There’s a lot of bullshit advice out there for freelancers and writers. Especially those trying to grow a 6-figure freelance business.
The kind that sounds legit, but doesn’t get you any closer to running a highly profitable freelance biz.
I’m not saying I know all the answers (far from it), but I have some experience in growing both my own and my client’s businesses.
In the last 8 or 9 years I’ve;
- Grown my freelance writing business to 6-figures… twice
- Watched that business collapse (hence the twice bit)
- Fell into debt after almost losing an eye (thanks American health care system…)
- Rebuilt my business on an agency model to higher 6-figures (revenue, personal profit was lower)
- Helped several clients increase marketing efficiency and user generation to secure over $25,000,000 in total VC funding
- Assisted with growing one client (with whom I have equity) from $3000 / month to $250,000+ a month within 18 months
Long story short, I’ve been around and involved with some impressive growth.
And now, I’m doing it again for myself.
I’ve stripped my freelance business back to the absolute minimum in an attempt to grow in a more sustainable way.
To ensure 2020 is the best year I’ve had business-wise, I’m writing a number of guiding principles I’ve seen make profound differences in the businesses I’ve worked with.
Principles that will form the core of my new growth.
And that will, hopefully, be of some use to you reading this.
These are higher-level principles. Not the down in the trenches tactics.
Think of them as mindset reframes. These are the kind of actions and beliefs I’ve seen super high achievers and extremely successful founders embody.
Let’s see if they work for us this year.
Thou shalt aim high
Small goals are a waste of time.
You have a finite amount of time and energy in any given day. Do you want to waste it chasing the dream of being average, or becoming exceptional?
Easy question, right?
No one dreams of being OK at their job, achieving a middling level of success, having an average income, and going on good but not great vacations.
It takes the same amount of time and effort to work towards a large, audacious goal as a small, forgettable one.
Aim high.
Get your bollocks out.
Find your comfort level and aim above it.
Yes, it’s uncomfortable. Yes, you’ll fail. But when you inevitably succeed, you’ll reap the benefits of pushing yourself.
Your time is the most precious commodity you own. You cannot get it back once spent.
So spend it wisely and use your time to work towards the big goals that will have you living the life you truly want to.
In short, do the thing that scares you and aim for more than you think you’re capable.
Even if you fall short, you’re gonna be better off than if you’d aimed for an achievable but dull goal.
Thou shalt do the fucking thing
“Once you have a task to do, it’s better to do it than live in fear of it.”
A great quote from one of my favourite series of novels.
It’s a quote that has more importance than you realise.
Successful people are doers.
They acknowledge a task might be boring, laborious, or difficult, and yet they still do it.
They don’t write about the thing, product, or service they offer. They do it.
This comes down to knowledge vs wisdom.
Knowledge is learned. You can pick up 10,000 books on how to take a free kick like Cristiano Ronaldo and you’ll have an unparalleled theoretical knowledge.
But wisdom is earned. The knowledge from those 10,000 books will never compare to someone who’s taken 10,000 actual free kicks.
Stop reading and researching about the service you offer and get out there and do it.
Set up your own ecommerce store to experiment with email marketing.
Establish a blog to learn about SEO and list building.
Create products to perfect your sales funnel processes and copywriting skills.
Destiny rewards doers.
Turn the knowledge you gain from books to wisdom through real-life application.
Do this and you’ll be fighting potential clients off with a shitty stick.
Seriously, people want to work with people who are already doing the thing they offer as a service.
Stop writing about a thing, start doing the fucking thing to quickly become a genuine expert.
Thou shalt help thyself
Cause ain’t no one else going to help you.
I spent about 18 months between 2018 and 2019 looking for a mentor.
I was wholly unsuccessful. Wanna know why?
All I did was reach out to people and ask them for help.
Compare that to a few years back when I was aggressively learning and trying new things and it’s night and day.
Back then I was getting unsolicited emails from big-time editors offering advice and asking for collaborations.
No one wants to spend time on someone who’s looking for a free handout. Those people haven’t proven they’re worthy of help, and they haven’t proven they’ll do anything with the help that’s offered.
People help people who help themselves.
So, do the fucking thing.
Learn about the service and industry you want to be known in.
Chronicle your experiences and reach out to experts to help you fill in the gaps.
If you’re actively trying to help yourself then people will want to pitch in.
Chris Rock has a great quote on this.
Thou shalt not covet thy competitor’s methods
As soon as a client says, “we want to do what [competitor] is doing”, I know their future success is limited.
This world is full of copycats so concerned what their neighbour is doing they fail to take a look at what they need.
Yeah, sure, your next biggest competitor might have a blog post that details the way they offer their service.
They might have a separate section of their site that explains the process.
Their tagline might look like it’s the perfect explanation of your service.
But who fucking cares?
For one, you’ve no idea how it’s working.
You see, the world is also full of fakery.
I’ve worked with brands that boast how their numbers are through the roof so they appear successful. When the truth is they’re days, weeks, or months from bankruptcy.
