The 4 Steps You Need to Take to Set up Your New Freelance Writing Business

July
25, 2019

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The following excerpt is from Laura Pennington Briggs’ book Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | IndieBound or click here to buy it directly from us and SAVE 60% on this book when you use code SIDEHUSTLE2021 through 6/20/21.

When it comes to launching a freelance writ­ing business, gaining some confidence and knowing the appropriate steps you need to take can give you the encouragement you need to start your free­lance writing career today.

You can launch your business with a few key steps: Researching your marketplace, creating your samples, discovering your unique value proposition and creating your pitch and marketing plan for building your business.

Researching the marketplace

You can’t launch a freelance writing business without knowing whether there’s a demand for your services. You might have all the passion in the world for writing about a highly niched topic, but if there are no clients to hire you to do this work, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to build a sustainable freelance writing business.

Doing your research in advance helps to clarify whether there are industries requesting freelance writers who are within your area of expertise or passion and who can clarify how you might narrow down your overall marketing plan. It’s strongly recommended that you look at some of the freelance writing job boards out there to get a better handle on the types of work and industries in which your ideal clients are working. Bear in mind that not every client will post their job on one of these job boards. Some of the most common job boards include:

• Upwork
• Freelancewritinggigs
• Writer’s Weekly
• Guru
• Freelancer
• ProBlogger

This research process is highly valuable for giving you a basic idea about whether there are companies out there you would like to work with. Remember that not every company will be interested in hiring freelancers.

Related: The 9 Skills It Takes to Succeed as a Freelance Writer

Create your samples and discover your unique value proposition

Creating your work samples is crucial. You might want to conduct research into other freelance writers who specialize in the type of projects or industry that you do, just to give you a sense of what else is out there.

In addition, you must know your unique value proposition, which is what you — and only you — can offer the customer. While every writer can produce high-quality work, what is it about the experience of working with you that makes you different from other writers or from the client’s in-house writer? It could be that you deliver on time every time, or you guarantee originality, or maybe you have 20 years of experience in the field you are writing about.

Think about what makes you distinct from other writers and how you can stand out from the crowd. This is especially important as you launch your freelance writing career, since you may be using marketing methods like job boards, in which you will be directly competing with other freelance providers. Your samples should communicate your overall writing ability and be aligned with the type of projects the client is looking to hire.

Related: The One Thing You Must Do If You Want to Be a Successful Freelance Writer

Create your pitch/marketing plan

Creating your pitch and marketing plan is always the step that should be done after you create your samples because the very practice of creating your samples and identifying your unique value proposition can open your eyes as to what makes you different when compared with other writers.

Your pitch and marketing plan should be something you can stick with. Having a number in mind, be it the number of pitches you’ll send each week or the number of hours you’ll spend building your business, can help you work toward the accomplishment of growing your business and doing so successfully. Many freelance writers fall off if they send their first couple of pitches and don’t hear back or have a client who tells them they’re not interested.

Here are some tips for creating a marketing plan:

• Be prepared to cast a wide net with your weekly reach-outs or pitching. Plan to contact far more people than you’ll convert. Sending 25 pitches per week is a great way to get the ball rolling.
• Set aside specific hours in your calendar for marketing work. When you first launch, I recommend five to ten hours per week.
• Stick to your goals and hold yourself accountable; post your weekly pitching goal in a note on your desk or in a spreadsheet where you track your progress.
• Do as much research as you can about specific marketing tips for your chosen plat­form (i.e., LinkedIn or cold emailing).
• Keep notes about what pitches and marketing methods are most successful for you. Your top two marketing methods should be the ones you focus on.

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