by Rachel Smith
24 January 2014
I get quite a few emails asking for advice about freelancing. Many are from entry level journos, but more and more I’m finding former in-house staffers in my inbox, telling me they’ve decided to go freelance (or have been pushed into it by mass redundancies). Accomplished as these journos often are, there are always several unspoken questions simmering beneath the surface: How do I get my freelance career off the ground and growing fast? Will my pitches start getting picked up soon? When can I relax knowing I’ll be making a nice round figure every month?
These are hard questions, because the real answer is: probably years.
I was forced into freelancing by two consecutive redundancies and it took at least 1-2 years before I started earning okay money, landed some weekly gigs and was being commissioned regularly by a few editors. Those were lean years. I pitched and cold-called my ass off. I ate a lot of noodles.
Of course, it’s far easier to get a freelance career off the ground if a) you have a bulging book of contacts; b) you aren’t afraid to sell yourself by email, phone, Twitter, blogging, snail mail etc and c) you have some regular gigs. Let’s not also forget d): You have a superb website that’s succinctly written, crammed with examples of your work and what you can do, and is full of ways to contact you.
Here’s where I go all tough love on you: if you have c), you can stay afloat while you sort out a), b) and d). But if you don’t have a), b), c) or d) your foray into freelancing is likely to be a pretty hairy time.
Your first few months freelancing should be all about setting yourself up. Get a website or at the very least, a decent online portfolio. Order some business cards. And put yourself out there, networking and meeting people and taking editors and potential clients for coffee. Pitch, pitch and pitch some more – seriously, rack up 10-20 pitches a week to all kinds of magazines, websites, etc – and it’s far more likely that something will get picked up. Use a slow patch or quiet time while you’re starting up to your advantage.
The most proactive, successful freelancers I know work it like pros. They are pros. They know it’s a different pace, a different mindset, and ALL about selling yourself and what you can do. They reinvent themselves constantly. They look for opportunity everywhere. They don’t baulk at asking editors what they can do for them or if there are any sections of their publication they need extra help with. They have no fear in handing business cards over to a potential client. They know that finding alternate income streams is an ongoing part of the job.
Sure, it takes time to get into that groove, but get into it you must – if you want to get your freelance business off to a flying start.
How long have you been freelancing, and how long did it take you to get things rolling and to feel confident that you could make freelancing work as a career? Please share in the comments!
This is all excellent advice and similar to what I tell people when they ask me about freelancing. It may be hard to hear but I think people really need to know this or they’re in for a massive shock. I’ve often encountered aspiring freelancers with wholly unrealistic expectations. Unless you have at least one or two reliable clients already in the bag, excellent connections, and have been networking your arse off (and ideally freelancing on the side) DO NOT quit your day job and expect to be making a full time living in three to six months. Ain’t gonna happen. I mean, I’m sure there are exceptions – and hopefully we’ll hear from them here 😉 – but generally speaking this is all very sound advice and actually getting a freelance business off the ground takes patience, tenacity and TIME.
I say this as a now successful long-time freelancer BUT in the beginning I’d say it was at least a year (maybe two) of pitching like mad before money was really coming in reliably and it still took another couple of years to get comfortable. (I think I was aiming for one good pitch a day/20+ per month for quite awhile there and I also cold called over 100 companies when I started out.) And, really, you could probably look back and say it was more like 5 years before I was properly established and not stressing about work/money coming in reliably.
It’s still worth it though. Just set realistic goals and time frames and be prepared to go the hard yards.
Awesome advice Deb.
Thanks for not sugar coating it, Rachel. I started out about a year ago with none of the above, and after a really hard slog, I’m finally making some successful pitches and seeing my name in print. A lot of that time, granted, was spent figuring stuff out like developing my own website and learning which publications were responsive etc. But it’s not a bad return, I think, considering I had zero contacts or networks.
I’m planning this year to get some regular article writing, and land some corporate work as well.
Can I ask what you mean by cold calling? Is that offering your services (by phone) to small businesses etc? Does it work?
Cheers
Sounds like you’re making headway, Lani – good for you! It is a slog but worth it when you start seeing results in your bank account 🙂
And yes, cold calling is exactly that, making a list of small businesses – or bigger brands – and making contact to see if they outsource to freelancers. I’ve landed several great and long-standing clients this way but I probably called 30-50 companies for every one client that came through with work so it’s not easy. But, worth it if you get a good corporate client (my main one through cold calling has lasted, on and off, 13 years).
