If you’ve just started your freelance writing business, you might be shocked to know that most experts expect a small business to have to wait at least five years before your business truly becomes profitable.
Now, before you get too discouraged, let me point out an important difference between starting a freelance writing business and starting another business: in general, the start-up costs for a freelance writing business are lower than other types of small businesses. That’s a good thing. For most of us, that 5-years-to-profitability rule can be greatly reduced.It’s likely to take more like 1 to 3 years.
That might still be discouraging, out of the gate. If you’ve just sort of discovered freelance writing, you may have visions of making thousands of dollars a month. If you’ve been laid off from another job, you might see freelance writing more of as a replacement job than a new business. I’ve talked before about the dangers of doing so, and how important it is that you try to see your business as a business.
Why does it take so long to truly hit profitability? Well, in my experience, there are several things that have to happen before you can do more than just break even:
1. You have to truly understand the market.
There is a serious learning curve when it comes to understanding the freelance writing marketplace. Knowing the difference between web content and web copy, or mastering the query process, or understanding the difference between an article and a blog post is something that doesn’t necessarily come intuitively. Even if you have an education in the publishing or writing fields, chances are that it didn’t include much about new media markets.
2. It takes time to build a diverse repeat client base.
When I first started freelance writing, I had one client. When her work dried up, I had no work at all. Two years later, I had one large client providing about 60% of my businesses’ income, some smaller repeat clients that made up about 20%, and then 20% new business. Today, 70% of my freelance writing business is made up of 4 different repeat clients, 20% is made up of smaller come-and-go repeat clients, and 10% is new business. As I developed more and more long-term clients, my bottom line went up as well.
3. You have to prove you can hack it.
Half of all small businesses close down within a year. Half again of those close their doors by the end of five years. If you’re going to make it in any small business, including freelance writing, you need to have stamina. You need to put in those 60+ hour weeks early on, you need to be able to study and adapt to your market, and you need to be able to hone your craft into something that’s truly in demand. Above all, you need to prove to yourself that you have both the motivation and desire to make it as a freelance writer.
The Good News
If you’re just starting out as a freelance writer, don’t get discouraged. There is hope. It takes years to get to profitability – that is, where your business can sustain itself, pay your salary, pay for its expenses and still have money left over to invest in growth. In the meantime, you can often still make enough to break even, or come awfully close.
On top of that, if you only need or want your freelance writing business to bring in, let’s say, $1,000 a month, it’s not going to take nearly as long to get where you want to be as it is if you want to have a full-time freelance writing business providing for you and your family.
Oh! To remember my first years as a freelance content writer. Actually speaking, I never knew what a freelancing was, when one of my colleagues introduced me to this world. Well, it was quick, good money and I stuck to it. And once I found out where I could get freelance gigs, there was no stopping me.
The funny thing is that I used to work at a much higher rate then, and with the new entrants, the rates have fallen down quite drastically. But well, my clients are always there.
Actually, my experience was quite different. I worked very hard to set up clients prior to leaving my day job – so hit the ground with several solid clients. THEN they mostly dried up, leaving me high and dry about six-eight months into the process.
It took me a while to figure out the basic rules:
1. NEVER stop marketing, even if you think you’re too busy to take on new work
2. ALWAYS know what you’re going to do after you take a vacation (don’t finish your work and then come back and start marketing anew!)
3. do your best to cultivate longterm relationships with reliable clients
4. Apply for everything you think might be interesting: you never know
5. stay in touch with old clients, and ask satisfied clients for suggestions regarding new opportunities
6. Build a network of folks with whom you can easily trade leads. If you’re a writer, network NOT so much with writers but with illustrators, designers, web masters, editors… then share opportunities back and forth as you hear of them.
Lisa
Very Informative! =)
I agree with this. It took me nearly 10 years to really break-in, but looking back, I realized it was a lack of focus and clarity on my goals. I hopped around alot. I would get frustrated and stopped pitching. I would wait endleslly for a reply and only then would I pitch again.
Once I broke in, I was getting published in The LA Times and Boston Globe without taking the usual route of starting small and working my way up. I also landed a literary agent and have 4 guidebooks published.
At the same time, I’m not exactly profitable. I make a great side income, but I’ve learned that there are many other areas I enjoy working in and dabbling in creative fields. My preference is to diversify, but all within a niche area.
Hey there….Could you expand on the info. below a bit? I’m interested to hear more about it. Or, if you have a link to the previous article that would be great.
“…you might see freelance writing more of as a replacement job than a new business. I’ve talked before about the dangers of doing so, and how important it is that you try to see your business as a business.”
I have been freelancing for 3 years now and I love it. It started out as a sideline while my kids were home with me and in the past few months, I have been able to more than triple my income. My goals started off very small but have grown along with my business. I have two big clients that make up 90% of my income, with 10% little gigs I find word of mouth. I am concentrating on marketing myself now so that I can continue to grow. This website has been a great source of helpful information.