Sometimes I think that people make starting a freelance writing career more difficult than it has to be. In the past, I have probably been one of these people in more than one case. Fortunately, there are some basics that can bring you back to earth and show you just how simple it can be.
Here are three basics of starting a freelance writing career:
1. Make sure you love writing. You can have everything else going for you, but if you don’t love to write you should avoid becoming a freelancer in this industry. There is no reason good enough to write day in and day out if you do not thoroughly enjoy doing so.
2. Go all in when you are ready. I have met entirely too many aspiring freelance writers who never met their goals because they were afraid of fully moving into this career. If you feel that you have what it takes to succeed as a freelance writer, and you are truly interested in this career path, you have to take the leap soon enough. You don’t want to let time pass you by as you continually think about becoming a freelance writer but never act on this feeling.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. As a new freelance writer I had a couple of mentors who guided me and showed me what to do next. This is something you should do as well. When you ask for help, no matter who the person be, you are going to get something of quality in return. Learning is a big part of becoming a successful freelance writer. And asking for help is a great way to increase your knowledge base.
I hope this post shows that starting a freelance writing career does not have to be overly complicated.
I get asked a lot of questions about freelance writing. Some from people I know, some from people I have never met, and others from members of my freelance writing course. One of the strangest questions as of late was: when is the best month to start a freelance writing career? This is not something I have thought about a lot.
Is there one month that is better than another? I had to think about this question for a bit before answering. In short, I don’t think that you should wait until one month in particular to start a freelance writing career. This may be something you do for a personal reason, but overall I cannot think of any advantages. Sure, you may want to start in January so you can get off to a fresh start and make things as simple as possible from a tax point of view. But again, this is not a necessity by any means.
I think aspiring freelance writers should take the plunge when they are ready to do so. This is the case no matter what month it is. If you are ready to take the next step you should stop thinking and do it. Continually saying that you will wait until the next month is not going to do you any good. Instead, it will hold you back and soon enough you will realize just how much time has gone by.
There is no right and wrong month to start a freelance writing career. If you have a preference and don’t mind waiting, that is fine. Otherwise, start your career when you are 100 percent sure that this is what you want to do. The month won’t have much to do with the steps you take or the success you achieve.Â
Most freelance writers spend the majority of their days writing. This is a good thing because you are getting paid by clients for this activity. But you don’t want to spend all your time writing. You also need to think about other tasks involved with running a successful freelance writing business. One of them is staying organized. This may sound like a waste of time, but over the long haul you will realize that this is not the case.
This is not my first post on the importance of freelance writers staying organized. I keep bringing up this topic because many people ask me about how to better this part of their career. They are doing just fine in the writing and marketing departments, but for whatever reason they just cannot seem to stay organized. As you can imagine, this is a big problem.
Believe it or not, you can stay organized if you just take a few minutes out of your day to do so. Of course, organization means something different to everyone. Some people take great pride in putting everything in the right place and staying on top of every last detail. Others will let things get out of control before they take charge and reorganize their space.
The good thing about staying organized is that once you learn how to do so you will not have to worry about it in the future. In other words, good organization can become a habit over time.
Even though you will spend most of your day writing and marketing your services, don’t forget to stay organized. An organized career is a more successful one!Â
