Seven Powerful Tips for Maximizing Your Freelance Writing Business
June 16, 2008 by John Hewitt
Article by Meryl K. Evans
You’re on your own. Mama ain’t around to remind you to get your homework … err… writing work done. If she is, you’re an exception to the rule.
Ahh… the freelance life. The living is easy, the cotton is high. No, wait. Porgy and Bess‘ “Summertime seeped” into this post. Shoo.
The internet overflows with freelancing and business management advice. These seven tips comprise the biggies that ensure you run a successful and smooth freelance business.
Motivate yourself
When you’re on your own, no one will push you to get things done and on time. Well, sure the client will remind you or ask you, “When will I get this from you? Didn’t you said you’d have this to me yesterday?” Be proactive. Get it done before the client starts asking. Also, let the client know up front when you’ll have the work done.
Balance email and social networking
I’m an e-mailoholic. I click “Get mail” way more than I should. I’m lucky this bad habit doesn’t interfere with my work. Some folks get stuck Twittering, Linking in, Facebooking, and other social mediaing take up too much of their time. Social networking is valuable to freelancers, but not when they steal too much of your time. Hey, this can become a habit — twice a day? Once a day? Make a rule and stick with it, which brings us to …
Keep a schedule
Freelancing means flexibility. You’re a night owl? Set your hours 10am to 7pm. Early bird? 7am to 4pm. Whatever works for you as long as you keep a schedule. Do you blog? Make it a habit to blog first thing or last thing. Once something becomes a habit, it becomes easier to do it regularly.
Play nice
Some clients will pull almost every nerve in your body. Don’t let the nerves take over and tempt you into saying or doing something you regret. Stay amicable. When the other person decides to burn bridges, bite your tongue as lashing out would do no one any good.
Go the extra mile
This goes along with “under-promise and over-deliver.” You don’t want to make promises you can’t keep. Instead, be consistent and aim a little lower. Also make an effort to “surprise and delight” the client where possible. It may have nothing to do with writing. For example, I’ve sent relevant articles to clients, let them know about a relevant blog entry in which they might want to leave a comment, give them names of people when they need a resource, and sent them relevant reporter leads so they can contact the reporter to help out and maybe be quoted in the story.
Make marketing a regular part of your job
Just like you have to manage your money, you also have to keep marketing. Businesses go bankrupt, budgets get cut, companies drop freelancers, and projects end. Social networking can help a lot. Most of my freelance projects come from referrals. You might gain most of your business in another way such as querying. If that’s the case, set a daily query goal. That’s your marketing tool.
Manage your money
It helps to include late payment in your signed contract or document it somewhere that the client will pay a penalty for late payments. This shows you’re serious about your business and that you don’t tolerate late payment. Most of the time when they see this, they pay on time. Invest in bookkeeping and invoicing software or services like QuickBooks, SimplyBill, Blinksale, Freshbooks, SimpleInvoices, LessAccounting, etc.
Freelancers also have to deal with the yucky part — paying taxes. Not all clients require W9s. I pay quarterly taxes (1040-ES estimated tax for individuals PDF file) through EFTPS. The form looks more complicated than it is. When it’s time for a quarterly tax payment, add up what you’ve earned and multiply that by .15, .25, or whatever you need to take out based on how much taxes you paid last year. An bookkeeping application makes it easy to figure out what you need to pay. Of course, I’ve only taken half a semester of accounting and am more of a novice, so please consult with a professional accountant on this.
All dream jobs come with a downside (I’d love to hear about one that doesn’t). Baseball players deal with getting hurt, striking out, and having public lives. Best-selling authors deal with the pressure of coming out with another hit, writer’s block, and unruly agents, editors, or other staff.
Freelance writers know that they have to do things they don’t enjoy. They also know doing the blechy stuff is worth it to do their first love and passion: Writing.
———————————-
Meryl K. Evans
Content Maven for Hire
Writing :: Editing :: Research
Web site: http://www.meryl.net/
Author: http://www.meryl.net/shorty/outlook_book/
Related links
- Are You Determined Enough to be a Freelance Writer? (0.500)
- Why Writing Deadlines May Be (Almost) As Good As Money (0.500)
- Successful Freelance Writers Avoid Soul Sucking Meetings (0.432)
- Successful Freelance Writers Say No (0.432)
- 40 Fabulous Faults of Freelance Failures (0.432)
Contact John Hewitt
Writing Content and Web Consulting
Email: hewitt@poewar.comPhone: (520) 261-6104
LinkedIn: poewar
Twitter: @poewar
Facebook: pwar2
Meryl,
These tips are powerful. The one about a schedule resonates with me because I’m a night owl and love being able to work at night without interruptions (except when my husband is awake!). Clients know the best time to reach me is late afternoon, which concentrates phone calls into a short time frame, then I can work without distractions.
