Are you a freelance copywriter that’s ready to grow and scale your business?
If so, you’re in the right place.
Many copywriters want to grow their business, but get stuck in the scaling process or become overwhelmed with the writing load.
Through my experience, I’ve found that there are three main ways to scale your copywriting business:
Charge More
Write More
Hire People
I went from writing as a side hustle to writing an average of 10,000 words per week for brands and industries all over the world.
At first, the workload was exciting. I was doing it. With my mind, a laptop, and a knack for the power of syntax and vocabulary, I was making an actual living!
It didn’t take long, though, for me to feel burnt out. I was making a living as Portland-based freelance copywriter, but I lost all my free time. Every copy brief I received and proposal I accepted felt like it would be less time with my family or less time working on my creative writing.
It also didn’t take long for the exciting growth to hit a limit and I became stuck. I had to scale.
Fortunately, there is a way to scale your business by writing more without sacrificing your time, freedom, and balance.
You can grow your volume without giving up more time than you want to in our business.
Here are 3 ways you can scale your business as a copywriter
Charge more for your copywriting services
I know charging more for your services can be a scary task, especially for the artists in business.
I get it. Asking for money is something many of us already feel uncomfortable doing, so asking for more can feel intimidating. But the truth is, if we don’t push the edge of comfort, we will never grow as a writer or as a business.
A first note, if you are charging by the hour… go ahead and stop doing that. This holds you back from scaling because the amount you make is directly tied to the hours you work. And if you get more efficient at writing (which adds value to you and the client) then you actually will get paid less.
If you’re having a hard time figuring out what to charge for a product, there are a couple things you can do:
Find an industry average for time to word count (I generally find a 500 word blog post takes an average copywriter 1 to 2 hours to write.) Set your project rate loosely on that and then try and do it in half the time.
Assess the value of your writing to the company’s ability to grow. If the clear messaging and conversion friendly copy you are producing is enabling a company to make significantly more money, then charge them for the value you are providing.
Your ability to scale by volume through charging more is completely contingent upon charging by the project. So don’t fall into the hour trap and charge what your writing is valued at.
2. Write for more clients
Another option for scaling your business is to get more clients. If you’re going to get more clients, that means more writing. If you’re going to take on more writing, you need to have efficient systems in place.
From pre-writing to templates, outlines, and research, each of these processes, when mastered, will help you write better and more efficiently.
The better your systems, the more you can write and therefore the more clients you can take on.
If you want to scale your writing business, you will probably need to include some element of prewriting in your process. This process is up to you and you can do what works best for you. Maybe it’s doing a lot of research before you begin writing, doing a detailed outline, or even taking a moment to clear your head before you start typing. Whatever works best for you, is what you need to stick to. Having a routine you can rely on before you begin writing is essential to long term success as a writer.
Pre-writing is just one piece of the system that can support you to write for more clients.
Templates are a great way to get a head start on your writing. If there is any chance I will have to write a type of collateral more than once, I create a template. This means that I have a lot of templates. I have a template for social media posts, content calendars, content strategies, messaging guides, email funnels, web copy, wireframes, articles and blogs. Almost everything I write for clients starts as a template.
I talk more about prewriting, templates, and more efficient systems in this blog here.
3. Hire a team or outsource projects
When scaling your business as a writer, there are a few common ways you can do it. You can grow through hiring a team, outsourcing projects, or even going after bigger clients.
Choosing to build an in-house team versus outsourcing to an external contractor or content agency is something to be considered. There are many downsides and upsides to each approach.
When you build a team, your day to day activities change quite a bit. You move away from writing and more into managing, coordinating, editing, and streamlining. You become the orchestrator instead of the creator. For some, this shift is welcomed as the answer to writing less. For others, the thought of being responsible for a team is the opposite of why they chose a writing career.
Alternatively, you can remain the writer and scale by going after bigger clients with higher paying retainers or focusing on marketing your highest value offerings over your smaller paying services.
And if those two approaches aren’t for you, the blend of the two approaches lies in outsourcing projects or tasks to contractors. Things like invoicing, emailing, setting up systems, or even blog research can be outsourced to the right person. There are always people who love doing what you hate, so outsourcing a few of these things can help to free up your time to keep you both writing and growing.
Whatever approach, make sure it’s right for you. Because at the end of the day, writing burnout is real and you don’t want to get too overwhelmed to the point that you can’t keep going.
Scale, grow, and keep moving forward
At the end of the day, it’s important to move forward in the direction that works for you. If that means doing whatever you can to have more free time to become a rockstar (like me), then maybe hiring a team or outsourcing projects is the best option.
If you love being a freelance copywriter and are committed to the lifestyle, then maybe you need to look at where you can raise your prices or go after bigger clients.
However you decide to scale, know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. It’s not always easy being your own boss, but it’s usually pretty worth it.
I’d love to talk with you about the hard work you do and how I can help write you a story that gets results. If you’d like to talk, schedule a free consultation with me here.
