lowercase’s one-year anniversary
By Lauren Thurman | November 1, 2023
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Lowercase Editorial Services is one year old!
We celebrated our first anniversary on Halloween, the perfect day to mark this kind of milestone because we sidestep impostor syndrome by telling ourselves that we are merely dressing up as small business owners.
This time last year, we were excited and nervous and staring—with equal parts eagerness and anxiety—out across a vast expanse of the utterly unknown. Would we succeed? Would we find new clients? How much money would we make? (This last question involved the most hair-pulling, since the IRS also wanted to know the answer.)
Our first full year in business together has been a process of discovery and learning. Here are some of the most important things we’ve found in that mysterious unknown:
we logged some big wins
When Lowercase launched, we had a few clients already on board. Since then, we’ve more than doubled our “anchor” client base and supported many people and organizations with one-off projects. We’ve worked on novels, film festival programs, a remarkable biography of a woman who lived through the Chinese Cultural Revolution, white papers, and everything in between.
we still love this work
I (Lauren) feel relatively comfortable speaking for Dale when I say that we wake up every morning grateful that we decided to dive into this work together. Some projects feel more like little treats than others, but when I open my laptop to begin another day of writing and editing, I feel so lucky. Not everyone gets to work at the perfect intersection of what they like to do, what they’re good at doing, and what adds value to the things they care about. That’s pretty neat!
… and we still love each other
I’ll admit, I was nervous when Dale and I embarked on this journey together. What if we disagreed about something important? What if our values didn’t align, or our workloads felt unbalanced, or our different opinions on commas grew to irreconcilable proportions?
Of course, none of those things have happened! Over the past year we have only continued to grow together as friends and to improve together as coworkers. I’m lucky to own a business with not only a valued friend but also a brilliant editor whose expertise I respect and admire. And that alone is worth celebrating.