Are You Sitting In the Wrong Room?

April 14th, 2009

It finally feels warm here today, so I’m allowing myself to think about spring cleaning…the business.

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been working away at this for awhile or you’re anywhere in between – I encourage you to take a good look around and ask yourself honestly how things are going. If your answer sounds anything like this:

Things are going okay. I’m doing all that I can. I’m doing everything I’m ’supposed’ to be doing. This is the most I can hope for in this economic climate. What else could I possibly do?

Then, I invite you to listen to this story.

When I was 20 weeks pregnant with my daughter, we found out that she was really small. Everything else about her looked fine, other than the fact that she was tiny. By the time she was 35 weeks it seemed like she just wasn’t getting what she needed in her internal home – at all. So, the doctors wanted to take her out.

The very idea of this turned everything we knew on its head. She wasn’t fully cooked! Babies are supposed to thrive in the womb for a specific amount of time. All of the conditions on the inside are ’supposed’ to be perfect. So, how could bringing her out make it better?

All I know, is that it did. When we brought her out of the womb and into the room 5 weeks early at 2.8 lbs., she thrived. Gained 2 oz. per day, hightailed it out of the NICU in a week and a half, floored the doctors, never had a thing wrong with her.

Think about your business, your creativity, your productivity. If it’s moseying along, but not flourishing. If you think there could be more – even though you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. Think about doing something else. Find out if you’re sitting in the wrong room.

Maybe you need to:

Switch professions
Find a niche
Join a social network like Twitter
Attend some live conference or workshops
Shift your workstyle
Change the physical space where you usually work
Collaborate with other creatives
Write in a new medium, like blogs, white papers, annual reports
Get a new computer
Combine forces with another freelancer who complements your work (a writer and a web designer, for example)
Go directly after a company that you’d like to work with…

There are so many ways to ‘change rooms’…What could it do for you? How will you do it?

FYI – Flexpaths is a great resource, if you’re thinking about changing careers or creating a flexible work environment.

Image courtesy of RBerteig

Filed under How To, The Business | Tags: business development, business growth, copywriter, designer, freelance copywriting business, Julie Roads, small business, small business owner, Writing Roads | Comments (6)

how to become a freelance copywriter: CREATE A PORTFOLIO

June 25th, 2008

Prospective clients will ask to see your work without a doubt. Showcasing copy work is very different from showing design work – sort of. People like visuals, so there is a possibility that if your copy isn’t that hot, but the design that it’s sitting in is, they might imagine your copy is actually quite great. Consequently, this works in the reverse as well. So, if your copy is amazing, but it is presented as a Word document, a viewer might think it’s boring and poorly written. Notice that I said ‘viewer’…frequently, this is what prospects do – meaning they don’t take or have the time to read all of your precious copy. I know, I know…hard to believe!

That said, you must have a print or a web portfolio available (both if possible):

1. If you are totally new to the game and you don’t have any writing samples that you can actually showcase, make up a portfolio. I DID. Yes, yours truly had been writing forever, but save a few grant proposals, I had nothing to show when I struck out on my own – so I made it all up. I gave myself assignments and wrote ads, brochures, catalog pages, etc.

If this is your situation, write sample pieces that reflect exactly what you’d like to write professionally – pick the formats (re. website), the topics (re. the environment), the size/type of company (re. 100 employees/non-profit), etc. But vary all of your samples, even within a topic, to show the breadth of your skills. And don’t be shy about telling a prospect what you did – this takes gumption my friends – and a ton of drive, creativity and discipline. If you’re really stuck, email me and I’ll send you some assignments.

2. If you have a few choice samples, you may want to pre-package several of them to be mailed or emailed at a moment’s notice. This makes you look super prepared, and saves you a ton of time (from scrambling to put each individual packet together). Trust me on this one.

3. Assemble your print portfolio in a professional portfolio book with clear sleeve pages. This looks great and protects your work. I found mine at an art store…and I had one of my ‘artistic’ friends put it together because, like many writer types, my fine art skills are simply pathetic.

4. Your web portfolio provides people with the time to actually read your work – so make sure they can. Snapshots that work for graphic designers don’t really cover your writing samples fully. I chose to provide people with the option to open each piece as a pdf – or just to get the snapshot overview.

5. Update your portfolio (says the copywriter who has done no such thing for over a year!!!). Guilty as charged, though as of this posting, my updates should be live in a couple of weeks. As you build your portfolio, tell the world. You’ll learn and grow…show it off.

6. Always ask clients for samples of the finished product (actual print pieces and digital files). As I mentioned, your copy will look much better when it lives in a designed, glossy brochure or site than on an 8×11 piece of printer paper.

7. Remember that everything is your portfolio. While I’m talking about creating an online or a print portfolio, when you are a writer everything you write is fair game. All of your communications (email specifically), your website, your brochure, your blog, your laundry list – everything you write becomes a sample of your craft.