Start & Run a Copywriting Business. Steve Slaunwhite
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feast and famine roller coaster, especially during the first few years, can be stressful. To stay sane, you have to remember that clients do need your ongoing services — it may just be infrequent.
Deadline stress
Remember that English essay you had to write in the tenth grade? Remember how you felt as the due date approached? If you normally take a disciplined approach to completing tasks, then you’ll handle deadline stress better than most. But if you’re like the rest of us, tight deadlines can seem daunting.
Of course, you can always turn work down when you’re busy, but that may be dangerous. What are you going to say when your best client calls and begs you to take on an extra project? If you say no, another copywriter is sure to get his or her foot in the door. And, when another project comes up, your “best client” may call that copywriter instead of you.
Most copywriters rank deadlines near the top of their list of stressors. I fight it in a number of ways: I plan my work the best I can, take a disciplined approach to completing tasks, and turn down work from potential new clients when I’m busy. (I rarely turn down work from a current client, and strongly suggest you don’t.) I also reward myself after a particularly busy period with a few days off.
No published writing credit
This may affect your ego more if you’re used to seeing your byline in articles and other pieces you have previously written for publication. As a copywriter, only you and your clien will know who wrote the materials you worked so hard to scribe. Your name will not be anywhere on it.
Copywriting is writing-for-hire in the strictest sense. Once your fee is paid, you have no further rights to the work. Your clients are free to rewrite, edit, republish, or reuse your words any way they wish. There are many websites that contain copy I had originally written for a brochure. The text was simply lifted from the brochure and pasted on the website. Do I mind? Not at all. But you might.
Your wrists, butt, waistline, and back
Copywriting exercises your mind, but not your body. By its nature, writing involves sitting and typing. Sure, you’ll develop dextrous fingers, but your behind may spread in unwanted directions. And the fridge is temptingly close when you’re working from home.
If you are going to be spending hours each day in front of a computer, you need to develop an exercise program. I like to take a short break every hour or so to get up, stretch, and walk around. I also exercise at a local gym (although less frequently than I care to admit). See Chapter 3 for suggestions on avoiding eye, back, and wrist strain.
No regular paycheck
It’s obvious, but worth remembering. Once you become self-employed, your days of receiving a regular paycheck are over. No more Christmas bonuses. No more paid vacations. You may very well go weeks without any money coming in, and then open your mail and find three client checks worth thousands of dollars.
Your paychecks may not be regular, but as a self-employed professional, you’ll have more control over how much — and how little — you earn than you ever had while employed. I can tell you from experience that earning a self-employed income is very empowering. I once rewarded myself with a new Nikon camera system after a particularly exhausting few weeks of working on client projects. I knew the effort that went into every cent I paid for that camera system. That was my Christmas bonus.
Financial stress in the first few years
When I asked copywriter Alan Sharpe what he liked least about the copywriting business he replied, “Number one, not being paid on time.” In my experience, clients will usually pay your invoice 45 to 90 days after you send it. That’s two to four months after you begin a project. So if you have a slow month in June, you’re going to feel a cash flow crunch in September.
Before I started in this business, I was able to squirrel away an amount equal to six months of personal and business expenses as a cash reserve. But you may not be able to do the same thing. While you begin to establish yourself, your marketing expenses will be high, and client orders will tend to come in fits and starts. You may experience long lulls between projects. This is normal, but can be frightening and stressful.
A Day in the Life
You’ve probably heard of the Shadow Dad for a Day or Visit Mom at Work programs at school. Well, here’s your chance to spend a day with me. Be my shadow, and see for yourself what a typical day may hold for you in the future.
7:00 a.m.
My usual starting time. After having breakfast with my family, I walk upstairs to my home office. As I turn on my computer I can still hear the sometimes distracting sounds of my wife and daughter getting ready for work and daycare. A friend of mine, also self-employed, has actually soundproofed his home office. I’m not willing to go that far. Personally, I enjoy working with the audible nuances of family life playing in the background. Much better, in fact, than the chatter of a busy office.
I check my e-mail and voice mail and review my schedule. I like to plan my work hour by hour as soon as I receive a client project. But a copywriter’s schedule changes constantly. Today, my plans include working on a new brochure for an insurance company for most of the morning. In the afternoon, I will read background materials and make notes on a new website I’m writing for a software firm.
As I look out my home office window, I can see my wife and daughter pulling out of the driveway. I wave.
Now, the house is quieter, and I begin to write. I write about half a page as quickly as I can. Then I go over it, fix it up, polish it here and there, and move on. I use this simple but effective writing system as I make my way through the brochure.
9:00 a.m.
After two hours, I have completed a clean rough draft. It’s far from finished. There is still a lot of improving, editing, and massaging to do. I may completely rewrite entire passages, but the essence of the brochure is there in words — and this is a lot less stressful to work with than a blank screen.
I take a break, stretch, and get a coffee. Jill, the manager of client services for an advertising agency in the city, calls. She’s one of my better clients. “Steve, I’m sorry I didn’t call you earlier,” Jill begins, “but we landed a new client last Friday. And they want us to put together a series of brochures. The time frame is tight. Can you possibly make a brainstorm session tomorrow afternoon?”
Off-site meetings with clients are not an everyday occurrence for self-employed copywriters. I attend such meetings no more than three or four times a month. Most project information, in fact, can be exchanged by e-mail, fax, couriers, phone calls, and conference calls. But when I do get a request from a good client to meet, I usually agree.
We set our meeting for 2:30 p.m. tomorrow. I always try to schedule meetings for mid-afternoon, because this maximizes my writing time for the rest of the day. I’ve found that when I attend a meeting any earlier in the day, I have trouble getting back into the writing groove when I return to my office.
9:15 a.m.
I take a few minutes to readjust my plans for the day. Because I feel comfortable with my progress on the brochure, I decide to dedicate the remainder of the morning to reviewing the background materials for a website I’m writing.
As I go through the mountain of documents my client sent me — old brochures, press releases, ads, memos, proposals — I freely highlight, circle, and make side notes while culling the key benefits, unique advantages, and other important information needed to make the website effective.
12:00 noon
I take a break at lunch, go downstairs, and fix myself a sandwich. One of the things I