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Tell me if this common freelance copywriter problem sounds familiar…  

You’ve a million and one things to do every day and you never seem to have enough time. 

If you’re not chasing client payments or sending invoices, you’re struggling to refine that headline, optimise that CTA, or figure out the best way to promote that blog post. 

Then there’s the ongoing self-marketing, social media updates, and email campaigns for your own client acquisition. 

And let’s not forget general admin stuff like designing and ordering new business cards, finding a new chair that’s both ergonomic and affordable. 

We are every department within a business… and then some. 

It’s no wonder freelancers I’ve coached are often overwhelmed and constantly busy. Thing is, they’re also often not productive. Teetering oh-so-close to the dreaded precipice of freelance burnout. 

But, it doesn’t have to be that way. 

In fact, there is a simple solution to your overwhelm that can ensure you and your business;

• Slash the time you spend on energy-draining repetitive tasks that don’t make you any money 
• Allow you to at least double the number of profitable tasks you can complete on any given day without feeling like you’re constantly at 100% capacity
• Obliterate the stress and confusion of planning your day freeing mental capacity to make smarter decisions
• Almost eradicate the potential for burnout and overwhelm by giving you set systems to tackle even complex tasks

The solution I’m talking about are business processes.  

Not the generic bullshit things that people mention. Like a morning routine or any of that.  

I’m talking detailed checklists for various approaches in your business. 

The kind of stuff that takes a complex process and distills it to its core actions so you can do it faster, farm it out, or manage it at scale.  

And as a solopreneur who’s doing everything within your business, you MUST have a processised system for each and every business goal. 

If you get the system right, it’s absolute fucking gold. 

Systems are, 99% of the time in my experience, the difference between those who make it and those who burnout and quit.  

But before I harp on about how these could save your business and give you some pointers on how you can reduce time and effort whilst increasing profits, let me make one thing very clear. 

A schedule is not the same as a process. 

If someone is telling you all you need to save your business is to pick up a daily journal, meditate frequently, and chronicle your feelings ignore them. 

They don’t have your best interests at heart and are, likely, trying to sell you a dictionary/day planner.

That shit isn’t enough. If you want to run an effective business you have to set up detailed, but easy to follow systems. 

I’ll explain how to do exactly that in this piece.   

But first, let’s take a look at the problem. 

The common cause of freelance burnout

Burnout is a bitch.  

At some point we’ve all felt it was time to pack this in and move back to the more predictable 9-5.  

Burnout is so prevalent in small business owners (that’s you as a freelancer) it’s estimated to…

• Cost the US economy $300 billion per year. 
• Cost between $125 billion and $190 billion per year in healthcare costs 
• And from my experience, it’s one of the primary reasons freelancers end up quitting

Crazy, right? 

Burnout is real. And when you’re filling the role of every business department as a solo freelancer, you’re at a much higher risk of overwhelm and burnout.  

But what causes burnout? 

There is, unfortunately, no one specific cause.

However, if you delve into the research you can find a few obvious causes. 

They generally fall into one of the below categories. 

1 – A lack of delegation causes overwhelm (which leads to burnout) 

When you’re growing your own business it’s easy to think that you are the only person who can do the job justice. 

That no one else out there can come close to your skill or will do it the way you want it done.  

With that mindset, you start to take on everything yourself. 

And when you’re trying to fulfill the role of multiple departments it‘s easy to get overwhelmed. 

Which, more often than not, leads to burnout.  

Those who are able to delegate certain tasks are far more productive and profitable. As evidenced by this killer little study on the growth of entrepreneurs who can, and can’t, delegate tasks.  

Those who can delegate tasks are more productive, more profitable, and stay in business for much longer.  

No brainer, right?

2 – Boredom can lead to a lack of motivation and ultimately burnout

There’s a common misconception in freelancing that passion =  profit.  

Which is bullshit.  

Passion alone isn’t enough to ensure your business will work. It doesn’t take into account the market’s desires, needs, or trends. 

However, passion is important in another way. 

You see, that misconception is in my opinion based on a truth. 

The truth is not that passion will equal profit and success. But rather people who are profitable and successful are passionate about what they do. 

It’s a small distinction but an important one.  

The passion itself isn’t what makes your business successful. 

