As our company has grown, we’ve taken on several new names. When I started editing, I worked under the name “Ellen Morgan Consulting.” When Krystal started working with me, we switched to “Morgan Felton Consulting.” And now that we’ve brought on two more people to share the work with—and now that we’ve made the business official with the government—we’ve changed again, this time to “Wise Oak Consulting Collaborative, LLC.”
The word “collaborative” does a lot of work to explain the ethos behind our business. First of all, it’s a nod to the fact that we work with clients. We provided coaching and support throughout your writing process. We get to know our clients so that we can help you as an individual. We believe that writing is a meaning-making process, a way of taking part in the conversation to add to the body of knowledge, and that conversation is often the best way to figure out your meaning.
(We also provide really straightforward, send-it-in-and-we’ll-send-it-back editing, too.)
“Collaborative” also describes a lot about what’s happening behind the scenes at our company, too. As we’re four editors working together, we support each other. If we need help with a difficult editing question, we have someone to ask. If we get sick, we are each other’s back-up plan. Plus, in the world of freelancing, it’s kind of magical to have coworkers.
Working as a collaborative also helps us keep prices low. Running a website, keeping a client portal, paying state fees—all of those things cost money. Being able to split those costs among four people is economical.
Finally, we’re able to learn from each other. We meet every other week for a collaborative team meeting. We have time to remind each other of obscure and interesting editing rules. We edit a page together so that we can hone our editing skills.
When we picked our name, we put a lot of thought into the word “collaborative.” It tells so much about who we are and how we work.
