So You Think You Want to Freelance? 

It used to be strange to advise former colleagues, students, and a host of other people on freelancing. Or rather, what it means to shift your career skills from the corporate environment to independent work. It involves an important mindset shift focusing on what it means to run a business as well as knowing how you like to work.

These days, I’ve embraced information interviews and find that I learn a lot, too, from the diverse group of people looking to make a change in their work lives. In fact, I now include 2 informational interviews per quarter on my goal sheet!

Last year, I made a notes prior to a chat with a contact interested in a career shift to freelance editing. Call it solo-practice or becoming a solo-preneur, taking the leap can still be a little frightening. These are lessons I’ve learned about myself and my projects, especially as I find what I enjoy most!

1. How do you work? Know yourself. Do you need deadlines? Can you space your work out?  Do you need some sort of pressure or can you work on your own? Do you like working with people or on your own? How do you communicate best?
2. Treat it like a business. Many writers and editors hate the business aspects of what they do, but the fact is it’s a reality. Keep up with your invoices.  Keep up with your accounting. Keep up with your taxes.  Keep a cushion so you’re not sweating bills every month.  It doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but it’s a great way to measure progress.
3. Diversify. Don’t be everything to everybody. However, you can have more than one specialty or genres. I love editing cookbooks and writing about wine, but can I make a living at it?  Nope. So I also love ghostwriting business books and working with authors on a variety of other topics.  Being a generalist is good!
4. Do the math. Can you afford it? What do you need to make every month? What do you need to bill? Are there enough hours in the day?
5. Respect the cycle. Every creative knows there are ups and downs in the market. There are weeks where you have a million ideas and weeks where you can’t find a good idea anywhere. The same goes for freelancing. Some weeks will give you multiple opportunities while you may go weeks before you see another.  Are you comfortable with this? Can you keep the faith (and the lights on) during the slow times?  It all circles back to #1 – Know Yourself.
6. Embrace tech. We live in a world of technological marvels for solo-practitioners. There are apps to stay organized, manage tasks, and track your time. How do your clients work? Shared editing platforms? Slack channels? Online design platforms? Embrace learning new tech and new ways to work.
7. Read.  Read everything. It will improve every aspect of your writing and editing life.
8. Network. Sow the seeds. They will come up. You never know how work might find you and referrals are a great source.

What are some great tips and tricks you’ve found for working on your own? What do you love about it?