But if you have a good service to sell that solves a real problem you’ll have a market to sell to. If you’re also passionate about it you’ll be much happier pulling long days and doing the work others might shy away from. 

Passion is not a recipe for success alone. But it is one of the key ingredients. 

And studies echo this.  

When you’re bored you disengage from whatever it is you’re doing. 

And disengaging from your business will lead to a lack of growth, money worries, and a place where the only way out is to run back to a cubicle job. 

Which leads us to the next point. 

3 – Money is a key factor in burnout

It’s easy to say that we’re not in this for the money. 

That we freelance for the freedom, the love of the written word, or some other such excuse. 

But be honest. 

Money is what we need to survive. And if you’re struggling to make rent, cover your bills, or put food on the table all the freedom in the world ain’t gonna help you. 

And sure, I know they say money can’t buy you happiness. 

But it can buy peace of mind. 

The most stressed I’ve ever been in my life, the times when I’ve been a hair’s breadth away from chucking all of this in and going back to an office job, have all been when money is tight.  

You have to ensure that you’re pulling in more than enough money to survive if you don’t want to burnout.

Otherwise the stress, sleepless nights, and endless panic will force you to run back to the office you’ve been so desperately trying to escape.  

FREE DOWNLOAD – Get a list of the best free tools to systemise and remove the high-effort, low reward business actions that cause burnout

4 – Outside influences increase burnout potential

As I write this I’m quarantined in my home office in West London. 

You know where I was supposed to be at this time? In the US. 

Right now I was supposed to be in the Poconos with my in-laws.  

After a short stint in PA it was off to Disney World in Florida so we could take part in the yearly Star Wars half-marathon.  

None of that is happening now. The Q2 vacation I was looking forward to isn’t happening.

I’m feeling more stressed for not being able to take a break. Especially as I filled this month with 2 new clients to keep me busy. 

It sucks, but that’s life, right?

The good news is I have the ability to move my vacation to a point in time when this COVID-19 panic has passed. 

But imagine if you never had the ability to go on vacation.

Imagine if your business’s health was so linked to your time that you couldn’t take a single day off. 

How long could you manage? 

A month? 

A quarter?

A year? 

What if another stressor was added?  

Perhaps a family member falls ill.  

Maybe your partner loses their job and income. 

You could  have a new addition to the family. 

Or even something as routine as moving house can ruin your schedule.  

Now imagine that with the added stress these situations bring, you’re still not able to take a day off from work to help out those who truly need you and your time. 

You’d be mega-stressed, right?

I know I would.   

It feels like a lack of freedom, and it’s enough to make even the most passionate writer quit freelancing for something that comes with built-in time off. 

So what’s the cure? 

As mentioned above. Business processes. 

Business processes create a stability in your business that’s impossible for a soloist operating entirely alone to reproduce. 

I don’t think of them as an “Easier way to operate”. But more as insurance to keep things working through rough times.

Something I have personal experience of (read on to hear about this).  

What is a freelance business process? 

A freelance business process is basically a system for doing something.  

Think of it as a series of small tasks that, when performed in order, achieve a key goal of your freelance business. 

Doesn’t sound particularly sexy, right? 

And honestly, those business jargon-esque descriptions are somewhat off-putting even for me. 

The way I like to view a business process is that it’s essentially the same as a recipe. 

If I asked you to make me something from scratch, even something simple like a loaf of bread, would you know what to do? 

You might know that you need water, yeast, salt, and flour. 

You probably know that you also need to knead it and let it rest. 

But how much of each ingredient do you need? 

In what order do you combine them? 

How long do you knead, rest, and bake for? 

If you don’t know any of these things then that simple task of making bread is overwhelming.

Making the task itself stressful. 

But if I give you a step-by-step recipe that explains how much of each ingredient you need, how to combine them, and the steps and actions you need to take throughout, you can get the job done right? 

And you’ll get the job done with little to no thought of your own. 

You’ve just gotta follow the steps.  

No more confusion. No more stress. Just action that leads to a goal.  

A business process is the same.  

It’s mapping out what to do and when. 

And it can be applied to something as simple as your blog post structure to more complex actions like a systemised outbound prospecting strategy. 

In other words, a business process brings order to the chaos that is running your own business. 

It makes it manageable. 

