By John White

The freelance writing life, as my colleague Jim Schott points out, is “a hard way to make an easy living.”

I often quote him because freelance writing does seem like a hard way to make a living (easy or not), especially if you’ve never spent time around people who are in business for themselves. But every day, people cross their fingers and decide to make a go of freelance writing.

If you’re a beginning freelance writer, the way you work is changing. Here are five New Realities for you to consider:

1. You are now in business for yourself, so stop handing out résumés. Your new tools are business cards, an elevator speech (figure out what you write and how to explain it to people in 15 seconds) and a portfolio, whether online or printed.

I get nicked around the ears a lot for proclaiming this New Reality — especially in writing communities where the résumé still has some currency. But in the quest to reinforce the perceptions of colleagues and prospects in your network, nothing says, “I’m in business for myself” quite like a business card, and nothing says, “I’m looking for a job” quite like a résumé. Besides, when somebody at the PTA meeting next month says, “So, how can I find you when I need a writer?” what are you going to pull out of your pocket or purse: A business card or a résumé?

2. Speaking of your network, that’s where the jobs are. The sooner you figure out a way to engage the people in your network consistently and successfully — phone, direct mail, meeting for coffee, e-mail, or on social media — the sooner you and work will find each other.

Keep in mind that you must feed the people in your network two things: Content that helps them, and information about what you’re doing. Nobody cares that you’re available for work right away, but they will care about ways you can help them solve their problems. And sending an occasional note to people in your network is a good way to remind them you’re still in business for yourself. Ask them what they’re looking for so you can keep an eye out for it.

3. You are now responsible for sales, marketing, operations and accounting. That does not mean that you have to do all of them yourself, just be conversant in all of them. Eventually, you can delegate some or all of the details to a partner, spouse or virtual assistant — if you’re a maniac like me, you’ll try to hang on to all of them — but don’t forget that it’s your business, not theirs.

“Fie!” you exclaim, “I just want to get paid for writing all day. I don’t want to waste time with all of that other nonsense.” Sorry, Shakespeare, but somebody in your one-person company needs to send invoices, chase money, back up the hard drive, pay bills, find prospects, close business, read contracts, upgrade your computer…in addition to writing all day.

4. Your workday will feel strange. For several months — or maybe a couple of years — especially if you’ve departed a corporate setting. Your ideas about how you spend hours in the workday may change completely.

If you’re outrageously successful, perhaps you’ll find that all of your time is booked and billable and your workday is like Mark Zuckerberg’s. More likely, you may discover downtime that makes your workday more like a Boston terrier’s. Once you’ve started meeting your income needs, you’ll find that the downtime is less unsettling. “Money will come when you are doing the right thing,” wrote Michael Phillips in The Seven Laws of Money – be prepared to wade through some strangeness on the way to that right thing.

5. You will almost certainly have good and bad months. Or good and bad quarters, or good and bad years. This is the way of all living things — We humans fancy ourselves the exception, but the freelancers among us know better. Happiness and security rarely occur together in nature.

Steady paychecks are in your rearview mirror now, so you had better concentrate on cash flow. Aim for six months of buffer in non-retirement savings. Everybody’s mileage varies, but this freelance writer has had to dig uncomfortably deep into his 3- to 6-month buffer only twice in the past 13 years. Sure, it’s a drag not always being able to predict income two or three or six months out, but if you’re flirting with freelance, you’ve probably already worked out that there’s not much more security inside a company than outside of it, right?

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So cross your fingers, mull these New Realities over, and decide whether you have the stomach for the freelance writer’s lifestyle. If you try it for a while and still can’t earn enough to keep body and soul together, at least you can say you tried. But I think most veterans will agree in the comments below that the universe yields to the determined psyche.

And that’s the most compelling New Reality of all.

John White of venTAJA Marketing is a marketing communications writer for technology companies. He posts about technology writing from the perspective of the marketing manager. It’s dirty work, but somebody has to do it. Download his eBook, “10 Questions to Ask When Hiring Your Marketing Communications Writer.”

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photo credit: Meisje van de Sliterij

Time. We’ve only got so much of it each day. For freelance writers who are also parents, we’ve certainly never got enough of it.

What’s the best way to spend our precious work hours? I’m often asked this question by my mentees. I had one say, “I wish I could follow you around all day and see how you do it!”

