TechProse Still a Resource for Bay Area Consultants and Companies

by Meryl Natchez

Meryl is CEO of TechProse.

Gina Gotsill, who works with me at TechProse, mentioned to me that several of you wanted to know if I am retiring from TechProse. The short answer is no. But the longer answer is more complex. I started TechProse 26 years ago, after I left my full-time writing job for my first technical writing contract with Chris England, who was the owner of Writers Inc.

TechProse grew because I had four young children, and my husband, Larry, was making a career change and had to go back to school for a few years. We were living paycheck to paycheck, and I was terrified of being out of work. So I never turned work down. I said yes to every offer, and soon had more work than I could do myself.

Prior to AB1706 (the legislation that made it so difficult to be an independent consultant), we were all independents. So it was easy to have others working with me on projects as independent contractors, and we formed a little team with varied skills. Some of the people I worked with in the 90s still work with TechProse today. Linda Fogel (one of the best editors I've ever worked with), and Kate Rogge (who moved to Kansas several years ago but worked with me until she took a library sciences job this year), are two.

Exit Strategy  

In 2004, I started thinking about my "exit strategy," as they call it for people who own their own business. Over the years I had come to know a number of small business owners who had sold their businesses, Chris England among them. The universal story was unhappiness and frustration at seeing something that they had created over many years fall apart after they sold it. Chris actually lost her voice for six months. So even if I could find a buyer, this didn't seem like a good idea. I thought about some kind of orderly shutdown, but that wasn't very appealing either.

What I came up with, with the collaboration of my husband who has been working with me for the past 17 years, was the concept of selling TechProse to our employees. We formed an Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) in January 2005, and have already sold 30 percent of the company to it. What this means is that any long-term employee, whether full time or hourly, who works at least 1,000 hours a year from 2005 onward has a percentage ownership in TechProse.

Finding Good Managers  

This year, if all goes well, I plan to sell my remaining ownership interest to the ESOP trust for the benefit of the employees. By the end of the year, I plan to do a lot less of the daily work, but remain on the Board of Directors, helping out when needed, speaking, writing, and remaining involved but not coming to work on a daily basis. So this is a sort of retirement, but hopefully one that will enable TechProse to continue to grow and be a force for thoughtful, valued technical communications in the Bay Area. One key to this has been finding good managers to take over the daily operations.

Steven Laine, who has worked with us since 1999, has already been working for the last year as TechProse president. He came from a background with Systems Partners, and knows consulting inside and out. I admire Steven for his ethical and pragmatic approach to business and his understanding of the importance of adding value on each engagement. His attention to detail and his ability to actually run the business is far superior to mine.

Many of you know Lynette Phillips (who used to be Lynette Smith). She's someone who was working on contract when I was consulting at Safeway in 1987, and joined TechProse 14 years ago. She has become manager of the team that finds the right person for the engagements we have. The team now includes Rose Healy (who used to work for Grace Gentry) and Bob Lewis. Jennifer Riebli (who used to be Jennifer Moore) started work with TechProse when still a senior in college. She is now the TechProse team's expert project manager focused on e-learning projects.

Diane Mesisca led the account management team at TechProse for nine years, and with her move to Phoenix, she has taken on the role of coach and mentor to the more recent sales team, Sharon Hutchins, Ken Ball, Deb Bonner, and Michele Lee. Each of these great people has had to learn what we do — which isn't easy. To understand our services, you have to really know not just what technical writing, instructional design, and change management mean, but how these skills fit into the corporate world, and what problems we can solve for clients. This is not only writing manuals and developing e-learning or online help. It may be anything from helping implement a major software initiative with the right introduction, training, and documentation, to analyzing the business impact of a shift in corporate focus and helping to plan for its success.

Carla Galinat and Jim Sherwood are the back office of TechProse. They're the ones you hardly ever see but make sure you are paid on time every time, that you get your tax forms, and that when you need some special help for something, some change in standard procedures - like an early check, or an advance - that it happens. They've both been with TechProse for more than nine years.

Joe Jorgensen is the man behind the scenes who makes everything work, from the website and FTP sites to all of our systems and our clients varied technology needs. We're lucky he's a lot younger than me, because while I'm not needed on a daily basis, we really couldn't do without Joe.

Shari McAneney, the office manager, came to TechProse from Steven's former company, Systems Partners. In addition to managing all the thousands of details of the daily workflow at TechProse, she's become an excellent desktop publisher and editor, working in FrameMaker, InDesign, Illustrator, and AutoCAD on many TechProse projects.

Tonia Thompson is a senior technical writer who has been focusing on writing for our transit and manufacturing projects for the past six years. She lives in upstate New York, and she, Jennifer (who moved to Los Angeles), Michele in New Jersey, and Diane in Phoenix, not to mention dozens of out-of-state consultants prove that we've become a truly virtual workplace, with flexible, work-from-home policies.

Lynette, Jennifer, Steven, Shari, Carla, Joe, Jim and Tonia are the long-term team members at TechProse. But we've also been so lucky to hire some expert resources in the last two years. Ken Kozak does excellent behind-the-scenes research for everyone on the team. Dawn Clark, Vicky Passion, and Evey Braga from Crawford International have joined TechProse, and we were so lucky to get them. Dawn has been with us almost two years, and her project management skills have helped us expand the number of fixed price projects we can take on successfully. Vic and Evey are in their first year with us. Vic's expertise in training, change management, and corporate communications fills a hole I was really concerned about, and I'll be transitioning management in those areas to her over the next eight months.

And last but not least, Gina Gotsill, who has been with TechProse a year and a half, has been able to come in and take over the complex proposal writing and editing part of the work, which is deadline-oriented and so important, because every project we take on is unique and requires a truly customized proposal. She also has been writing articles and becoming engaged in the community of technical communications. I hope sometime, 20 years down the road, when someone comes to an STC meeting after having taken on this role from Gina, everyone will ask, "Is Gina retiring?"

Summary  

So, all this is simply to amplify the answer to that question about me. I have built an organization that truly expresses my sense of right livelihood. I'm proud of it, and want it to continue for years to come. It has been my guru, teaching me so much about life and business without having to travel to India to do it. STC has been a big part of this. But I am slowly transitioning out of the management role I've had for so long to more of a supportive role. It's been a great ride, and now I'm ready to start coaching from the sidelines. Thanks for asking!

Meryl Natchez has been CEO of TechProse since 1982. TechProse places technical writers, instructional designers, project managers, and business analysts on a contract basis. TechProse also provides turnkey solutions to clients for entire corporate communication projects.

An alumna of Harvard University, Natchez has received numerous awards for business development and community service. She is a co-founder of OPTIC, a nonprofit organization sponsored and incubated by the Contra Costa Council, which provides low-income Contra Costa residents with technology, literacy, and life skills to become economically self-sufficient.

Natchez has taught courses at San Francisco State University, California State Sacramento, and the University of California Berkeley Extension. She is past president of The San Francisco Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication, and former chair of the Contra Costa Council Technology Task Force.