Before you started your copywriting business, you dreamt of typing away on a veranda somewhere in the sun with a mojito at your side. You’d step away every few hours for a quick dip in the pool and a refresh.
But it didn’t quite turn out like that.
If your business is causing you pain right now, then that is a signal that you need to make some shifts. No problem, you don’t need to panic! But worse than panicking is avoiding the situation completely.
Let’s look at three reasons you might not be making enough money as a copywriter and fix it now!
1. You are Searching for Clients in the Wrong Place
If you are finding that the clients you are attracting aren’t the ones you were hoping to work with… you might be looking for clients in the wrong place.
Start by identifying who your ideal clients are, and the types of jobs do you most enjoy working on. Maybe you prefer a certain industry. Are you passionate about writing on topics relating to life coaching and personal development? Or do you like the technical challenges of working in finance and the nuanced detail of law writing?
When you first start out as a copywriter there will be some jobs you love and some you hate. That’s fine. That’s how it should be. Your job is to identify what you love, identify how you got that job, and repeat.
Look back – out of all the clients you’ve had, where did the ones you didn’t really want to work with come from? Now, think about the ones you did want. Where did they come from? Can you notice a difference here?
Identify the difference and then take action straight away. Over the next few weeks, only take the actions which led you to attracting your ideal clients and see what happens. Much of growing a business is about identifying what is working and dropping what isn’t working. It is amazing what can happen when you start to focus. More on that in the next point!
2. You Aren’t Applying the 80:20 Rule Effectively
You might have heard of the Pareto Principle. It states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort. Huge shifts can happen in your business when you start to identify which actions are making the most difference to you.
This rule can also be applied to how often you work in, and on your business. Imagine if, instead of spending 20% of your time marketing your business and 80% servicing your clients. You spent 80% marketing your business and 20% servicing your clients.
Take your content marketing for instance. As a copywriter it is very likely that you market your business by blogging. Have you fallen into the trap of just creating and creating content and for some reason there aren’t any readers to notice? The 80:20 rule applies to your content marketing too.
Imagine what would happen if you spent 80% of your time marketing your content, and 20% of your time writing it. Big shifts would happen.
3. Your Business Model Isn’t Working
If you are in the position where you are spending the majority of your time servicing clients, and you still aren’t making enough money to pay the bills, there is something wrong with your business model.
Assuming that you are not under-pricing your services, the only other issue could be that you are offering too many services and taking too much time to deliver on your promises. One trap many new freelancers fall into is that they offer a range of services that is too large to manage.
It is easy to think that this will increase the amount of revenue generated, but actually, business owners want specialists, not generalists. It is much better to deliver one service very well than 15 services half done.
Another issue could be that you have your dreams set big. If you dream big that’s great, but adjust your business accordingly. If you plan on making over $10,000 per month from freelancing then you may need to consider diversifying your income streams.
Your business model needs to move from being a time drainer to a time saver.
Passive income is a great way to do this. This could be investing in stocks and shares, real estate, or even selling information products. Whichever investment you make, just make sure to do your due diligence beforehand. For instance, if you want to buy major credit card stocks, you can look into American Express, Mastercard, and Visa Inc statistics and facts to determine if these companies are worth investing in. If done wisely, you might even make $1,000 per month in dividends.
Imagine if you wrote one ebook and sold it 100 times at $10 per download—then you’d have made $1,000. Now, that’s leverage. What could you create and sell that can tick along in the background and make you money whilst you sleep?
Some passive income streams you might like to try:
- Create an ebook
- Add affiliate links to your blog and earn commission
- Create an online course
- Product placement on your Instagram feed
About the Author
Natasha is a six-figure female entrepreneur and founder of Business Jump. She shares tips, tools and techniques to help you jump into your business the smart way, so you can find financial freedom and enjoyment. Join over 4,000 supportive mums in the her Private Facebook Group for WAHM’s with smarts.
