How NOT to Begin a Freelance Business

I've now been at this for several months and still I haven't received a single paycheck. Oh, I have almost $100 waiting for me on different websites, but that doesn't really count to me when I want to actually make a living as a writer. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE DON'T PAY FOR FOOD.

No work=No food!

So, the biggest thing I feel has been holding me back?

It isn't my dream. That's definite, defined, and achievable.
It's not my goals. I've made plenty of them...I just haven't achieved any of them.
It really isn't my knowledge and skills, though I say over and over that I need just that little bit of extra training or information to "make it big." (A pitfall I addressed at the very beginning, A New Start)

My biggest issue has been lack of action. Yes, I post my blogs about my steps towards success (or my dreamed success, anyway). I've hung my shingle out on multiple websites for jobs and done a little work here and there, completing my profile so people will be "wowed" by my abilities. I've even put together a portfolio, amateurish as it may be, and continue to work on it to make it look and sound more professional.

The key thing, ACTION, is still not fully present. I spend days at a time doing no writing. I make plans, I play with creating more profiles, I do a little research, I clean house, go shopping, cook for my hubby and kids...but no writing. A writer WRITES. So, I'm failing at the number one thing I need to be doing.

I could go into all the perceived reasons I'm not writing, but half of them are excuses and the other half are psychological/philosophical in nature. Neither helps me.

So! New goal time. This time with a deadline and a consequence for failure.

I set myself a goal of writing at LEAST 1,000 words a day. It doesn't matter if that thousand is for a client, for myself, for my business, or what. It HAS to be done every day.

This is the best thing to do if your freelance business just isn't taking off. Ask yourself: Am I doing the most important thing for my business? If you're a graphic artist, are you working every day at what MAKES you a graphic artist? Maybe you're a cook, but you aren't cooking everyday. What about an IT professional?

For a profession to breathe, it needs to be alive and active. If you aren't moving, you aren't really alive. Move forward, do what needs to be done, and remember that the most important aspect of any business is DOING THAT BUSINESS. It isn't the marketing, interviewing, planning, or any of the other stuff. It's the business that's proclaimed on your shingle!

Every Beginner's Nemesis: The Portfolio

So I've now been doing the freelance thing for about a month. I've actually received a whopping ZERO dollars for my work and have approximately $40 receivable waiting for milemarkers ($20 in one place, $100 in another). It's been rough. Zero actual income for the time between November 15th and December 15th. What do I think has been a big downer for possible income? My portfolio.

Progress is pretty low right now...

Ah, the portfolio. It should be a proper noun. The Portfolio. It's that important. Just as the savvy shopper will pour through reviews and specs for a car before even taking it for a test-drive, prospective employers want reviews and specs of a freelancer before they take them for a test-drive with a test-job. I've been toying with elance.com and iWriter.com, thinking I would get some low-paying jobs as sources to build my portfolio. The problem is, even the low-paying ones want to see a portfolio! iWriter.com is a peach in that the writer gets to pick a job and immediately does it, turning in the work between one and three hours after starting. No quibbling with a prospective client, no fighting other freelancers for the job, simple, direct, clean. BUT... I've been writing for less than $1 per 100 words. Gee, glad I'm not doing this for a living...oh, wait.

 So! What are ways to get the dreaded Portfoli-OH without trolling the web for poorly-written websites to rewrite for free or doing pro-bono work for people with no clear vision of what they want? Here are some ideas I've found as I go:

1) Doing near-pro-bono work for those same clueless clients.
     I said ideas that don't include this, but that makes it the most obvious choice. Having a poor source to encourage portfolio work is still a source. For someone like me that hates doing work with no direct reason, pittance pay is better than no pay. iWriter.com is an excellent example. I netted two near-decent portfolio examples from them and hope to get better examples as I keep working towards that pie-in-the-sky "Elite" writer status (I currently have 5 ratings with a 4.5 rating. Woo!).

