Why You Need to Make Freelance Writing Your Business (Not Your Hobby)

Perhaps you’ve even worked for less than you know your writing is worth more times than you’re proud of?

If so, it’s now time to make freelance writing your business.

What does this mean?

It means you need to make the transition from writing in your spare time for a few pennies here and there, into a fully-fledged freelance career.

>> James went from part-time worker to full-time writer online – from scratch. Find out how you can do the same RIGHT HERE.

Which means you need to make a lot more money from it.

In 30 Reasons You’re Failing at Becoming a Freelance Writer, many of you said you could relate to point #3 on the list in particular:

“You don’t tell people you’re a writer; instead you tell them about the day job you hate.”

This is extremely revealing when it comes to your own thinking about whether you see yourself as a professional freelance writer. Do you take writing seriously enough to make it your full-time job?

With that in mind, how exactly do you turn this freelance writing thing from something you do in your spare time to a legitimate money making machine?

Making freelance writing your business means:

• You get up each day and have a plan of action that you stick to.
• If you’re still in other full-time work you get up early, use your lunch break and return to tending to your new business as soon as you get home.
• You read a lot and study your craft relentlessly.
• You learn how to deal with the financial aspects of running a small business.
• You pitch, you network and you learn to market yourself.
• You learn how to get clients, and how to work more efficiently.
• You learn how much you need to earn in a day and price your rates accordingly.

The idea is that you become a better writer, a better communicator and an effective business owner.

If you apply those principles to your freelance writing career on a daily basis, you’ll feel your confidence soar. 

This is just a brief list of the sort of ingredients that go into starting and running a small freelance writing business of your own. I’m sure you’ll find more ingredients as you venture down this path. (Feel free to add them in the comments section below as you stumble across them.)

What’s important at this stage though is that you begin to think of freelance writing as a mini business – because that’s effectively what it is – and that you start to take yourself seriously as a freelance writer.

After all, if you can’t take yourself seriously as a freelance writer, how on Earth do you expect your clients to?

>>Get step-by step instructions on how to earn a living from freelance writing online, including pitching templates and proven strategies to attract writing clients, in the Complete Freelance Writing Online Course: Beginner to Pro.