My first year in freelancing

My first year in freelancing or more commonly known as –

 A journey into the unknown

 On the 31^st of December I will have been a freelancer for one whole year. Yes, one whole year. And it’s been one rollercoaster ride of highs and lows. I started with great confidence. I had the website, the obligatory 6 months’ worth of savings and my laptop in front of me. My bedroom having been converted into the little stream lined office I’d always wanted. I was all ready for the exciting life of a freelance copywriter.

 Living the dream, or better known as -

 Thinking you know it all and finding out you know nothing.

I’ve placed my first year in a series of phases, phase 1, 2 and 3.

 Phase 1 is me thinking I have it all sown up, getting up at 11am looking for a bit of work on bidding sites and then relaxing in front of the tv and then reading a bit and then going out and doing a bit of shopping. Also a little bit of soul searching and not understanding why I’m not in demand, and why the phone isn’t ringing off the hook, and why isn’t my inbox chocker block full of emails demanding my services. After all, am I not a well-educated adult with TWO degrees, TWO degrees I tell you! Am I not a short story writer and an ex public sector employee – why isn’t everyone banging on my door?

 Phase 2 is the bit where my savings have all but run out. I’m despondent, and I’m having the worst kind of reality check in living memory. I’ve hit rock bottom with such force it feels like my blood pressure is in my ankles and I’m surprised I don’t flat-line.

 It’s not that I wasn’t working, I was. It’s just that when I look back it seems I was living the life of someone who’d been doing this for years – and I’d only been doing it for a few measly months. Phase 3 is where I revaluate my strategy, start again and work like a Trojan.

 Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate, or more commonly known as –

Find out where you went wrong and rectify it

Time to think

The one thing I’ve realised is that being a copywriter and working for myself at home is not only a privilege it’s something I want to do for the rest of my life. And let’s be clear about this, working freelance IS a privilege. I know because I spent enough time working in a variety of different jobs over the years, some nice, some not so nice that made me thoroughly miserable. I know the meaning of clock watching, I’ve done it enough times to know. With a regular job comes a regular pay check and that brings tremendous security, but with it comes soul crushing conformity and repetition. And it’s not for me. And yes, there’s a certain degree of repetition in all jobs, but if you’re doing something you love then it’s half the battle.

Recession

 We’re in the middle of a terrible recession and people are finding it hard to keep a roof over their heads. Being able to do something you love is not to be taken for granted. So let this be a lesson learned, just give me one more chance and this time, I’ll make it good. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life staring at a ticking clock or standing in a job centre.

Evaluate and get back up

In my short period as a teacher the one thing that was drummed into me during my training was evaluation. Write a lesson plan, evaluate, spend the day teaching, at the end of it, evaluate, at the end of every term, evaluate. Evaluate your strengths and your weaknesses; evaluate your successes and your failures. Evaluate, evaluate and then evaluate some more. And I need to get back into that mindset again. Evaluate my successes and my failures, evaluate my performance and if I see any weaknesses then rectify it with reading or training, or a combination of the two. This time I’m aiming at the top and I’m not giving up.

A period of reflection and strategy, otherwise known as –

Making it work

So what have I learned about being a copywriter, about being a freelance copywriter no less? Well-being a copywriter takes talent, strategy, stamina and hard work, a LOT of hard work. It also includes selling yourself raw, marketing like a demon, putting yourself out there like you’re the best thing since the invention of colour TV. I don’t find that easy, I’m shy, reserved, but it’s no excuse. If I can’t market I’m dead in the water. You can be the most talented writer, copywriter, web designer in the world – but if you don’t market yourself properly, no one knows you exist.

I need to make you believe in me, whoever you are out there reading this.

 I AM GOOD. I AM VERY GOOD

Bidding wars

Also working on bidding sites is all very well and I still have to use them, but at the end of the day, clients go there because they’re cheap. They don’t go there to get the very best, because the very best costs, so if you want something done on the cheap, then you’re not going to go to them are you? You’re going to go to the bidding sites. The bidding sites are like my trip to a cheap hairdresser. If I can’t afford a decent hair cut at some fancy salon, then I’ll go to the student salon run by the college. It won’t be the best but it’ll do, it’ll do until I can afford something better. I AM WORTH MORE THAN THAT AND SO ARE YOU. I don’t want to be that someone you pay because I’ll do. I want to be the someone that you want because I’M GOOD. But words are exactly that, words. Actions take something else, energy and hard work.

The strategy

For 2014 it’s going to be like this – I’ve calculated how much I need and want to earn. It’s not a king’s ransom, but it’s enough to get by, I don’t want to be rich, I just want to be happy.  Market myself ragged. Learn. Read. Train. The training will have to follow some earning, but it will happen, I will make it happen. Watch this space, because I’m telling you now, I will succeed. No slacking off, no tv, no taking my eye off the ball.

If I could change the past 12 months, I wouldn’t, because if I had I would have learned NOTHING.

Here’s to 2014 and all it brings, it’s been a steep learning curve, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I’ve done many things with my life, enough to know a good thing when I see it. And this is it. It doesn’t get better than this. If YOU want to be a freelance copywriter then take note and start living the dream, but not until you’ve put the work in.