In my final year at uni we had a guest lecturer come in and talk about freelancing. He said to have a year’s salary in the bank before you start and I’ve found that’s largely true.
I had equity in my mortgage and began freelancing part-time (with the intent to go full-time) about three years ago. As of next month I will no longer have a part-time role to “fall back on”, scary but necessary as I was turning away work I would have preferred and that was more lucrative than my part-time role.
I recommend those who enter the fray with some trepidation to consider anchoring themselves with a part-time role/regular gig while they iron out those elements Rachel mentioned above. Freelancing is not just about doing the work well, it is a *business* and needs to be treated as such. Not all writers/journalists can do the business part.
Never heard that about the year’s salary Adeline – fantastic idea if you can manage it and aren’t forced into freelancing like I was 🙂
Love your advice too about having the part-time role as a an anchor – anything that takes the pressure off while you establish yourself.
In answer to the question, “When can I relax knowing I’ll be making a nice round figure every month?” Probably never. I hate to be a downer but the bottom line is that while it’s certainly possible to progress beyond the, ‘Oh shit’ I’ve got the rent/mortgage/car payment due and nothing in the bank account’ stage, I don’t think you can ever, ever completely relax as a freelancer.
Like, Rachel I started freelancing because I got made redundant. It was at a time (2002) when there weren’t a lot of good inhouse jobs around but there was heaps of freelance work. As an IT journo with a strong focus on enterprise technology I was extremely lucky, my first client was the mag I’d just been made redundant from and I must have been reasonably well regarded because as soon as word got out that I was freelancing, the editors of formerly competitor magazines were approaching me at press conferences asking me if I could do stuff for them. That made me realise that I definitely could freelance as a career and when I successfully pitched a couple of non-IT mags I’d always wanted to write for, I really felt this was what I wanted to do.
The market was a lot easier then but reading the other posts has made me realise that I was incredibly lucky. I built up enough of a business to pay the rent etc. in a couple of months, but starting out cashflow was still a problem and I ate more than a few meals at the Hari Krishna temple in Cammeray. Don’t know what it costs now but then Sunday nights it was all you can eat for $5. I was also fortunate in that my living costs were quite low as I was single, was deliberately not running a car etc.
Even in the more benign environment of 10 years ago if you got complacent, you could still get in trouble. There was one patch when I thought I was just cruising I had so much work coming in but in the space of less than three months: a mag that had me on retainer closed, a fortnightly mag that was giving me a long feature every issue decided it was spending too much money on freelancers and hired a feature writer and another mag that was giving me a lot of work drastically cut its freelance budget. Because of the lag between filing copy and getting paid for it, I had a buffer but I still had to hit the email and phone and pitch to get some work in quickly.
Now it is just so much tougher that it’s not funny. Hopefully we’ve seen the last wave of mass redundancies and the supply of freelancers will tighten up a little as, to be brutally honest, some of the journos who have been made redundant and decided to freelance give up on freelancing and go off and do something else. But I don’t think we’re ever going to see the halcyon days of the early 2000s return and like Rachel said, we’re continually going to have to reinvent ourselves if we want to stay ahead of the game. We need to pitch, pitch, pitch and be prepared to do stuff like editing, copywriting etc. that we may not have bothered with otherwise.
I’ve also managed to pick up a bit of corporate training and TAFE teaching which has been useful but is again something that takes a lot of marketing networking etc. to make it into a reliable income stream.
It is about being a pro, as Rachel says. Freelancing is not just about the writing, it’s about running a business. And every business is about selling something so freelancers need to adopt some basic sales and marketing techniques.
Great post on a topic that doesn’t get anywhere near enough attention. Excellent replies too. I’m not surprised many beginning freelancers have unrealistic expectations when there are so many online freelance writing courses being spruiked by their architects. My effort to find paid freelance writing work has not returned a penny. I have published articles but none were paid and they don’t provide much in the way of relevant and supportive clips as these were alternative news. Not your brand of writing to give editors much confidence. Since pitching mainstream media all year I have yet to get one yes expressing interest to work with me. It is discouraging. I spend quite a lot of time thinking and crafting my pitches, even brief ones. Fortunately I have a good job in the public service. Of course I wouldn’t consider the ridiculous suggestion to leave a job to go freelance, especially given a mortgage and bills to pay. I would responsibly advise anyone else looking to embark on starting a freelance writing business likewise – don’t leave your day job. In fact, you could probably invest as much effort in getting promoted or finding another higher paying job and be much better rewarded.