We recently connected with Samantha Clark and have shared our conversation below.

Samantha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think it takes to be successful?

Over the past year I’ve learned to define success differently. Satisfaction at work has always been a priority of mine, but I didn’t understand what this really meant until I did a 180 in my professional life; I left a career as a school counselor and started a new one as a small business owner. Success now means forming connections in my community, learning and applying new skills, and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. It also means seeing my son before he leaves for school and making banana pancakes on a Tuesday. It doesn’t mean a good review, a pay raise, or appeasing coworkers anymore. So I think this is what it takes to be successful: finding wins that really matter to you. Finding true motivation-professional wins that translate into personal wins- has been my key to success.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I founded my small business Emerald City Editing in 2023. I come from a background in public education, where I spent seven years as a middle school counselor. After two major changes in my world, a global pandemic and becoming a mom, my job felt different and I started to lose passion for it. I realized I didn’t want to spend time away from my son to do something that didn’t make me happy, and I started the scary and exciting process of leaving the professional world I knew to do something completely new and unfamiliar.

A passionate reader and a bit of a perfectionist, I’ve done proofreading and editing work since I was 18 years old. I was lucky enough to learn how to proofread official court transcripts because my mom is a court stenographer and let me earn some extra money by proofreading for her. I continued proofreading off and on throughout my 20s, which lead me to feeling proficient and confident in my skills (and gave me a good understanding of legal jargon!). This launched me into other opportunities in the field, such as proofreading websites for small businesses and eventually copyediting an author’s first book going to publication. It was something I knew I was good at, and did it only because I liked it.

When I was ready to make my major career change, I naturally turned to editing. The big question was how to turn it into a business that I would enjoy doing and would be profitable. After many conversations with family, friends, and myself, I realized that I wanted to use my skills to connect with my community in another way, and focused on services for small businesses. I live in a tight-knit community in beautiful Seattle, with lots of cool local shops and restaurants. The prospect of getting to know the owners and help their businesses succeed was exciting and helped shape my new company’s vision.

I have been the most proud to work with entrepreneurs on their new websites, a big and exciting step to starting a business adventure. As an editor, I get the fun job to help them shine up and perfect their words before the public gets to see it. The excitement of launching and the joy they get from seeing their work in its best form has been very rewarding. A perk is that I get to know these lovely members of my community that I never would have otherwise. Emerald City Editing focuses on businesses’ and entrepreneurs’ written marketing materials like websites, newsletters, and promotional emails. We also work with small companies to do writing projects, such as taking their information from projects and turning them into professional case studies and write-ups.

Most recently, I have been expanding my business into selling used books as well. I’m picking up unwanted books from neighbors and organizing them to sell both online and at pop-up events. I have my first event planned at the community center in my neighborhood next month (May) and currently working to get my inventory of (so far!) over 600 books online. I will be partnering with a local business to offer free book pick-up for locals. This is an exciting new adventure for me as an entrepreneur. It will be called Seattle Book Club, which pays respect to my own book club and very dear friends.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Networking events have been the most effective strategy for growing my clientele. My business services and their worth aren’t always the most straightforward, therefore meeting people face-to-face and explaining what I do is imperative. Fortunately, there are many wonderful local events for small businesses that I’ve been able to attend, and I have been able to grow my business circle quickly. I’ve met some wonderful people who I’ve both learned from and gotten the pleasure to work with. The entrepreneur community has been really supportive by recommending my business; word of mouth has been the biggest way I’ve found new clients. I’ve also connected with a business mentor, event partner, and marketers. As I expand my business in a new direction, this support network that I’ve been growing is a great foundation, and it makes me feel more confident as I branch out.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I’ve found that personal touches go a long way in fostering brand loyalty. I like to send a personalized thank you note after completing a first project. Highlighting that I’m a local and small business is important as well, which ties in to my business mission of supporting my community. Since I tend to work with other new entrepreneurs, I will invite them to networking events I attend (if it applies), which is a great way to stay in touch and follow up on our projects.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.emeraldcityediting.com, Seattlebookclub.com
• Instagram: @emeraldcityediting and @theseattlebookclub
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-clark-75bb1923

Image Credits
Aaron Morton Photography for two photos of Sam at desk. All other photos/images by Sam Clark.