Real Words

When you work as a freelance writer / blogger, the basic idea is that you are working for yourself since you are an independent contractor who can pick and choose your jobs, your work schedule and so forth. However, the reality is that you are working for clients who will have demands and procedures that you will have to follow to some extent if you are going to continue to do the job well. This differs greatly from being someone who branches out into launching a blog or a web writing service in which the writer sets the terms.

This is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately as I’ve been trying to make the transition from working as a contract writer to working on my own plans for launching a new business. Some of the issues that have come up as I have been dealing with this transition include:

• Money. I do love to write but I also write for pay and so money ends up being a big consideration. The reality is that I can make a whole heck of a lot more money just getting good, steady, high-paying jobs working as a writer for the blogs of other people. The money is much less stable and sure and steady when it comes to trying to formulate my own business plan. Plus, it requires a capital investment which means that I have the potential to actually lose money doing this type of work.
• Creative Fulfillment. Writers do write because they want creative fulfillment and I am no exception. For the past six months I have been putting in long working hours to make a whole lot of money and I’ve had to acknowledge the fact that there’s this constant nagging feeling that I’m missing out on something in life because I don’t love the actual work that I am doing. I am excited about the creative potential in a new business despite the concerns that I have about it.
• Comfort Zones. I am an excellent blogger. I can command high rates, I do my work well and I’m satisfied to know that I get great results for my clients. I’m comfortable in that role. It’s not nearly as comfortable to launch a business and to not know if it’s what I want to be doing.
• Moving Forward. The reality is that I probably don’t want to just write blog posts for other people for the rest of my life, day in and day out with no other forward motion in my career. On top of the fact that this sounds stagnant, I believe that the future will bring changes to the Internet that ultimately make that type of job either obsolete or far less lucrative than it is today. As a result, I’m inclined to start thinking about moving forward with my own business.

These are just some of the ideas that I have been thinking about as I’ve been mulling over my options. Ultimately I’m leaning towards a combination of the two – continuing to do steady work for some clients while branching out on my own. But I think that balance is something that you always have to deal with because you’re always going to have clients on some level which you’ll need to accommodate in some way.

Question of the Day: How can writers balance the need to be creatively fullfilled with the need to please clients in their line of work?