FREE DOWNLOAD – Get a list of the best free tools to systemise and remove the high-effort, low reward business actions that cause burnout

How will business processes reduce the potential for burnout? 

Processes and systems are the most important element in the growth of any business. 

They give you the tools to reduce cognitive load. They take your day from overwhelming mess to one that’s ordered, manageable, and easily navigable. 

They give you time and energy back. 

Whilst the idea of systems might not be sexy, the results most definitely are. 

But how exactly will they help you and your business with growth whilst also reducing the risk of freelance overwhelm and burnout?

Well, let’s tie this back to the primary reasons for burnout outlined above.     

1 – Business processes enable successful delegation

There was a time when I thought I was the one who had to do everything in my business.  

I’d block off time each day to do new client outreach.  

And that outreach would look something like the below.  

1. Spend ages searching on Google (or relevant client news websites) for clients I thought would be a good fit
2. Vet those clients to ensure they have the budget and need for my services
3. Find the details of the most relevant person to reach out to
4. Use various tools to identify that person’s best email address
5. Draft an email to that person that adds value or makes their job easier whilst subtly pitching my services
6. Send the email
7. Wait a day or two and send a follow-up
8. Send a final follow up a few days later

Now, back when I started doing this it would take a few hours on the first day to build a list, then at least 1-3 hours every other day to draft and send various emails and reminders. 

That’s between 3-9 hours per week I couldn’t do billable work. 

3-9 hours of the same boring tasks that didn’t really help me grow my income. 

So I decided to turn it into a repeatable system and process. 

At first, this was just to make it easier for me. I had an almost checklist like approach to getting this shit done. 

Before long, I realised that anyone could follow this checklist. 

And my time wasn’t best spent doing basic research, but in doing the work I actually get paid for.  

So, I chronicled everything I was doing with short videos, put a job posting on UpWork, and hired someone to follow my checklist.

2-3 people were given the job as a test and I found someone who, honestly, does a better job than I can do.  

I know you might be reluctant to spend money on hiring someone to do this. But maybe this will change your mind.  

I was often spending an average 1-2 hours per day doing this Monday through Thursday.  

That’s a maximum of 8 hours per week or 32 hours per month I was doing work I couldn’t charge clients for.  

Now, I pay below $100 /month for the assistant and an email marketing tool to have the whole process take me 10 minutes per month. 

I’ve basically freed up an extra 31 hours and 50 minutes of time that I can get paid for. 

Not bad hey.  

And considering my hourly rate is more than $100, if I get 1 hour’s work each month I’ve made a profit. 

This shit isn’t hard. In fact, to show you how easy it is I’ll share one of the videos I often send to my assistant with ideas for new prospecting methods. It took me 2 minutes to record and, on its first attempt, generated me an extra $3500 / month in revenue.  

If I hadn’t systemised the approach I use for this, there’s no way that I would have been able to outsource it successfully.  

Having even a simple checklist that someone else can follow will make delegating key tasks that aren’t tied to you so easy it feels like cheating.  

2 – How systems remove burnout through boredom

After almost losing an eye and watching my solo business collapse I decided to give the agency route a try. 

I grew that business to around $20,000 / month within a few months before realising I hated running an agency.  

But you know how I managed to grow it so quickly? Especially as every time I opened my AdWords Management Account I died a little inside.  

How I ensured the quality of the work provided was up to a particular standard without having to get too involved myself? 

Yeah, you guessed it. I systemised the approach. 

My agency helped clients with PPC, and I was also still running some content marketing for others as it was what I knew. 

I built simple to follow processes for the PPC side of the business so I could work more closely with my writing contractors on the content marketing. 

Again, I recorded video of how I implemented basic keyword research to later build out single keyword ad groups for better control over the client’s ad budget and keyword targeting. 

I had templatised landing pages and a process to improve existing landing pages for clients (if you want to view the process for improving client landing pages I created, there’s a full article on it here) 

A few short videos on how to navigate the ad accounts and the changes to make was the biggest time investment. 

I then only had to jump on weekly calls with the clients and spend maybe 10 minutes per day double checking everything was going as planned. 

I’d completely cut out the boring elements of the business I hated and built a framework that would allow me to scale if I so wanted to. 

I’d effectively copy and pasted myself by creating a repeatable process.  Allowing me to focus on more important things like business growth instead of labour-intensive busy-work. 