“Go the extra mile” is also excellent advice. I often send clients links to articles and blog posts that I think would interest them. On occasion, I’ve send them information about something in their industry before they’ve discovered it, and they really appreciate that.
All seven tips are great; those two are my favorites.
Hi Meryl,
Fanurio http://www.fanuriotimetracking.com is another tool designed for home offices. It helps with the less appealing aspects of freelancing like invoicing and keeping track of time. It’s a useful application, with a user-friendly interface.
Lillie, I do the same thing … I’ll find an article, info about a competitor, etc. and share them with my clients. I like looking out for them as relationships are important to me. Thanks for sharing your favorites.
Greg, thanks for mentioning Fanurio. I hadn’t come across that and I’m sure others will appreciate your pointer. The tricky thing about tracking your time as a freelancer is that many of us switch from one thing to the next … for instance, I’ll be writing web content and then checking email in between and then go back to the web content or switch to something else.
Meryl K. Evanss last blog post..Google Me!
Meryl, thanks for sharing these great tips! I share Lillie’s enthusiasm for “Go the extra mile” but I also like your tip about establishing penalties for late payments. Unless you have a steady, predictable source of income, allowing clients to be late in their payments without some kind of penalty can seriously compromise your financial security. Another idea would be to give clients a discount if they pay early or pay up front for your services, or special discount rates if they become a “steady” client. Everyone likes to get a “deal” even if the difference between a full rate and discount rate is marginal.
Thanks again. I enjoyed your post!
You know Meryl, in going over this list, I used to think that marketing was the hardest for new freelancers, but what I’m “cyberhearing” lately is that it’s self-motivation.
After 15 years at this, I still suffer from this sometimes. I do fine with client projects, but motivating myself to get “my work” (ebooks, seminars, etc.) done is monumental some days. What should take a week, takes three, etc.
I stay motivated by remembering where I want to be in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years (completely debt free, inc,uding my hous). This is a kick in the pants I think we should all fall back on — making life goals, laying out a plan to get there and sticking to it. Some days, this is the ONLY thing that keeps me going when I just want to sit down with a bowl of ice cream and watch The Golden Girls!
Nicel list.
Yuwanda Blacks last blog post..How to Make Money Blogging by Selling Your Blog Posts
Meryl, I liked your post. After reading your tips I was thinking that most of these could be applied to almost any job, not just freelancing. I have some coworkers who spend way more time writing and answering email than they do actual work. Keeping a schedule also works for the 8-to5, regular job. I tend to be more of a morning person so I try to do my heavy-thinking tasks in the morning and leave the lighter ones for in the afternoon.
I may print this off and post it in the break room for my coworkers
Morgans last blog post..Wal-Mart, Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Hangnails
Marie Ann, your approach to provide a discount is a good one. Who wants to hit a rough patch with a long-term client? I’d rather discount than penalize.
Yuwanda, how I miss first run episodes of The Golden Girls! And to think I was in my teens and early 20s when that showed aired! I even catch my 14-year-old daughter watching it. It proves that you can attract people of all ages with a top notch show no matter the ages of its stars. Whenever Betty White or any of the other girls (mostly White), I smile and take pleasure in their guest appearances. Betty White was hilarious on Boston Legal and Ugly Betty.
Morgan, I worked in the corporate world for over a decade (include three years of it in the federal government) and you’re right. I applied many of these concepts to my job and rarely had to work late. First, I thought I wasn’t “being creative enough” in coming up with my own projects and problems to solve. But after a while, I realized — I was lucky because I was organized and efficient. I also did my heavy-duty work in the morning and the grunt work in the afternoon.
Meryl Evanss last blog post..Google Me!
Oh, by the way — I just read in How She Does It about Henry Ford who cut the work week from six days to five. As a result, production costs went down and output went up. When will people get it that humans are not built like machines where we can work an 80-hour week and can still create and innovate? Our brains need rest.
Why can’t Americans get it that cutting vacation and lunch breaks isn’t a smart move, but rather a weak one?
Meryl, good question. These are some of the thoughts I’ve been entertaining. For example, my employer offers 20 minutes of time towards physical exercise, yet for most of the small departments this is extremely difficult if not impossible since the other message we get (often expressed quite subtly) is that the office must be staffed at all times from 8 to 5. If you are only a two or three person department with various meetings and one member is only part-time, that really makes it difficult to take your 20 minutes and still make sure the office is staffed.
Feel free to visit my blog if you’d like to talk more about these types of things!
Morgans last blog post..Wal-Mart, Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Hangnails
I just watched a sleep deprivation piece on 60 Minutes yesterday Meryl talking about that (spending more time resting and less time working). Immediately following that was a piece on the Danish, and how they are supposedly the happiest country in the world.
