"I can't give you a
sure-fire formula for success, but I can
give you a formula
for failure: try to
please everybody
all the time."
-- Herbert B. Swope

Who We Are

Julie Rains is the owner of Working To Live.com. She is a self-employed, or more descriptively, a client-employed, business writer. From her office in North Carolina, she serves clients locally, nationally, and, on occasion, worldwide. Projects include professional blogging, as well as web content and grant proposals.

Recent accomplishments include:

• development and writing of grant proposals for a non-profit start-up serving at-risk youth, which yielded funds for a summer camp and enrichment services (May 2004 and January 2005);
• selection of an entry for the book Expert Résumés for Military-to-Civilian Transitions (selected in December 2004, published by JIST Publishing in July 2005).

Prior to the start of her business way back in 1990, Rains worked in the real world as a:

• financial analyst for a regional bank, acquired by First Union National Bank and now operating as Wachovia/Wells-Fargo;
• staff accountant for a vertically integrated apparel manufacturer;
• accounting manager for a consumer foods company.

Rains earned a Certificate in Technology & Communication from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2005. Courses and projects for this graduate-level program consisted of:

• Visual Communication and Web Design
• Digital Designer: Clement Mok
• Writing for Digital Media
• The Boyz Are Back (class project)
• The Boyz Are Back (current URL transformed after class)
• Global Impact of New Communication Technologies
• Blog entitled "Kids Play Games"
• Computing (Internet) Concepts and Issues: Power Tools for the Mind
• Resume, Research, and More (presented in abbreviated, digital-appropriate format).

Rains holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1982). At UNC (the first time), Rains served as a Resident Assistant (RA) at Ehringhaus Residence Hall. There, she worked to change the image of the hall from an athletic dorm only (nicknamed "The Zoo") to a more positive campus presence with appeal to students and student-athletes. She:

• spearheaded the selection and sponsorship of a homecoming queen (its first-ever) representing the residence hall;
• assisted in staging and promoting alcohol-free events;
• conceptualized a service project involving the collection of canned food during the exodus of students for the summer break, (implemented by her peers, who reaped large amounts of food then donated to the department of social services).

Also, at UNC in 1981, she worked with a fellow RA to persuade the Department of Housing never to schedule RA training until after the NCAA Final Four.

More recently, in 2001, Rains developed the strategy and initial steps for the successful introduction of a contemporary worship service at her church, a traditional United Methodist congregation in a suburban/rural area. Currently, she serves as Children's Ministry Coordinator.

She is an occasional volunteer at her children's school, a neighborhood public one. There, she has taught Math SuperStars, tutored children in reading, and helped coach an Odyssey of the Mind team. In her free time, she finds good books for her children to read.