Guest post by Robert Tuchman, author of “Young Guns”

By admin, on October 7th, 2009

How to find a Critique Buddy

There are many advantages to having a critique buddy help with your writing. When you are in the revision process before submitting to a publisher you want to make sure that your work is neat, colorful and read by someone who has the same intentions you do; trying to make a break and get published. It may seem that finding a critique buddy is difficult but in fact it is quite simple. The thing to remember is start locally first.

Many local libraries and community centers offer writing classes where you can find groups who critique each other’s work and give great feedback. Don’t forget local colleges and universities as well, most, which have writing centers that offer critiques from their writing staff. You can also find writing student groups there as well, which you may find helpful.

Use the Internet as a tool to helping you find a buddy as well. If you have your own blog, place it on a post one day and hopeful a reliable blogger who comments on your site will help out. Also look for message boards as well, there are plenty of other writers out there getting together and critiquing. Through message boards it should be fairly easy to find a critiquing buddy in your area who can assist you.

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When Robert Tuchman graduated from Boston University, Tuchman was quickly forced to abandon his dream of becoming a sports reporter. Applications to sports producers across the country were ignored and eventually he accepted a position as an investment advisor at Lehman Brothers in New York.

Still wanting to break into the sports industry, he joined Sports Profiles after reading about them in Entrepreneur magazine, working out of his apartment selling sports magazine advertisements. Quickly realizing that everyone to whom he sold ads wanted the perks (tickets to games or luxury trips to events) more then the ads, he decided to start a business that catered to this niche called Tuchman Sports Enterprises (TSE).

Within two years of working out of that tiny one-bedroom Upper East Side apartment, with one phone and a fax machine, his company was named to the annual Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest growing privately held companies and as one of the top 100 promotion agencies by Promo Magazine. He started TSE with no money and no investors and ended up selling it in a ten figure equity deal to Premiere Global Sports. Last year PGS earned over $70 million dollars in sales. Robert Tuchman now serves as President of that division, still guiding his company in its new form.

He writes a monthly column for Entrepreneur.com. He also writes for Incentive magazine, an industry magazine for incentive and meeting planners. He is the author of The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live, a sports travel book as well as Young Guns, The Fearless Entrepreneurs Guide To Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own. His articles have appeared in ESPN.com and Sports Business Journal.

A favorite commentator on the sports industry, you may have seen him recently discussing sports business on “Anderson Cooper 360” or the “CBS Morning News.” A frequent guest on “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” he has also appeared on CNN, the “CBS Morning News,” BET, and has been featured in USA Today, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Entrepreneur.

young guns

Today’s graduates face the toughest job market in 10 years. Their peers only a few years older, who just started their careers, are now back on the job hunt with few prospects. There is a highly competitive pool of applicants for companies that aren’t hiring. What options do these bright, young, ambitious people have? To wait for the economy to recover and recruiters to come knocking? Or to take that ambition and passion and turn it into something tangible? Now is the time to become an entrepreneur-take that drive and start realizing your dreams.

In Young Guns: the Fearless Entrepreneur’s Guide to Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking out on Your Own, Robert Tuchman shows professionals that they can start and succeed in their own business with examples of many entrepreneurs under the age of 35. There is no better time to take a chance than when you’re youthful, bold and have very little to lose-and he knows from experience. When Robert Tuchman graduated from college, he was quickly forced to abandon his dream of becoming a sports writer. Eventually he accepted a position as a stockbroker trainee, but soon realized that he was completely unfulfilled in his new job. There had to be something better. Tired of working at a job with little prospect of advancement, he formed his own company, Tuchman Sports Enterprises (TSE), out of his apartment. Within two years of working out of that tiny one-bedroom Upper East Side apartment, with one phone and a fax machine, his company was named to the annual Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest growing privately held companies and as one of the top 100 promotion agencies by Promo Magazine. He started TSE with no money and no investors and ended up selling it for millions of dollars to a major firm. Last year TSE earned over $70 million dollars in sales.