2) Look at past work done for fun.
     I tried doing this at the very beginning and thought, "I haven't done ANYTHING worth a portfolio." WRONG! As I looked at job postings and read through different articles, I had epiphanies of "I've done something like that!" Guest blog posts reviewing a book for The Bearded Scribe, some writing articles I've written for LegendFire.com (my absolute favorite writing forum) for their past newsletters, school work I've done in college that netted me a good grade, proofreading and copy-editing I'd done for friends...the list goes on and on.

3) Make your own work.
     One suggestion I saw over and over was to reach out to people for work. With asking dozens of people (and a plaintive cry for help on my personal Facebook page), I only found two people who were even remotely interested. They asked me for (gasp!) examples of my work. To counter, I offered to send them a list of example work I COULD do for them along with examples of things I'd written outside their niche. In writing up that list, I had to sell myself and my skills which, in turn, become fodder for my portfolio!

Now, keep in mind that these three are simply to START a portfolio. This is, as stated, for beginners (which I am). A simple portfolio is better than no portfolio. It grows to something bigger that can take on its own life, shape, personality, and potential. Everyone who decides to do freelance work has done SOMETHING in the past that makes them think, "Yeah, I can do this." It just took me several weeks to realize that.

What Research MATTERS and What Falls FLAT?

Now that I have completed the responsibilities that kept me from moving forward, I've gone into serious research. Now WAIT. In my first post, I said research was one of the things that KEPT me from moving forward, not what I needed to do TO move forward. Here's the difference: focused research.


I'm doing research with a purpose while taking action. This is the big difference between bad and good research. It's the difference between aimlessly clicking on links that look interesting and doing specific searches for what knowledge gaps I need to fill.

For copywriting, that means getting specific knowledge and building my "swipe file" that so many pros talk about. For someone in a different field, it might be gathering a reference library or searching for competitors and what they're doing right (or wrong) with their individual message(s).

In preparation, I took a class. A simple, fairly inexpensive "Introduction to" class that got me my first example of work and a better idea of what I need and where to go. It also gave me a good idea of where my skills ACTUALLY are and not where I THINK they might be. Thankfully, in my case, the two lined up very nicely.

SO! What, exactly, am I doing in my focused research? Well, for today, I have set for myself to gather at least 10 items for my burgeoning swipe file. Instead of doing a google search for "copywriting" (a very generic, unfocused search that leads to hours of click, read, click, read), I'm now searching through information I've already gathered in the past as well as consulting Professor Google for "copywriting spec ads" or "good advertising examples." See the difference? General vs. Focused. Aimless vs. Goal Driven.


What's the take-away from this? Research is good and can be extremely effective, but must be FOCUSED and GOAL-DRIVEN with specific criteria. Aimless research is passive, tending to drift where the writers and publishers choose to direct you with "articles similar to..." and "others who liked this also..." while focused research is directed by YOU, the researcher, and often includes your own library (which usually includes items you've found in the past with quality information you didn't know what to do with at the time).

Happy Hunting!

How to Deal with Unexpected Pitfalls

We've all been there: you make a well-laid-out plan, set yourself up for success. You've done your homework ahead of time and your tools are prepared and laid to the side, ready to jump to your fingertips for use. You look up, expecting the stars to align and glory to rain down...

...and you drop or lose one of your tools. Maybe your cat stole one, or the website that hosted one has suddenly gone away. Your computer suddenly crashes at the (not so) perfect time.

Now what?

It's easy to say that allowing these types of things to derail your plan is just allowing excuses to run your life, but the fact remains that SHIT HAPPENS that can slow or completely stop your plans. They're the unexpected pitfalls that makes perfect plans crumple into a sobbing heap of uselessness.

This picture says it all. There are two things to keep in mind when something unexpected happens: Keep Calm and Never Give Up.

Keep Calm

You've heard the advice about swimming: Keep calm, don't panic, and you can get to the surface. The same works for any plan. As soon as you panic, things go from bad to worse. Nearly everyone experiences that initial panic once it's sunk in that something has gone wrong. Immediately, a snowball effect to doom parades across your mind. The world (or at least your dream) is coming to an end. KICK THAT PANIC OUT! All it's going to do is hold you back. Take a deep breath (let the breath out...no sense blacking out), close your eyes a moment, then open them with new purpose. Confront the problem head-on and...

