Classes in entrepreneurship from my freelancing profession.
I’ve had my fair proportion of shopper horror tales as a contract author.
From unpaid invoices to anticipating 2x the scope for half the cash, my freelance writing profession was stuffed with ups and downs.
The freelance writing mannequin labored properly for a pair years, till I spotted I had means too many purchasers, and the one technique to handle all of them was to work 14-hour days.
My ambition and monetary planning took me to a stage the place I had no time for myself, and all I seemed ahead to each day was work.
That’s once I took child steps in direction of outsourcing and delegating work.
At one level in my profession, I had a shopper who anticipated 5 $200 1200-word articles each week, and having them on a retainer foundation gave me the arrogance to rent my first author.
Since then, I’ve come a great distance. My group composition at the moment appears like —
- 3 writers for 3 totally different niches
- 1 content material supervisor to convey shopper expectations to writers and examine if their work is upto the mark
- 1 search engine marketing skilled to edit and finalize the articles.
I’m quickly nearing the three-year anniversary of being self-employed, and at this particular juncture in my profession, I needed to take a second to mirror on how far I’ve come, and the way my expertise as a freelancer has taught me priceless classes about working a enterprise.
On this article, I’m sharing all of the reflections from my freelancing days and the way I’m implementing them as I run a content material enterprise. In different phrases, right here’s how I’m being the shopper I want I’d present in my freelancer days.
When shoppers requested me without cost samples, I wasn’t pushed to supply my finest work. All they acquired had been half-hearted samples and content material I’m probably not pleased with.
In some instances when the expectations without cost deliverables had been too excessive, I misplaced respect for them and burnt bridges. I even referred to as out a couple of shoppers publicly for a way low-cost they had been being.