You have no idea whether your competitors’ methods are working.
So stop trying to copy what the other writers out there are doing.
Instead, look at what’s working in your business and do more of it.
Compare yourself today, to yourself from yesterday.
If there’s positive growth there then that’s all you need to worry about.
Identify areas of weakness, experiment with improvements, and track yourself against yourself.
Fuck the competition.
Thou shalt practice the rule of 1
Running your own business is complicated.
Especially as a soloist.
You’re the marketing department, sales team, accounting crew, growth marketer, and the day-to-day worker who has to do the work your clients ask for.
There’s a lot of processes to handle, and if you let them, they can get on top of you.
But there’s one simple question to ask to streamline every single process.
That question is “what’s the one thing I can do to make this easier/faster/more profitable?”.
Look at every business process and action and ask what one thing you could do to make it easier.
It might only take 5% off the time you need to spend on it or add 5% to the money it generates.
But 5% across each and every process adds up.
You’ve got to look out for yourself when you’re working alone.
Any action that makes your job easier is not selling out. It’s working smart.
So outsource that task you don’t like.
Automate that action that takes up half your day.
Simplify every primary process in your business as much as possible.
Or drown trying to handle it all yourself.
Thou shalt exercise ruthlessness and aggression
Not with people.
But with your business itself.
You create for a living. And that’s great. But it’s easy to become attached to elements of your work or business that simply aren’t working.
You have to be ruthless with getting rid of the actions, processes, content, or beliefs tha aren’t helping you grow.
Channel your inner slasher movie villain and destroy them.
In the same vein, you’ve got to be incredibly aggressive.
Not with negotiation or people, but with how you promote your biz.
You need to be everywhere your ideal customers are.
If they have a favourite blog, you’re gonna post there.
A favourite podcast, you’re on it.
A favourite video producer, you’re the next guest.
Be everywhere your target audience is with value they cannot ignore.
Honour thy processes and plans
Plan what you want to achieve in 2020 and devise repeatable processes to help you get there.
I never used to have processes or plans.
And sure, I hit a decent level of income, but I was always confused and chasing my tail.
I wasted tonnes of time trying to figure out how to redo repeated tasks.
I stopped short of big achievements because even a small increase in my income was seen as a win.
Processes help structure your day and actions. They allow you to drop into “flow mode”, where you simply follow the steps you’ve outlined for yourself.
That gives you more headspace to think about the big picture issues and actions that drive serious growth.
Goals are there to help you better understand what’s working and what’s not. They also help you understand if you’re being far too ambitious, or not ambitious enough.
If you fall too short of your planned goals then you’re setting unrealistic expectations. Exceed or easily hit them, and you could be doing more.
Look, I know sitting down and planning out your year isn’t fun.
I know analysing your daily actions to determine worthwhile processes is probably out of your comfort zone.
But they are the bedrock of serious growth.
If you’re serious about this, then you’ve got to do the boring stuff too.
Revert back to do the fucking thing if you’re confused.
Thou shalt not operate alone
I love that I am only answering to myself with my career.
I adore the fact that I am my own supervisor (mainly because no one will be as harsh on me as I am).
But anyone who tells you they’re self-made is a bullshitter.
There’s no such thing as self-made.
Both times I grew to 6-figures I can attribute much of my success to other people (editors, other writers, founders etc) who helped me.
When I moved to Hong Kong at the age of 18 I had the help of various friends – existing and new – to help me get settled and find a job.
Every time I’ve tried to go it completely alone my productivity, revenue, and happiness all took sharp dives.
Relationships are the bedrock of healthy growth.
Foster and nurture the relationships you have in the industry.
And if you don’t believe me, whose achievements are notable, but in the grand scheme of things very minor, take it from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
According to him, the idea of the self-made man is a complete myth.
And that’s coming from someone who is often believed to be self-made and has achieved an incredible amount.
Focus is thy friend
The man who chases two rabbits catches neither.
When you’re trying to achieve something, maintain your focus.
Cut out distraction, focus on a solitary goal, and give it 100%.
Be brutally honest with yourself on whether something is actually going to help you achieve your goal.
This is difficult. Because there’s often a minor overlap.
Let’s say your goal is to make $100,000 this year and your primary service is case study writing.
A client comes through and asks you to write a number of blog posts for them for $2000.
Is it a good idea to take that job?
No.
Sure, it’s 2% closer to your overall goal. But the opportunity cost far outweighs the money.
In the same time it takes you to learn this client’s processes, needs, and industry you could have made $6000 by focusing on your primary deliverable – case studies.
Stop chasing every shiny object thinking it gets you a small percentage of the way to your goal.
Focus on what you do best.
Be ruthless with anything that detracts from that focus.
It may feel like you’re passing up on “easy money”, but if it’s not related to your long-term career goals it’s not helping.
Pick your goals. Understand the process that get you to them. Do not deviate.
Thou shalt diversify thy income.
As a freelancer, you are expendable.
That’s just the nature of the game.
