What’s Your Next Move As A Freelance Writer?

October 18, 2011

Every now and again, I take some time out from work and just look and what I’ve been doing, what I was doing a few weeks or months previously and what I’ve got lined up in the coming weeks and months.

I don’t schedule the time in or set aside hours, I just usually grab a cup of coffee, sit back from my computer and simply have a think.

By doing this, it does two things that have been useful for both me as a person and a freelance writer.

The first is that it allows me to see just how far I’ve come. By looking back on the work I was doing six months ago and what I’m doing now, it gives me a feeling of positivity and a sense of achievement, something that spurs me on to continue working and investing the necessary time.

The second point is that it gives me the opportunity to know whether or not I need to amend what I’m doing as a freelance writer and work out just what my next move needs to be.

For example, when I took some time out to reflect and plan in May / June time of this year, things were looking particularly busy over the summer, largely because I was to start some consultancy work.

I realised that as the consultancy work was going to take up a lot of my time over the next 12 weeks at least, there was no way I would have been able to deliver on each and every regular freelance writing project I had at the time.

I worked out which ones I enjoyed, which gave the best financial return against the time required to complete the project and then passed on any work I was unable to complete to other writers.

By doing this, I was able to not only ensure I continued to maintain a high level of service to my freelance writing clients, but that I was able to devote enough time to the consultancy work, while also having the opportunity to take some time out over the summer.

When I’m looking at what my next move needs to be as a freelance writer at present, one of the most notable points is that it’s time to raise my prices.

It’s been almost two years since I’ve increased my freelance writing rates and although I have carried out several projects over that time that worked out to be higher than my rate card, it’s now time to bring my rate card to this increased level as a standard.

In addition to this, I need to set aside some time to get things properly organized, with set schedules and processes.

At the moment, I’m effectively working four jobs — two salaried, one freelance for an agency and one freelance writing for various clients — and although I’m about to leave one of the salaried roles, the agency work is developing tremendously and I need to ensure that the next few months are properly structured so I can continue to meet the needs of all clients.

We’ll be looking properly at your achievements in 2011 and your goals for 2012 before Christmas, but up until then, have a think about what you’ve achieved over the last few months and what your plan is for the next few months — do you know what your next move needs to be?