While I don’t think that would be pleasant for either of us (and might reveal an embarrassing amount of screwing off and/or snacking on my part!)…I realized that after five solid years of freelancing, I have developed some strong opinions on how to prioritize tasks.

Here are what I consider to be the seven most important activities a freelancer should spend their time on, in order of importance:

1. Send a bill. Have you finished a project, but not billed it yet? Stop everything and send that bill out right now. Every day a bill isn’t received by a client is a day it can’t be processed and paid. Many companies only cut checks once or twice a month, so a little dithering on your part could easily result in an extra month’s wait for your money.
2. Finish a project. Do you have a project you’re almost done with — say, an article that’s ready to write? If you don’t have another immediately pressing deadline, then write it today, even if it’s not due now. Clearing mostly-done projects out of the way has a number of benefits — it means a chance to send a bill sooner (notice a theme here?), you write while the topic is fresher in your brain, and getting that assignment off your plate declutters your brain to focus on other pressing tasks.
3. Find sources. This is one I have to admit I am guilty of procrastinating on sometimes…but you shouldn’t. Locating great sources is often key to writing great stories. The longer you wait to start your search, the more pressure you’re under to find someone, and the more likely you are to settle for a less-than-ideal interview subject. Start early and you’ll have the time to hunt down better sources. You’ll also be able to schedule their interview times when it’s most convenient for you, as you’re not in a rush.
4. Write. Once you’ve billed, wrapped up anything close to completion, and done whatever source-finding is needed for upcoming stories, you can look at other writing you might want to get done. The more you write, the better you get, and making a habit of writing helps you avoid writer’s block. So find as much time for writing in each day as you can. This is the point where your personal blog might get written, or you might write ahead on a big project that you want to rewrite and polish up a lot before deadline. (If you’re a designer, substitute “do design work” here, or whatever else it is you do as a freelancer.)
5. Market your business. Even if it’s just a half-hour of connecting on your social-media sites, try to spend a little time each day spreading the word about what you do. Send one query. Sign up for one networking event. Whatever is in your marketing plan — break off a little chunk of it today and do it.
6. Do interviews. If you looked for sources early and left time to prepare for your interview time, you should be ready to rock your interviews and get fantastic quotes and information. You can schedule your interviews or research time for current assignments after your marketing time because you planned well.
7. Analyze your progress. This is an often-overlooked but critical step to building a lucrative freelance career. Every month, see what you billed, and what you received. The gap between those two gives you a quick snapshot of your month-to-month trend — is it going up or down? Compare this year to date with last year to date, or this month with the same month last year. Data about earnings, and about how your client mix is changing, can help you budget better based on what income is really coming in the door, and can also help shape your marketing strategy.

How do you prioritize your time as a freelancer? Leave a comment and let us know.

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(P.S. I’m filing this early because tomorrow, I’ll be at the Seattle Society of Professional Journalists’ All Access Pass seminar and networking event! Hope to see some of you there…and hope to report on my experience later this week. Speaking on a couple of panels…and hope to learn from others as well.)

Photo via Flickr user enigmachck1

Note from Carol: I am not necessarily the world’s most highly organized person. I have to admit I’m still tracking my jobs and payments in a Word document…works for me, but I’m sure there are better ways. (I use a Google calendar for my personal life…but somehow, my writing assignments just work for me in a list with deadlines. Weird.)

Turns out there are some great cheap and free time-management tools out there — and U.K. writer James Adams knows about them. Here he is with some tips on time-management programs! (And that’s his gravatar over there — conclude what you will.)

Freelancing can be compared to looking at the menu at a sushi bar — there is plenty of variety in which one may indulge. A freelancer lives each day working on many different projects at once and may find solace in proven techniques to effectively manage their time.

Everybody has a different habit of work that they follow, so it can be a great help to have access to a simple and free time management application. If you find yourself missing deadlines a few too many times, get yourself organized by using one of these top tools for time management. All of these tools are free or have free trials, and they all work cross-platform.

