I recently had a conversation with a fellow freelance writer who was in the process of hiring an assistant. While this is something that I have never thought about, having an assistant could be a good idea for many freelance writers. I regularly converse with writers who work with a part-time assistant, as well as a few who employ a full-timer.
What are the benefits of hiring a freelance writing assistant? This is a question that you need to answer before you decide for or against this.
1. If you are having a difficult time staying organized, hiring a freelance writing assistant may be the answer to this problem. Those who do not work as a writer find it hard to believe that there is so much information to keep organized. But as you probably know, nothing could be further from the truth. I spend several hours each week on administrative tasks such as accounting, clearing out email accounts, etc. As you can imagine, being able to pass these tasks off to an assistant would free up more time for writing.
2. Your freelance writing assistant may be able to act as the middle man between you and your clients. One of the writers I referenced above as having a full-time assistant never personally communicates with clients. Instead, she lets her assistant do all of this for her. I recently asked her if clients dislike this. Surprisingly, she said that none of them have an issue communicating with her through an assistant.
3. Perhaps the biggest benefit of hiring an assistant is that they can help with marketing related tasks. This can include everything from website maintenance and development to following up with leads to implementing an email marketing campaign. Although I do not have an assistant, this is one area that I wouldn’t mind getting some help.
Of course, hiring a freelance writing assistant is not all full of benefits. Here are three drawbacks of doing so:
1. When you have an assistant, you will lose touch with both the industry and your clients. I like communicating with clients on a day to day basis. It allows me to stay familiar with their wants and needs. Additionally, it is important to me to know what is going on within the industries of all my clients. With an assistant this would be quite difficult.
2. Anytime you hire somebody to work for you, it means one thing: you have to pay them. Are you willing to give up some of your profits in order to bring an assistant on board? This all depends on how much money you are making, as well as how you like to run your business. Of course, before you can make this determination you need to get a better idea of how much you would have to pay an assistant, either part or full-time.
3. Just as clients can burn you by not sending payment, an assistant could do the same. Unfortunately, it can be much worse when an assistant tricks you because they will be working from inside your business. They have access to your client base, accounting system, and much more in many cases. For this reason, you need to make sure that you trust your assistant 100 percent. If you do not, this type of relationship will never work.
So what do you think? Will you ever hire a freelance writing assistant? I never think too much about hiring an assistant, but can definitely see the pros and cons. At this time I am not having any trouble getting my work done, including administrative tasks. With that being said, my freelance writing business is expanding quickly and I am diving into other areas such as affiliate marketing. For now, I will probably work solo. But just like anything else, you never know what will change in the future.Â
No matter what line of business you are in, increasing profits is something that should be of interest to you. When it comes to the freelance writing industry, there are quite a few ways that you can increase your profits. Believe it or not, you have more options than simply increasing your rates; even though this is something to consider (as you will see below).
Listed below are three of the best ways to increase freelance writing profits. If you can implement any of these into your business, it is safe to say that your monthly freelance writing income will begin to increase.
1. Churn out more work. The faster you write the more work you will be able to take on. And when you take on more work, it only makes sense that this will result in increased profits. If you are going to exercise this option, make sure that you keep quality in mind at the same time. Yes, writing faster can increase profits, but if you are not turning in high quality work you are going to lose clients.
2. Charge more money per project or per hour. This may sound easy enough, but increasing your rates can be tricky to say the least. When doing this, you need to keep a few things in mind.
First off, make sure that you do not increase your rates to astronomical heights. If you do this, you are going to price yourself out of the industry. As a general rule of thumb, be careful that you do not increase your rates more than 15 percent at a time. Of course, you know better than anybody else what your clientele is willing to pay.
Additionally, you should be prepared for clients to ask why your rates increased. You should have a prepared answer such as “I always increase rates at the beginning of a new year.†Even though it may not seem fair to you, clients are always going to ask why your rates increased, and whether or not you can cut them a break.
3. Look into other ways that you can make money as a freelance writer. As of late, the most common option is starting a blog. There are a couple of ways that a blog can help you to earn more money. First off, the blog itself can produce income through the sale of private ads, Google AdSense, etc. To go along with this, you may be able to use your blog as a way of finding new clients. This year alone, my blog has brought in clients who I have billed for more than $3,000. As my readership continues to grow, I am hoping that this trend continues.
These tips should allow you to increase your freelance writing profits. Remember, minor changes can go a long way in helping you to earn more money.
Cold calling companies to sell your freelance writing services is not as difficult as you may think. Personally, I feel that this is one of the most effective ways to drum up new business. The main reason that most freelance writers opt against this is simple: they do not want to take the time to cold call companies, and even more so, they are a bit shy about making these calls. If you can get past these mental blocks you should be able to increase sales.
The question is: how do you approach companies about your freelance writing services without getting hung up on? Below are three tips for increasing your success in this area.
1. Find out who to speak during the first call that you make. In most cases, there will be one person at a company who can hire you to work on a freelance basis. Of course, this can change based on the size of the company, as well as many other factors. But no matter what, you need to make sure that you are speaking with the decision maker. This will go a long way in increasing your chances of receiving a project. When you get stuck conversing with somebody at the bottom of the totem pole, it is going to prolong the process because they will have to get permission to hire you.
The best way to find the decision maker is to ask the first person that you speak with; most likely a receptionist of some sort. Try something such as, “Hi, my name is Chris and I am calling from Acme Co. I am trying to get in touch with the person at your company who is in charge of hiring freelancers.†At the very least, this should put you on the right path to hunting down the person in charge.
2. When you get the chance to speak with the decision maker, you need to make your time count. They may not have a lot of time to speak with you, so make sure that you are quick and to the point. Tell them who you are, what you offer, and how you may be able to help them out. Once you get a good conversation flowing, you will be able to work other details into the conversation such as your industry experience and great rates.
3. You are going to be told “no thanks†more times than not. But this does not mean that the lead is necessarily dead. When I get turned down, the first thing that I ask is whether or not they mind a follow up in a month or so. Most people will say yes, even if they are not interested. At this time, I usually ask for an email address as well. Many times, a follow-up email a few weeks later will result in a job; even if only a small one.
Cold calling is never an easy thing to get used to. But once you begin to achieve some success in this area, you will become addicted. Use the three tips above anytime you are trying to sell your freelance writing services via a cold call.
