Acting on selfness

It was three years ago today you left the safety of employment to go freelance.

For a long while you’d been wondering when you’d make the leap. To step into the uncomfortable place. To wake up to something new. And now you find yourself in a good space, able to help others and pay it forward for those considering what it’s like to go it alone.

Here’s how this self-employed copywriter ticks:

1.     Network yourself like a nut. Your contacts will be your main source of income for the foreseeable. Pick up the phone. Book the meetings. Buy the coffee. If you don’t like spinning this wheel of momentum, you won’t like self-employment. Return to your workflow and pretend the option of freelancing never occurred to you. 

2.     Build up a buffer. Save as much wonga as you can between now and your final pay slip. Find an inheritance. Win the lottery. Whatever it takes, put aside as much as you can. This way you’ll take away the stress from late payers, the holidays gaps and the tax man.

3.     Smarten up your LinkedIn profile. Make it dead clear what you do and what you can offer - how folk can contact you, where you’ve been working and what your bio says about you speaks volumes.

4.     Get busy already. Even if it’s pro bono, proactive or performing at night school, start spinning your wheel so that you’re doing something positive for yourself. You’ll need to keep this up even when you start freelancing -when the work starts you can moderate how much you do outside of the paid work. It keeps your mind healthy and stops doubt creeping in.

5.     Go to the gym. Pick a personal trainer. Take up Morris dancing. Do whatever it takes to keep yourself active. Your self-worth will reap the rewards.

6.     Find a great bookkeeper. Not the big company type but one who knows how freelancers tick and won’t charge the earth. Take the time to talk about the taxman. Learn how to pay it forward to yourself too as you go along.

You look back and ask yourself was it worth it? Was it okay to leave the politically driven workplace, the working on the same thing year in, year out? Getting published as an author of short stories six times. Winning the awards you were never able to enter, building up a network of clients who value your input. Being able to decline the kind of work you know you’re no good for (funnily the kind of work you used to do). Spending more time with the family and paying yourself the kind of salary you believe yourself worthy of. And giving yourself the time and self-worth that you deserve. The answer is simple. The rest is down to you.