With 6 weeks paid vacation, 6 months of paid maternity/paternity leave, free university and free healthcare, no WONDER they’re the happiest country on earth.
And oh yeah, they take pride in the fact that the average work week is only 37 hours. They’d never make it over here — and I don’t blame them for not wanting to try.
Last night, I spent some time online researching ticket prices to Holland. With my retirement goal firmly set at 50, I just want to be prepared when the time comes.
Yuwanda Blacks last blog post..How to Make Money Blogging by Selling Your Blog Posts
Yes, above the seven tips are very useful for the business growth. Manage the money and motivation is very useful for the every business. Thank you for giving this informative blog.
paulmarket1s last blog post..Emotional Direct Response Marketing = Magnetic Marketing
Meryl, thanks for the tax tip– I really needed that! I was wondering what I needed to do about taxes– this helps!
Karen Putz / Deafmoms last blog post..Are You Living Your Dream Life?
I had the worst trouble with marketing. I love to write, but when it came to consistently marketing, I fell short. I learned that it’s better to have a steady stream from a variety of clients.
Claudines last blog post..On the River in Savannah, Georgia
Meryl,
Great advice! Every one of your points is critical to a successful freelance writing career — and all require considerable willpower and real self-discipline, at times. When you work for yourself, you have to do it all: writing, editing, managing, motivating, advertising, marketing, billing, collections, and public/client relations. It’s a big job–but at the same time a wonderful opportunity to do what you love! Thanks for the reminders!
Great piece!
Jeanne
P.S. Sorry I didn’t comment sooner. I’ve been so incredibly busy lately that I got a bit behind!
Meryl, first thanks so much for sharing your tips with us. They bear repeating–especially to oneself! As for myself, I can echo the other poster who says self-motivation seems to be a bane for a lot of people. However, I’ve found that as I’ve gotten older and, I hope!, wiser, I have far fewer problems with self-motivation. It’s much easier, too, to motivate myself knowing I have an infant (not to mention a hard-working husband!) at least partially depending on my output!
On another note, your tips are really an excellent way to recession-proof your freelancing business. I like to think there will always be a need for our profession (editing, fact-checking, proofreading, writing)–darn any evidence to the contrary!–and when you have a stellar mindset and set-up, such as what you prescribe here, you make yourself eminently hireable (and retainable).
@morgan Besides, who can do anything in 20 minutes? That’s only a warm up. The company wants to look good on paper by offering up those 20 mins
@Yuwanda Thanks for posting that info. I knew there were stats showing how European countries with their longer vacations and shorter work hours come out ahead. Thanks for saving me the research.
@Paul and @Karen P. You’re welcome. Glad the info helps someone
@Claudine You’re absolutely right — steady stream always works well.
@Jeanne My pleasure. My daughter was talking to me today about how organized I am and that it works for and against me. I told her I wouldn’t have a freelance writing career if I weren’t organized.
@Leigh I never thought of it that way — you’re right that these tips can help you through good times and bad. After all, the dot com bombed when my freelance career took off.
Meryl K. Evanss last blog post..When Writing Feels Like Skydiving
Meryl,
I appreciate your contributing to my guest blogger month. Congratulations on the eighth birthday of your own blog. There are some great tips here. The need for marketing can”t be emphasized enough.
This is a great post! I stumbled it and am going to refer back to it. I need to check out those tools that will help me manage my money better.
Katherines last blog post..Get Paid to Blog Online With Get Paid to Blog Programs
[...] own business, and therefore freelancing requires some entrepreneurial skill. Make a blog for your freelance career, and you’re that much closer to learning the ropes of [...]
wow some cool nice tips. I myself is trying to learn how to write effective articles.I hope with these new tips, I’ll succeed.Cheers…
really good tips, all people who freelance should follow steps such as those outlined in this article
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I would say the scheduling and staying away from email and social network are the most important things. If you can do those things your day will be more productive and you will make all deadlines and continue to grow your business.
@ Morgan
I agree, these tips can be applied to most jobs because you can’t do any job well unless you’re motivated, organised etc.
Hi Meryl, thanks for your tips, I really appreciate it. I guess what I lack from freelance writing are time management and most importantly my temper. My clients really pull my nerves, but as you said, it maybe another form of challenge. I can say their just testing my temper.
Anyway, to keep it brief, you enlightened me. Thanks.
Wonderful article! Precise, compelling and loaded with useful tips! I just lost out on a client courtesy a couple of things mentioned up there. This is most likely to get me back on track. Also, the time management and organization part deserves a special mention.
Keep up the good work meryl!
As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me. Thank you