Ask anyone who hates their 9–5 job what’s stopping them from going freelance, and they’ll tell you everything they’re afraid of.
But if you’re a writer these days, you probably don’t have the option of a full-time position, even if that’s what you’d prefer. And when it comes to making a living, well, unless you have a pretty hefty trust fund, or the uncanny ability to pick the right lottery numbers, you may not have a choice.
Most people aren’t taught about finances or basic business strategies in school, so as a responsible adult, and especially as a freelancer, you have to make sure you’re filling in those gaps yourself. And that’s not even touching on how, in our technology-led world, industries can be revolutionized or even eliminated overnight. If something is important enough that your lack of knowledge about how to manage it fills you with dread, the solution is to learn more!
Artificial Intelligence
Whether or not it’s even useful yet, AI is the biggest buzzword in business. Unfortunately for writers, it’s your market that’s already saturated with ChatGPT right now, while other industries are likely safe for at least a few decades to come.
The hard truth about AI is that it’s at best a cheap workaround. Even high school students who are plagiarizing their assignments have to go over the final product to make sure it makes sense. Unfortunately that isn’t stopping businesses from farming out their writing work to AI systems, sacrificing quality work and quality writers for a worse product.
It’s extremely reasonable to be nervous about this new precedent, but don’t forget that writing is one of the most versatile skill sets you can have. Change your focus to higher-paying clients in bigger markets who want to invest in the quality of writing only humans can make. You can also look into branching out from marketing, which probably involves search engine optimization, or SEO, and selling yourself as an SEO strategist.
Navigating Personal Finances
When you have a traditional full-time job, your taxes, insurance, and retirement are all taken care of before any money hits your bank account. At most you’ll have to make sure you’re taking full advantage of your employer’s retirement match program. Freelancers have to do all of that budgeting for themselves, and it can be hard to know if you’re doing it right.
First of all, you need to get your taxes figured out. Take a look at your state laws for freelance income taxes and round up the percentage to make sure you aren’t short when it’s tax season. You should also look into paying quarterly taxes to avoid penalties.
Second on the list is savings and retirement. It’s basic financial sense to have at least a few months of living expenses saved up somewhere you can access in an emergency. But when you’re your own small business, you need more savings than someone with a traditional job; that’s to make up the difference when you have those inevitable lean months.
When it comes to retirement, look at your options. Can you open a Roth IRA? Some other kind of sensible, conservative investment plan that will build on itself as you age?
Freelancing is an extremely common career path these days, even for people who aren’t writers, so you have options. All you have to do is choose and set up direct deposits, then it’ll be just as easy as it was when your employer did it all for you.
Finding and Keeping Clients
Ideally all of your clients would be stable, long-term, and high-paying. But in the real world, you may only get to pick two out of those three, and that’s if you’re lucky.
Working with an agency can be a good option to either build up your resume to land those better clients or to have a subset of your income that is guaranteed every month. Sure, it’s a trade-off losing some of that income to the agency, but think of it as buying back the time you would have spent hunting down those clients yourself. Working with an agency can also allow you to build up experience branching out into new types of content.
It sounds obvious, but the best way to keep clients is to be professional. Meet your deadlines, communicate well, and turn in high-quality content. One of the things you have to manage when you’re your own boss is managing your own schedule. That means keeping track of lots of different projects, and not just their due dates, but how much time you need to spend on different assignments. A quick blog post can be turned around day of but a longer, researched article needs to be planned out weeks, if not months, in advance.
Remember, clients who don’t work with you day-to-day need to think of you as reliable. Don’t be a risky bet for a company’s freelancer budget!
You Can Handle It!
Money is a huge stressor for almost everyone, even the wealthy. But it only takes a few simple steps to control your bank account and feel confident taking charge of your life. Don’t let simple fears stop you from conquering the freelance world and building a writing career you love!
Chelsea Ennen is a writer living in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog. When not writing or reading, she is a fiber and textile artist who sews, knits, crochets, weaves, and spins.