1. Toggl ($5 – $79 per month):This tool allows you to manage your time, create reports with a single click and create numerous tasks. Signing up for this service is free, which allows up to five users on your account, or you can purchase a plan for something more user-friendly.
2. Todoist (Free):This is completely free and is a simple tool to use. Use keyboard shortcuts, set your deadlines and see works that are either about to be overdue or currently are. It is a web based tool that can also be integrated directly into your Gmail account.
3. Get Harvest ($12 – $90 per month):This is a sleek tool that offers style that integrates well for micro or small businesses. This tool tracks time and also comes with the ability to easily invoice clients, and you do not even need to deal with making the invoice itself. You can try its services for 30 days before having to purchase a plan.
4. Google Calendar (Free): Sign into your Gmail account (signing up for one is free if you do not already have one) and use the free services of Google Calendar. Track everything you need to in a single place and allow clients to share in your set schedule. Reminders can be set and customized, and you can even have alerts sent to your desktop, email or by way of SMS – this is especially useful for folks on the go.
5. Tickspot ($9 – $79 per month): Not only can you track your time, but you can also track your budget with this service. You may sign up for a free 30 day trial of this simple, easy to use interface, and later on upgrade to enjoy the rest of its service.
6. Rescue Time ($6 – $15 per month): This tool is very helpful for those who are helplessly addicted to social media and similarly useless browsing. It does not technically manage your time so much as it tracks it, working in the background and graphing the way you spend your time on the Internet while you work. You can use the free version, but more features come to you with a purchased plan.
7. Remember the Milk (Free): All cheesy names aside, you can sign onto this website for free to manage your tasks wherever you go, whether through your iPod Touch, iPhone, Blackberry, Gmail account or computer. This is definitely a capable rival for Todolist as it offers numerous outstanding features for easy organization.
8. NowDoThis (Free): If you find yourself confused about all of the features in the previous mentions, this is the polar opposite. Click “edit” to make your list and keep clicking “done” when you are… well, done.
9. Ta-da List (Free): Folks who have heard of Highrise and Basecamp may be pleased to know that the brains behind the two have created this tool. It works as a free online wall of post-it notes. Create your necessary tasks and simply check off the ones you have already done.

Working as a writer at an ink cartridges store in Manchester for the past 18 months, James Adams has written everything including product reviews, trend stories and news releases for their design blog.

Judging by the emails I get, a lot of writers have trouble turning down gigs, no matter how low-paying, stressful or inappropriate to their talents and interests the assignment may be. So my thought for the day is, like Nancy Reagan used to say, “Just say no!”

Saying no is empowering. It establishes healthy boundaries for you in the marketplace. I’m not desperate, it says. I take jobs I want. Taking jobs you really don’t want or that radically underpay you kill your soul and eat up oodles of time you could spend finding good-paying, fun gigs that would help you build your career.

“You mean I just say ‘no’ to the $10 a post jobs?” one writer wailed to me on an email not long ago.

Yes, that’s what I mean. That job doesn’t pay enough. Don’t take it.

“You mean I should say ‘no’ to the book ghostwriting gig that pays $1,500 for 65,000 words?” another asked.

That’s it exactly. Say no. Practice it with me now. Let’s say it like a mantra: “NNNNnnnnnnn…..OOOOOoooooo, Noooooo, Noooo, Noo….No.”

Stop thinking the economy has collapsed and there are only crappy jobs out there. I got one $1,500 article assignment already this year, lined up three new copywriting clients, and have two $800 articles I’m working on right now. One of my mentees just got her first $750 assignment. You can still break into new markets and get good writing assignments. You don’t have to say  ”yes” to whatever comes down the pike.

Recently, I received this question from new writer Tom Ryan:

I’ve been freelance writing for a year or so now, and was just presented an opportunity to ghostwrite a business book. The person I’d be writing for…[our personalities are quite different and]…I completely disagree with his philosophy of business. But I’d love to land the project.

So…wonder if you’d have any advice for someone aspiring to do this sort of work on how to best remain separate from your subject?

Can you guess what I told Tom?

That’s right–he needs to say ‘no’ to this gig. Tom, why would you love to land this project? Ghostwriting for someone you dislike and don’t find a rapport with isn’t going to work out. You’re going to knock your brains out, spend umpteen hours with someone you can’t stand, and end up with a product (should this project ever successfully wrap up) that you won’t be proud of. Don’t spend time on that!

The Kabbalists say we are never just “killing time.” It’s really the other way around. Time kills us. Time is your most precious resource. Don’t spend precious moments of your career doing work you abhor or that radically underpays you, even if you want to break into ghostwriting or book writing or whatever it is. The wrong project will not help you down the path to where you want to go.

Your gut knows the difference between a good ground-floor opportunity and exploitation and/or a nightmare project you’ll hate. Listen to it. And then, if it feels wrong, don’t be afraid to say “no.” Better gigs are out there.

Photo via Flickr user fotogail