Everybody Be Cool: Happy Freelancing When the Pressure’s On

Being methodical doesn’t always come naturally for a creative copywriter. But working smart will help you stay on top when the going gets tough. 

It can appear that freelancing is a ticket straight out of the rat race. You can work to the beat of your own drum, accept the jobs you fancy, and turn down the more stressful stuff. As a parent, you’re able to fit your work around your family commitments without the insidious raising of eyebrows from work colleagues. 

Of course, just a small insight into freelancing will tell you that it’s not such a pretty picture all the time. Sometimes you need to take on projects just to make ends meet. Occasionally, the ends just don’t meet despite your carefully laid plans, and you can be left wondering where the next pay check will come from. Then there’s the flipside to these sporadic, alarming worries; the weeks when the floodgates open, and there’s no stopping the briefs, or the problems that come with them. 

Being your own boss in any walk of life means making money while the going’s good. There’s nothing more rewarding than being in demand for a sustained period, and chances are, once you’ve built up a good profile as a freelance copywriter, you’re likely to have frequent bursts of high demand. The question is, how do you manage them?
 

A clever approach to copywriting
People love to talk about working smart. It’s one of those new age businessy buzz phrases. Strip away the hype, and you’ll start talking about methods to keep on top of your workload. Most copywriters quite rightly go into a freelance career because they love writing for brands. The idea of the paperwork, managing client relationships, and dealing with more admin intense projects are not the reason for skipping down the freelance path.  

They are of course, part of modern business and naturally come with the day job. To get consistent work and recommendations, you need to build trust and respect with your clients through working hard and being reliable. 
 

Plan time for your admin
Unless you’re lucky enough to have a personal assistant, you’ll need to sort out your admin once in a while. Writing and chasing invoices, maintaining a record of your monthly incomings, and updating project timelines can all add an extra layer of work to your day. Blocking time out in your diary for day-to-day admin is a must, you’ll need it for amendments to copy and financial necessities. Sending invoices along with submitted work can also help you avoid losing track. And if you need additional help, you can always look into employing a member of staff to help you manage the day-to-day tasks.

Then there’s the other bits. Writing your own blog and keeping your portfolio up to date for instance. I’m a fine one to talk, having not updated my own portfolio for almost two years, so don’t take a leaf out of my book. It does illustrate how something like this can fall by the wayside when you’re busy working though. Even if you aim to set aside an afternoon every six months to refresh your portfolio, it’s better than nothing.

When it comes to updating your blog, the ideal is to write something every couple of weeks. Again, this is nigh on impossible when you’re up to your eyes in client projects. Ultimately, paid work comes first, but if you’re having a quiet patch use it to your advantage. Write a few if you can, and back them up to use at a later date. 
 

Value your clients
Your clients are helping you live life as a freelancer, and all those perks of being your own boss come as part of the package. It’s often worth reminding yourself of this when you’re having a bad week. Let’s face it, sometimes projects and clients are demanding. Everyone’s under their own kind of pressure, including your clients.  Admittedly, it can sometimes feel like everything happens at once. All the requests, all the problems, all those weighty pressures.

Approaching your job as an account manager as well as a copywriter will help. Building client relationships is necessary for your survival as a freelancer, and it plays a big part in the day-to-day enjoyment of your job. When you work alongside a likeminded client, things are certainly much easier. You’ll both have the same approach to a project, and building your relationship. Value those clients, and go the extra mile where you can.
 

Manage expectations
Gelling with a client from day one isn’t always the reality though. Sometimes a business won’t have experience of working with a copywriter for instance.  It’s important to be upfront about what the process involves and what information you need from them at the start. 

Others may just have a different working style. They may ask you to deliver work in a certain way. You might need to manage a client that’s less organised than you, or deal with a contact who likes to bombard you with lots of different requests in separate emails. You’ll need to talk things through in these scenarios to find out what will make them happy, and what will suit you. 

Pay attention to any requests they might have. For example, they could ask you to send work formatted in a certain way. If you think it’ll add time to the job, take that into account with your quote. Just be sure to get a good idea of how they’d like to work from the beginning. 
 

Block out precious writing time
Juggling all the bits that come along with a freelance writing career can make you lose sight of your actual job. While you’re busy arranging harmonious working relationships with clients, updating your portfolio, and sorting through your finance spreadsheet, that alarm bell may sound; I should be writing! 

Sometimes, responding to emails and general sorting can feel easier than getting stuck into a big writing project. Writing is the stuff that really takes the brainpower. Of course, it’s also the thing that pays the bills, and dare I say it, it’s the whole reason why you chose to be a copywriter.

On the advice from a seasoned copywriter, I rearranged my working day a while ago to block out mornings for writing. I’m mentally fresher first thing, so it made perfect sense. Like a sort of nervous tick, there’s always that impulse to get stuck into firing emails to clients and “staying on top” of admin when I first switch the laptop on. Often, those emails can wait a few hours, and using your energy for more creative work will certainly pay off. 
 

Take a breath
Part of being a copywriter is to deliver quality work. You can write the most creative, targeted bit of copy in the world and if it’s riddled with typos, that’s all anyone will see.

It’s the first lesson of writing. Always check your own work, and never rely on someone else to point out your mistakes. It makes you look unprofessional and sloppy at best, and it can cause a client to lose faith in you in the worst cases. I hold my hands up and admit I’ve made this exact mistake when under pressure. We’re only human after all, and most freelancers don’t have the luxury of asking someone else to review their work before they send it. Occasionally, you just have to get it out the door to hit a deadline.

Always try and print off your work before you do that. Ten minutes reading through what you’ve written on a printed page can reveal mistakes you missed on the screen. Reading out loud can also help you spot those sneaky errors that got past you first time.   
 

Prioritise each part of the job
Freelancing is a case of priorities, and staying cool under pressure. You’re a writer, an admin assistant, the accounts department, and an account manager.

So, be methodical about it. Prioritise and work to your strengths. Write when you’re on the ball, block out time to handle the other necessary bits of running a business, and enjoy your day job. You’re a free and easy, happy freelancer after all, so be clever about it. Feel confident about your approach, and enjoy it.