Profile: Freelance Writer and Entrepreneur Thursday Bram

Around here, Thursday Bram is best known as the one who answers questions sent to Ask FreelanceSwitch.

But did you know that she’s been writing since high school? That she came from a family of entrepreneurs and has always expected to run her own business? And that the deal-breaker between Thursday and the employment world had to do with shoes?

Thursday took a job right out out of college – and it lasted a week and a half. “I can’t wear shoes all day!” she says.

Nowadays, Thursday enjoys her shoeless freelance freedom from her home in a rural area between Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland. She hails from a town so small that it’s not even incorporated. There isn’t much more to the place than a post office. Better yet, “There are cows three miles from my house!”

If you could define a beat for Thursday’s article writing, it would be small business and personal finance.

Not what you’d expect from one of the most densely populated areas of the United States.

In addition to handling Ask FreelanceSwitch and contributing well over 100 articles to this site since 2008, Thursday’s writing and blogging credits include CNET, GigaOm, Grow Smart Business, Lifehack, Matter Network, OneVoteMatters.com, Web Worker Daily, and Wise Bread.

If you could define a beat for Thursday’s article writing, it would be small business and personal finance. She knows of what she speaks. Thursday finished her undergraduate degree with a third of the debt of the average student. And she expects to complete graduate school with no additional debt.

For her clients, she provides written content that focuses on marketing, monetization, and planning. But she’s the first to admit that she’s not like a lot of other freelance writers. On her ThursdayBram.com website, she says:

One of the differences I’ve found between the way I do things and the way some other writers do things is that I put a big emphasis in creating sources of income not entirely dependent on my clients. Don’t get me wrong: I like my clients and there’s nothing like the thrill of seeing a byline in a new place. But one of my fundamental philosophies is that there is a ceiling on how much you can make by chasing after clients. I’m just as much an entrepreneur as a writer. I might even be more of an entrepreneur.

Isn’t that the truth! In one short paragraph, she’s summarized the great wall that a lot of us run into. Here’s the writing on that wall:

• We’re dependent on selling our time for money.
• That dependence often involves sitting home alone at the computer, which can be pretty lonely.
• So, we turn off the computer and head out the door. Unfortunately, when we leave home, our income goes to zero.

Hence, Thursday’s latest venture, EnhancedFreelance.com, which she co-founded with Jennifer Stakes Roberts. I’ll cover this site in depth in another FreelanceSwitch article, but suffice it to say that they’re aiming to work with freelancers who’ve gotten beyond the novice stage and want to take their businesses to a higher, more profitable, and entrepreneurial level.

It appears that they’ve tapped into an emerging trend. On her blog, Thursday says:

Looking back, I’m pretty comfortable calling the 20th century the Century of Big Business. Big corporations flourished in a way that they never have before. But the 21st century will be the era of the individual and small business — the century of the entrepreneur.

We’ve already seen the start of this particular trend. Big companies that we rely on every day start in garages with two co-founders and a few hundred dollars. Some of the tools I use for running my business have millions of users and less than a dozen staff members.

2012 is just one more building block for this trend. I’m not expecting anything particularly momentous this year — I’m a lousy fortuneteller at the best of times — but the trend is there and it’s going to keep growing.

So, stay tuned. It looks like our ranks will continue to grow.

Since you’ve read all the way through this very business-like article, I’ll leave you with the answer to a personal question that’s probably been nagging at you since the headline. What’s up with the name, Thursday?

Well, the story goes like this: “Thursday” was her grandfather’s nickname, and her parents were expecting a baby boy. So much for that expectation. But the name stuck.

And, no, she doesn’t have a sister named Monday. Actually, Thursday’s sister is named Hannalee. Just like that Land of Hannalee from the 1960s hit song, “Puff the Magic Dragon.”