Any sort of financial difficulties, budgetary constraints, or industry problems and you’re the first out the door.
That’s the trade-off for the freedom we enjoy.
The good news is that freedom allows us to explore, experiment, and establish other means of income.
You, as a writer, are a creator.
People pay for your ideas in written form.
So chronicle more of your ideas and sell them through different means.
That could include;
- Selling an eBook on Amazon
- Creating an information product
- Growing the number of deliverables you offer
- Increasing the number of clients you work with
- Setting up a dropshipping store to practice your copywriting
There’s no excuse for you to not explore. In fact, doing so will increase your value as a service provider (refer back to thou shalt do the fucking thing).
The more income streams you have, the less likely you are to suffer when one dries up.
This is future-proofing your career and income.
It’s not just smart, it’s mandatory for those of us who live like word mercenaries.
Thou shalt turn the fuck up
A few years back I was running on an agency model.
I issued a job to one of my writers with a three-week turnaround.
Throughout those three weeks, I was assured all was progressing as normal. 24 hours before the turn-in date, he confessed he hadn’t even started and wouldn’t be able to complete the work.
I worked solidly for those 24 hours to clean up his mess. And I never worked with him again.
There’s a revolutionary idea here that will help you grow your business.
Turn the fuck up.
If you say the work will be done by the 12th, turn it in on the 12th at the latest.
Do what you say.
But also do it well.
There’s a strong focus today on consistency. On publishing your blog posts, podcasts, videos, or emails on a set schedule.
Which is almost good advice.
You should only publish that regularly if you have something worthwhile to share.
You should only reach out to potential clients if you have something of value.
I like to think of it in terms of football (or soccer for my American brethren).
Sure, Wayne Rooney might have been a great player, but he was inconsistent.
He may have been on the pitch, but he often didn’t turn up.
He often added nothing of value to the match despite playing the full 90 minutes.
If you’re not going to turn the fuck up, don’t put yourself in front of clients or your audience.
Turning up is just as much about adding value as it is being a regular feature in their world.
One without the other is a waste of everyone’s time.
Thou shalt get off thy arse
It’s easy to stay hidden behind your laptop tapping out words. Thinking that’s all it takes to generate enough money and influence to live your dream life.
Which is straight BS.
The best writers and business people get off their arses for three reasons;
- A healthy body makes cognitive work far easier and better
- The varied day-to-day experiences give you a greater pool of ideas to pull from
- Getting out there helps you meet people and grow better, more productive relationships (refer back to thou shalt not operate alone)
You are a writer.
But you shouldn’t be a hermit.
Get off your arse and exercise when you can. Your body will thank you for it and you’ll clear the cobwebs in your brain.
Get off your arse and go and do something interesting. Go to a museum, take an in-person course for that thing you love, get out to the countryside and just be curious to increase your idea generation pool.
Get yourself to local business, marketing, and writing events to meet similar minded people. Seriously, this is the best thing you can do for your mental state and your business.
There’s no excuse why you should be sat on your arse all day every day.
It’s not healthy for your body or mind.
Successful people have a variety of interests, and they exercise them as often as possible.
Thou shalt embrace thy lack of impression
Reality check, you’re not that important.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
Honestly speaking, it’s not bad news.
Seriously, your lack of a name is something you should embrace.
One of the most wonderful things about being “just another writer” is that no one will remember what you do 2 weeks from now.
Fucked up that pitch email? Don’t worry, in 2 weeks they’ve forgotten your name.
Written something that’s not 100% accurate? In 2 weeks, no one will care.
Sent the wrong file to the wrong person? Wait 2 weeks and all is forgotten.
You’re not so important that even major fuckups will be remembered in more than a few weeks.
Even celebs and world leaders of industry can get away with murder (literal and figurative) after lying low for a while.
I mean, if scumbag Chris Brown can still get booked for gigs that typo in your email means absolutely fuck all.
Embrace the short term memory of those you’re talking to and targeting.
Do the thing that scares you and that you might mess up.
In a few weeks you’ll laugh about it. And as long as you learn from it all is fine and dandy.
These are the guiding principles I am using to grow a more scalable business in 2020.
I recommend you follow them as well.
This is a master piece. It very precise and so true.
Thanks Christine.
A very interesting article. It is educative, informative and above all very honest.
I am new to the freelancing world, In the end, I hope to have accomplished all there is to this article.
This is a must-read for all writers.
The 13 commandments will make you know if you should write for business or as a hobby.
Thank you, Pete Boyle.
Happy to have helped Peris!
Good luck on your freelance journey.
Read it. Good stuff. Now back to It! Cheers from Charleston! THom
Thanks THom!
Great stuff! Thanks, Pete for being brutally honest about how to be a successful freelancer. I appreciate your generosity.
Thanks Lucy!
“Look at every business process and action and ask what one thing you could do to make it easier.”
Love it, Pete! Such a good post.
Thanks Brandon!
I literally got a notepad and pen to hit stuff down. Thank you for this, Pete!