newsletter

I’ve been at it since around 7 a.m. or so. I finished one press release, called my mom for Mother’s Day, registered for the America’s Finest City Half Marathon and checked in with my sister. Doing the math, I have 6 solid hours of billable work that I need to complete today, and it’s 9:30 a.m. now. Guess I better get another cup of coffee.

PS — Yesterday’s 20-mile run was WITCH. Next stop: 26.2 on June 1!

My apologies to the subscribers to Life on Avenue Z: this is just a personal post. My dear baby sister just underwent a painful 4.5-hour emergency surgery. She had severe pain on Friday right before I visited, and all weekend she was up and down. Monday morning I went with her to the doctor. The diagnosis: a faulty gall bladder.

Normally this is not a big deal. With a non-invasive laparoscopic technique, doctors can make four little incisions and eliminate the problem, with a downtime of a matter of days after the procedure. But Sarah ended up having to have full abdominal surgery the day after I left.

I’m sitting here in my little office in San Diego worried to death. Sarah and her tubes and IVs will be in the hospital for several days, and she’s going to be down for 4-6 weeks. She’s got two little babies at home, and she won’t be able to pick them up. She’s a teacher, and she’s out for the rest of the school year. And she probably can’t come see me run my second marathon on June 1.

Think positive thoughts for her, pretty please. She’s an amazing woman and a great friend, and I’d take her pain for myself in a minute if I could.

As a freelance copywriter, I write for a bunch of different organizations from event promoters in the gay community to nonprofits and Web 2.0 technology companies. Most of my clients don’t have a set of rules they enforce for their marketing materials. I never know who uses a comma before “and” in a series or who italicizes a magazine name because they don’t know if they do those things.

A few days ago I decided I would adopt The Associated Press Stylebook as the primary Avenue Z style. It arrived a couple of days ago, and, geek that I am, I have been reading the dang thing cover to cover. This book will join Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style on my reference shelf.

Oh, the joy of having rules! Here are ten random things that I’m glad the Stylebook tells me how to write:

1. Choose “cleft lip” over “harelip.”
2. There’s a hyphen in “hanky-panky.”
3. The preferred term is “flutist,” not “flautist.”
4. “Cop: Be careful in the use of this colloquial term for ‘police officer.’ It may be used in lighter stories and in casual, informal descriptions, but often is a derogatory term out of place in serious police stories.”
5. A “pom-pom” can be a rapid firing automatic weapon. “Pompoms” or “pompons” are what cheerleaders shake (among other things).
6. “Impassible” means that passage was impossible, such as an “impassable bridge.” “Impassible” suggests an inability to be affected, and “impassive” implies that no reaction was visible.
7. You don’t have to capitalize “tollhouse cookies.”
8. There is no plural of the word “Ms.” If you have a list of women with that title, you have to say “Ms. Smith” and “Ms. Ziesenis.”
9. There’s no period after the “Dr” in “Dr Pepper.”
10. “Continual” means a steady repetition, over and over again. “Continuous” means uninterrupted, steady, unbroken.