If you have a passion and talent in life, you owe it to yourself to pursue it.
Talk to anyone who’s in business for himself, and you’ll find a deep well of stories about obstacles he’s overcome. Rare is the entrepreneur who arrives at success without experiencing many falls and the resulting bruises along the way. I, a self-employed freelance copywriter, am no different.
Even though I knew I wanted to be a writer almost as soon as I learned to read, I still ran into my share of brick walls. There were teachers who criticized my papers, relatives who tried to steer me in directions they felt were more promising, employers who took sadistic pleasure in telling me I wasn’t good enough, and a Mount Everest stack of my own self-doubts.
I could have quit at every disappointment along the way, but I chose to keep moving forward because I knew that writing was my passion. Nothing gave me a greater sense of accomplishment than a well-crafted paragraph I’d penned.
From an early age I felt I was destined to be self-employed. My father and grandparents on both sides of the family had all been entrepreneurs. They had liked their work, enjoyed a comfortable existence and relished their independence. Following in their footsteps, I saw any jobs I had as training grounds for the business I planned to one day open.
Despite my predisposition to self-employment, my journey wasn’t a direct route to success. After a little over two years working as an account coordinator for a small ad agency, I decided to strike out on my own. It wasn’t easy, and I ran into many roadblocks. At the time, each one felt insurmountable, but with hard work and some experience, I soon passed those challenges.
Finding clients was the hardest part of launching my freelance copywriting business.
The most difficult challenge in starting a copywriting business was getting the work. You know the old catch-22 expression, “You can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience without a job.”
It applies to freelance copywriting, too. Landing projects and clients is nearly impossible when you don’t have a portfolio of completed work and a repertoire of success stories.
I began by creating some sample write-ups for clients I didn’t yet have. While they weren’t real jobs, they at least demonstrated my skills. Eventually, I was able to garner some paid copywriting work from contacts who knew me personally and also a few small clients who had limited budgets and were willing to work with a beginner in exchange for affordability. With each job completed, my portfolio grew, and so did my confidence.
It seemed in those first few months, I underestimated the amount of time every task would take. At the end of each project, I’d calculate my hourly rate and realize I probably could have made more waitressing. That was a depressing thought. But with time and experience came an improved ability to quote jobs more accurately and also to be more efficient in getting the work done.
I learned too, that it was okay to lose a job because the price I’d quoted was too high. If the client couldn’t afford my services or didn’t value them enough to pay my rate, then we weren’t a fit. It wasn’t personal; it was business – another valuable lesson.
In those early years, I was either overwhelmed with work or desperately seeking new clients. The projects seemed to arrive in surges and then drip down to a mere trickle. Eventually, I learned to use the lulls to focus on marketing activities so that the famines were less frequent.
Tell yourself, “Failure is not an option.” Then get back to work!
As for dealing with the feasts, I learned another great trick – outsourcing. When I was too busy to take care of every project and every aspect of my business, I looked to other professionals to fill in the gaps. I found someone to handle my bookkeeping and another person to manage ad campaigns. I even found a few other copywriters to whom I could farm out projects, working under my direction.
One of the challenges of being a newbie is you don’t have any contacts in your field. And that certainly applies to freelance copywriters. I found myself asking these questions. Who can I call for advice? Where can I find vendors I can trust? How can I get others in my industry to refer business to me?
Much like being the new kid in school, a freelance copywriter starting out has to make the effort to meet others. So I did. I began attending industry events. I also joined business associations in my area including the Chamber of Commerce and local chapters of several business women’s groups.
I sought out vendors and introduced myself. I contacted others in related professions, such as graphic designers, and offered to trade leads. And when online social networking emerged, I used platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook to broaden my reach beyond my local area. Eventually, I established a network of contacts on which I could rely.
Often, particularly in the early years, I found myself having to undertake many firsts. First time writing a direct mailer. First time working with a production team. First time writing about a technology product. First time working with a client overseas.
Each first brought its own fears. The temptation was strong to turn down the particular client or project rather than boldly assume the challenge. But I knew backing down would be the easy way out. So I pressed on, learning along the way and adding more skills to my repertoire.
They say that smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. The same is true for operating a business. It is fraught with continuous challenges, big and small. If it were easy and success was virtually guaranteed, everyone would do it.
I found that having a business meant continually trying new things. I frequently had to attempt feats beyond my limits, or at least what I thought were my boundaries. And I discovered that failing once or twice at a task didn’t mean I wasn’t capable; it meant I needed more practice and possibly some help, which wasn’t such a terrible thing after all.
Find your bliss: work that makes you excited, proud and happy!
I also found that I learned as much from my failures (sometimes more!), than my successes. And that made them an equally important part of my journey.
Now it’s been many years, more than I care to admit, and I feel secure in my position as a self-employed freelance copywriter. I take on clients and jobs with confidence and know that I have the ability to maintain a steady flow of work and income.
The road to success has had many potholes but was never impassable. At any point, I could have pulled over and said, “The life of a freelance copywriter isn’t for me.” But I stuck with it.
What was once impossibly hard became easier, and eventually, second nature. I am proud of my accomplishments. I love my work and the life it allows me to lead.
My best advice to freelancer copywriters just starting out – keep moving forward. If you want to become the world’s best skateboarder, you don’t learn two tricks and then perform nothing but those tricks for the rest of your career. Instead, those tricks become building blocks to even more difficult tricks.
Keep pushing your own limits and you will improve. The challenge isn’t always fun or easy, but it makes the end result even sweeter.
Learn from every success and every failure, too. Recognize that an accomplished career should consist of healthy servings of both. Hitting a homerun means many strikeouts along the way. So take risks. Be gutsy. And know that forward progress, even in small increments, eventually brings big rewards.
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Susan Greene is a professional copywriter based in Orlando, Florida. She has more than 20 years of writing and marketing experience working with a diverse array of clients from around the U.S. and the world.
Working with Susan Greene on my website was a fantastic experience. She takes the time to get to know you, so she understands her clients and their needs. She went above and beyond, and exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend Susan to any business owner who needs great copy for their website.
Maxine Kim
President
Citrine Management
Irvine, California
Susan Greene
Professional Copywriter
Affordable Rates
Orlando, Florida
floridacopywriter@gmail.com
(407) 578-5528