Which brings me to the next point. 

FREE DOWNLOAD – Get a list of the best free tools to systemise and remove the high-effort, low reward business actions that cause burnout

3 – Routines help you make more money (thus removing panic burnout)

When it comes to finances, systems and processes help you in two ways;

1. They’ll cut out or massively reduce the time you spend doing work you can’t charge for
2. They allow you to scale beyond yourself, thus increasing the number of clients you can work with

There’s an element of this in both of the above two examples.  

In the first, I was able to free up almost a full work week of time in any given month. That was almost 40 hours of time that I could never charge a client for.  

However, after creating a process and outsourcing it, I had an extra 38 hours of potentially paid client work. 

Now, imagine that you could charge $100 per hour for that time. And we’ll be realistic and say you can fill 20 hours with paid work. 

That’s an extra $2000 / month simply through creating a process.  

Would $2000 more per month remove a weight from your shoulders? Would it reduce the potential of burnout and minimise the chance you quit freelancing for good? 

I’m willing to bet it would.  

Now take the second example. 

In that, I was able to remove the tasks I didn’t like by creating a systemised approach. I could then let someone else do the work and, effectively, work as their supervisor.  

Now imagine that the person you have doing that job reaches capacity and can no longer take on new work, but you’re still bringing in clients.

What could you do? 

Well, you have the process on how to do the work mapped out. So you simply bring on another contractor or member of staff and hand them the process.  

You hand it over and say “follow this”. 

In time you can continue to scale in this way so you can help ever-more clients and generate ever-more revenue without sacrificing the quality of work. 

Both are ways to increase the income from your business. 

Both are ways to remove the potential threat of a lack of cash and reduce the chance of a financial-based burnout. 

Both are dependent on you having set up a repeatable process. 

4 – How systems remove pressure from external sources

Back in 2016 I almost lost an eye.

I was in a quarantined hospital bed for 3 weeks and unable to work for months as my eye was so light-sensitive (I literally lived in a bedroom with the curtains closed). 

My business collapsed during this time. 

I went from earning over $100,000 / year and travelling the world, to being stuck in a hospital room panicking over how quickly my company was collapsing around me. 

Seriously, I was terrified. Every day I’d log into my emails to see another client ending the contract, the amount of money in my account dwindle, and one day even the threat of legal action for breach of contract. 

I’d gone from living the dream to surviving a nightmare.  

And I’d love to say that I had processes in place that helped me out of this hole. But I didn’t. 

The mistake I’d made was making myself the center of the business. If I wanted to keep making money, I needed to turn up day-after-day. 

If I wasn’t there at my laptop, I wasn’t getting paid. 

Now, If I’d had some of the systems above set up when this external, non-work incident happened I’m sure I could have weathered the storm a lot better. I mean, I could have…

• Had contractors finish up some of the client work that could fit into a process
• Kept my outreach going so I had fresh leads to pursue when I was back at work

I wouldn’t have come out of it unscathed, but I definitely wouldn’t have come out of it with a 5-figure loss. 

Systems aren’t just a great way to grow your business, they’re also there to help future proof yourself from unforeseen developments. 

They’re your insurance.  

There to provide security and freedom in uncertain times so you can take the time off when you need to. 

OK, so business systems and processes will reduce the chance of burnout, but what processes should you set up?

There aren’t any single processes that work across the board for every freelancer or entrepreneur. 

However, there are a few I think cover the majority of our needs. 

Let’s take a look at how to identify if something should be systematised. Follow the below decision tree to figure out if the task is something you should be doing manually or turning into a process.  

OK, so that should cover anything you’re considering. 

However, if you want to see the first things I always advise be turned into a process for any freelancer I work with, read on.  

Outbound client sourcing and outreach

This is the one I think every freelancer and small business owner has to turn into a process if they want to avoid burnout.  

By systemising your outbound client acquisition (cold emails) you’re not only freeing up a  tonne of time but you’re also ensuring that you’ve got a consistent pipeline of leads to approach for work. 

And to top it all off, you’re reducing the workload you can’t charge for. 

It’s a triple threat here  

This is the one everyone should set up right now. 

Seriously, if I’m ever short of clients I can simply turn on my systemised outbound and see new leads and possibilities fill my pipeline. 

