To become an entrepreneur or not? That is the question.

When I began working as a proofreader, much of what we routinely see today did not exist. It was not that people or companies did not have money or capital to invest. It simply did not exist. It had not been invented.

Historically speaking, it was not that long ago. You only need to look around a little and see that the cell phone that appears in many films you usually watch via streaming – or on the good old DVD player – is the same kind you used to answer phone calls or reply to SMS messages. Things of the past? Not so much.

For a long time, all work could only be done on paper from a sheet typed by the author. Imagine the madness of photocopying page by page. After all, nobody wanted to risk getting wet, tearing, or losing pages of a work because of an open window that kissed the text with a breath of wind.

In the early 1990s, the market opened up to technology and personal computers began entering publishing companies. To the misfortune of many good professionals, typography (worth a Google search here!) gave way to the professionals who were emerging.

Graphic designers, for example, came much later, in the form we know today.

And what about proofreading in all of this? Proofreading, dear reader, began taking its first steps as an interesting outsourced service. There was still a strong possibility of working as a formal employee, with labor rights guaranteed, while investing in third-party projects as a freelancer. And this is where the title of the post comes in.

The activity itself has not changed much. Proofreading is proofreading and requires great care, accuracy, a rich vocabulary, a taste for reading, an affinity for writing and, surprisingly enough, nerves of steel.

When you become an entrepreneur in the field, each new day feels like a zip-line leap. Free flight with no firm footing and a shot of adrenaline. That is because being a businesswoman in an area that few people consider important (after all, a Word® document without red, green or blue squiggly lines means a clean text – right?) means fighting two lions a day and leaving another one already tied up just to be safe.

I could keep talking to you here for hours and hours. But I do not want to exhaust the subject. I will leave room for us to return to it later.

Questions? Talk to us. We love talking about proofreading.