Are You A Writer Doing Business, Or a Business Person Who Writes?


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You know, when you’re out in the woods all alone, you have lots of time to think. It’s a great time to get introspective…even philosophical. And if you ever give minimalist camping a try for an extended time there will come a point when you realize an interesting but important distinction.

If you view yourself as a civilized person trying to survive, you’ve started out with a 50-50 chance. Maybe you’ll make it, maybe you won’t. But, if you view yourself as a survivor waiting till they get back to civilization, your odds are much better, simply because your attitude, your focus, the questions you ask yourself are completely different.

Most Freelance Writers Lack Business Savvy
The same goes for freelancing. As stereotypical as it sounds, most writers just don’t have much business sense. It’s not that they’re incapable. They just haven’t been trained—or often even exposed—to the things that make a business successful. And usually, they don’t even realize it.

They are writers trying to make a go of this business thing. And that’s why most freelance writers earn less that $5000 a year from their writing (those are the department of labor’s numbers, not mine).

But if you look at most successful freelancers, they don’t see themselves as writers in a business. They see themselves as professionals in the business of writing. So instead of looking at making money from a writer’s perspective using the tools of “business,” they look at it from a business person’s perspective using the tools of the writer.

Forget About the Words: Solve the Damn Problem
Nowhere is this as clear as in setting their rates. Writers torture themselves trying to figure out “how much they should charge” for a given project.

Now, any consultant in the world will tell you how they arrive at a price for their services: they take the hourly rate of everyone involved, estimate the number of hours to be spent, multiply those numbers, and there’s your project fee.

The same should be true of copywriters. If you have set a rate for yourself of $85 per hour, and a project is going to take 10 hours, then the project costs $850.

But many writers, indoctrinated by the publishing world, fixate on a per-word rate. Well, if you’re writing for an editor, that editor is buying your words. So you can argue that that’s a fair arrangement. As a copywriter, the client isn’t buying your words. They are buying your knowledge, your expertise…your time. Not simply the time spent at your desk writing, but the time spent interviewing subjects, researching the market, uncovering real, meaningful copy points, communicating with the client. It all has value to the end result.

You’re not selling words, your selling the solution to a problem.

The 15 Minute Business Plan
It surprises me how many writers don’t have a business plan. Now, I’m not talking about a formal “take-it-to-the-bank-to-get-a-loan” business plan, though there’s no real harm in it. I’m talking about a “this is who I am, this is what I do, and this is how I’m going to make money” sort of business plan.

One day they decided “I’m going to be a freelance copywriter,” and they were in business! Without a plan, they throw idea after idea to see what sticks, but never have a clear way to gauge if their efforts are successful or not.

All you need is 15 minutes or so, and you can have a rough sketch that can serve as a map for you. And you can refine and flesh it out as you go along. Just answer the following questions as thoroughly as possible: What am I going to write? Who am I going to write it for? How am I going to get those gigs? What is my target yearly income? How much will I need, minimum, to actually survive? How much money to I have to bring in each day to reach those goals?

That should be enough to get you started.

Targets, Goals and Milestones
Once you have your plan in place, plan your route there. Define three or five or ten milestones between where you are today, and your goal…and take action each day toward your first milestone. Keep track of your efforts. Note what works and what doesn’t, and change your actions accordingly.

Quit Begging for Work. Make Friends Instead
I don’t know any successful business person in any field who got that way by begging for the sale. Yet most writers who make cold-calls dial the phone, ask if the client needs any copywriting work, hangs up, and moves onto the next call.

The most successful salesmen don’t close the deal on the first call. Or the second. Or the third. By far the majority of sales take place between the 5th and 12th calls. And that’s not because they’re wearing the prospect down…it’s because they’re taking the time to build a relationship with that prospect. There is no repetitious script of “Hi, have any work for me today?”

In fact, successful sales consists of much more listening than selling. It consists of much more of them, and a lot less of you.

Develop Your Business Muscles
These are just a few examples of areas where you need to think less like a writer and more like a business person, if you want to see real success as a freelancer.

But invest some time reading about business. Spend a couple of hours in your local library or bookstore and look through the pages of magazines like Forbes, FastCompany and Inc. check out some of the featured selections in the business aisle covering management and sales.

And read ABOUT successful business people. Build a sort of internal business pantheon, so that when faced with a novel situation, you can ask yourself what would Richard Branson, or Andrew Carnegie or Henry Ford do?

So…how about you. Are you a writer who’s in business…or a business person who writes?

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