3 Things I’ve Learned From Working With Agencies That Will Help Develop My Freelance Writing Career

By Dan Smith

Over the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot agency work, both delivering writing projects for agencies and actually working with an agency on more of a consultancy basis.

My experience of agency work in the past has been pretty, well, bland. They’ve sent over a project spec, I’ve delivered and they’ve paid. Easy and straightforward, there honestly wasn’t much more to it than that — a few e-mails and we were done.

Having worked with agencies quite extensively — and almost exclusively — over the last few months, I’ve picked up a lot of useful information and processes that I strongly believe will prove to be extremely helpful when developing my freelance writing career, with the following three being the most notable.

1. Don’t be afraid to say no

When I first started writing on a freelance basis, this was something that I had a major problem with, as I thought that if someone came to me requesting work, I’d be extremely stupid to turn them down, either because they’d never come back to ask for work at a later date or it would damage my reputation as a writer.

Although I’ve got past this in recent years, working with agencies has reiterated the fact that you really, really, really don’t have to take on a project if you don’t want it or it doesn’t meet your requirements, be it financially, in terms of time or it goes against your beliefs and ethics.

We’re all working in a professional industry here and just because you say no to one client, it doesn’t mean that they’re going to go running away and telling everyone else that you can’t do work for them. Sure, they might find it a little odd that you don’t want to work with them at first, but once you explain your reasons and can offer assistance to them, be it providing advice on their project spec or recommending another writer, the vast majority of people will be more than happy with your response.

2. Always have a set structure

I’ve picked up a lot of useful information during the time I’ve actually been working with / for an agency and one of the most prominent points is that it is extremely beneficial to have a structure or process in place that you can follow for all services you offer.

For instance, I offer a service whereby I provide promotion of the written pieces through the client’s social media accounts.

I know in my head what needs doing and it’s easy to manage with just one or two clients at any one time. However, working with just one or two clients hasn’t been the norm when working with the agency and so I put together, in essence, a step-by-step plan that I could follow and tick off for each client, as and when a certain aspect was completed.

It does take a little time to develop, but it is extremely useful when keeping on top of each client’s project and their individual needs.

3. Offer everything and negotiate

Something that I started to do almost immediately, as a I realised this is seemingly standard practice with agencies, whenever I’m putting a proposal together for a project, I now deliver it including additional services that either aren’t what the client initially asked for or which takes the proposal to beyond their stated budget.

I didn’t used to do this at all, mainly because I believed that if I sent off a proposal that included aspects that the client didn’t want or which were above their stated budget, they would think I hadn’t listened to their requirements and bin the proposal without giving it a second thought.

What I’ve now realised is that as long as you can provide a full and valid reason why you’ve included the aspect into the proposal, the client is more likely to be grateful that you’ve taken the time to include something extra that could be of use to them and consider utilizing that additional service.

Agency work is something that’s taking up a lot of my time at the minute and in addition to enjoying every minute of it, I’m learning a lot that I can honestly say will help to develop my freelance writing career fantastically — and in many respects, me as a person, too.

Image: rama_miguel (Flickr)