Never Give Up

Some problems are small, like the wiki website you have your information set up on deciding to close down or change policies, while others are larger. However small or large the set-back, that's exactly what it is: a set-back, an obstacle, a pit in front of you. It's a challenge. Don't give up! Every goal and dream that's worth-while has them and makes achieving the end that much better!

Unfortunately, each has the potential of becoming "insurmountable" or "impossible" for some. Those people give up. They write off their goals and dreams as simply that: the pie in the sky fantasy that was never meant for them.

Do you want to be your own success story or continue on as normal?

What to do:

You have your goal, and the plan to your goal. Do you throw it out and start over? NO! Here's what you do:

1. Reexamine - You had a good plan before, and you still do. It just doesn't accurately reflect current situations and tools. What portions have to change?
2. Replace/Add - Replace the parts that no longer represent the situation and tools. If the problem is large, you might need to add to your plan to recover.
3. Refocus - Focus yourself again on the goal at hand. Don't stay focused on the problem. You've fixed your plan to account for it and now it's time to move forward again.

Now get out there and overcome those challenges! :)

A new start

Each new year is a possible new start. Here's the thing, though. A new year starts every day! A "year" is any stretch of time that goes for 365 days. My new start began earlier this summer with my decision that this fall was going to be the major release of a big change for me, in many ways.

Part of the change is really outside my direct control. All I have to do is sit back and let it happen. I get back home from this prolonged work trip and will suddenly find myself back into a little-to-no income living situation. This is pretty much the entire situation. I have two choices: go with the flow and let it happen, return to life as normal with my hubby, kids, and pets...living day-to-day and being thankful for the blessings that come my way; OR I can take the opportunity of a time already full of change to put in the extra effort to do what I want and need to do to make my family's life that much better.

So, this fall I'm going to start my freelance writing business...finally! And I want to use this blog to document what I do so I can look back and laugh at my mistakes, celebrate my accomplishments, and share with everyone the steps I'm taking to improve my life, opportunities, and follow my passion that I have kept buried for so long.

So far, what I have done that just hasn't worked for me:

• Research, research, research - I've always been an active seeker of information that might increase the amount of knowledge I have about various interests I have. While this has helped me gain knowledge, it hasn't helped to take the steps towards doing anything.
• School/studying - Along with the individual research I've done, I've been a college student. I got my bachelor's and reached for a master's, but felt empty (other than achieving my goal of getting my degree). Here's the problem with it: I've been searching for someone to hand-hold me through the process, and came up empty because everyone's path is as different as their needs, personalities, and motivations are.
• Working - Yes, money makes the world go 'round, and I've worked my butt off trying to get more. But the older I get, the more I realize that to REALLY get more money, you have to either be A) REALLY good at what you do, B) passionate about what you do, or C) both! Well, I was good at what I did, but not REALLY good, and I certainly wasn't passionate about it.
• Played around - I said I had a passion for writing, and the fact that I've always remained connected to it in some way has shown that. Whether it's been sitting through some creative writing classes while getting my bachelor's or volunteering as a forum leader on my favorite writing forum, I've always had writing SOMEWHERE in my life. Time to make it more prominent.

What I've learned from these: Research gives you information, but won't help you act...it's a "good" excuse to not act. School is glorified research--no matter how much you want a mentor, you'll have to eventually decide for yourself what you need and want and reach for it. Working is a good stop-gap, and allows you to live, but if you aren't passionate and/or really good at your job, it's dead-end. Playing around with what you ARE passionate about, despite (or even because of) rough times in your life, shows that no matter what is going on, you still gravitate towards that one thing...so make money from it!

SO! Here's what I'm doing, and my goals for this year (it doesn't have to be New Year's to make my year-end goals, right?):

1. Start my freelance business right (and figure out what that means)
2. Get a good portfolio together
3. Keep working at my business through all the major changes of the year
4. Put together a good website
5. Make a name for myself
6. Finish the year making at least the same amount of money as last year (in my case, less than $18K)

WISH ME LUCK!