It’s like creating cashflow on demand. 

FREE DOWNLOAD – Get a list of the best free tools to systemise and remove the high-effort, low reward business actions that cause burnout

Inbound client qualification

Inbound client acquisition is something a lot of freelancers struggle with because they don’t yet have the level of traffic or interest to really make this worthwhile. 

However, as soon as that level comes you’ve got to be prepared for it. 

I often get messages and emails from potential clients that are not a good fit. 

Sure, they need a copywriter. But their budget, industry, or beliefs on what they need mean I can’t help them.  

To reduce the time I waste on figuring out if these people are a good fit, I set up a simple questionnaire.  

If someone wants to work with me then they have to fill it out.  

The first 3 questions of that questionnaire tell me if they’re a good fit. The following 7 help me understand if I’m actually able to make a difference for them. 

The amount of time this has saved me countless hours of talking to clients who would never be able to hire me.  

And allowed me to spend more time with those who are paying me. 

Deliverable creation

Are you aware of The Agora? It’s a huge media company that rakes in the money. 

They specialise in direct response, long-form sales content in the financial and health & wellness sectors. 

Years ago, when they were trying to figure out how to make the most of each sales letter, the two founders sat down and deconstructed the highest performing letters and ads they could find. 

They came up with the 4 P approach to writing sales letters.  

That’s;

1. Promise
2. Picture
3. Proof 
4. Push

Or in simple terms, you must first start with a promise of what the reader will get, then have them picture themselves after the transformation your product brings, offer proof that it works, and then push them to take the action. 

It might not seem like a traditional system, but it has the same effect. 

These kinds of formula remove any of the questions you have around “what should I write next?”, “where’s the best place to say X?”, “how can I make my blog post/case study etc more effective?”. 

The formula that are already out there (AIDA, PAS etc.) are tried and tested systems on how to create writing that does its job. 

If you find that the way you’re writing something has a great effect on the business’s bottom line, turn it into a process. Then you’ll be able to pay other people to help you do it at scale. 

Phone negotiation

I’ve conducted hundreds of phone consultations with clients, and they’ve led to thousands of dollars in work for me. 

But the weird thing is, I rarely say anything different on the phone. 

A while back I discovered a certain set of questions, when asked in the right order, will give me all of the information I need to;

• Convince the client I’m the best man for the job
• Do the job to a much higher quality than 90% of my competition

These questions are exactly the same regardless of industry, client size, or niche. 

After systematising my approach I’m able to close the majority of deals when getting a client on the phone.  

Not only that, but my confidence when negotiating has gone through the roof. I’m effectively a pro simply because I’ve done it so many times now.  

If you want to learn the exact questions I ask, the order I ask them, and why they work you can get a copy of the same negotiation script right here.  

Proposal and contract creation and sending

Years ago I had the opportunity to pitch the National Lottery Heritage Fund here in the UK. 

They wanted samples and a full proposal of how I’d help them. 

At the time, I had neither.  

So I spent a full weekend creating these things from scratch. And it almost killed me.  

Thing is, it almost worked. I made it through to the final 2 before they decided to go with the guy who had like 20 years experience (smart decision). 

For years after I would write every single proposal out for each individual job. 

I’d waste hours on each one, and often, I wouldn’t even get the job. 

Now, I use a service called Dubsado for all of my proposals and contracts. 

What I used to spend hours writing from scratch now takes no more than 10-minutes per client. 

I have a general proposal that’s written out and various drag and drop elements that i can include to make it more personalised for each client. 

The same with my contract. All I need to do is amend the scope of work and pricing for each one. 

It takes me 10 minutes now to put a “personalised” proposal and contract together for each client. 

This is something you need to be able to pitch even more jobs in far less time. 

Check out Dubsado here.

FREE DOWNLOAD – Get a list of the best free tools to systemise and remove the high-effort, low reward business actions that cause burnout

Keep burnout at bay

Burnout is a serious issue. 

But you can negate many of the reasons and causes through the creation of decent business systems. 

Wherever you are in your freelance business, systems are a necessity.  

They’ll help newer freelancers get a head start and keep ahead of burnout. 

They’ll help experienced freelancers stay ahead and keep burnout at bay.  

If you’ve got any Qs or want some more info, drop a comment below.