As I was writing yesterday what was my fourth article in six days, I realized something:
How busy your freelance writing business is right now really depends on what your focus area is.
I was fortunate enough to fall into — and build — a specialty area that is pretty much recession-proof. That is, until the bottom drops out of the insurance industry (which is always possible).
But their business model is exactly why I’m still working and why, amid so many of us seeing work slip away, I’m seeing more work. They’re conservative. They’re well-funded. They’re also not on the hook for most of the pandemic costs (there’s been a pandemic exclusion on commercial policies since SARS).
That may or may not last but while it does, I’m depositing checks like today is the last day of the windfall.
Because it could be.
But if any industry is still operating, the insurance industry is.
And so are plenty of other industries.
And they’re the ones you should be looking at, particularly if you’re sitting there with little to do.
Here are a few ideas:
- Telecom
- Healthcare
- Grocery and food-related businesses
- Transportation and delivery (aka inland marine/marine and supply chain)
- Energy/utilities
- Accounting and finance
Anyone who is considered essential right now could well be your next client.
Suppose the majority of your clients right now are in the travel industry. Oh honey, I feel your pain. You’re sitting pretty idle right now, I’d bet. Still, all is not lost.
[bctt tweet=”No matter what clients you serve, you can reinvent your #freelancewriting career.” username=”LoriWidmer”]
And the beauty of it is that reinventing is pretty much the same as inventing your freelance writing career. Except that unlike in your beginnings, you’re now bringing plenty of skills to the job.
Start with a process that goes something like this:
Define your path.
Let’s say you’re moving from travel to hospitality. Not so big a leap, it turns out. It’s still public-facing work, and it borrows a bit from travel at times. But you want to move into the safety side of hospitality, let’s say. Good choice. Right now, hotels and inns are trying to figure out how to navigate health risks.
So what focus will you take? It doesn’t have to stay that focus, but start with an idea that appeals in this current climate. Safety is a good one, as is making sure supplies and services are still functioning amid lockdown.
Narrow your path to something you can define easily and wrap a plan around just as easily.
Know your ideal client.
This is starting to sound familiar, no? You know who your client is already, but who will your new clients be? What are they buying? What projects are you happier doing and what projects would you want to avoid?
Now, look for them. Use hashtag searches on Twitter and Instagram. Find the LinkedIn groups for that specialty area. Hit up associations and see who’s exhibiting at their trade shows. Read a few industry magazines and see who’s advertising and being quoted in the articles. Ask your current clients (they probably know people in a closely related area) and other writers. Important Note: Don’t be that writer who asks other writers to share their client lists (you’re not getting it. Ever.). Just ask them where you might look or if they’ve seen anything lately that might be an opportunity.
Know your transferable skills.
You know that travel industry, and maybe somewhere you’ve written on the hospitality industry in relation to it. Or maybe you’ve written numerous articles on health safety or customer service. Whatever you have that will transfer, make note of it. Also, what project skills do you have that transfer? You can write sales letters that get results, or your ad copy wins awards … whatever it is that you’re trying to make your new focus, find ways to show how it fits with this new specialty.
Market, market, market.
It’s totally up to you how and where you start, but a few suggestions might be:
- Articles for industry pubs/consumer-facing company newsletters
- Blog posts
- Contributed articles (you, ghostwriter — client, author — magazine, recipient of free content from client)
That’s pretty much it. Once you get a foot in the door, you can expand even further into that specialty. For now, getting in is the goal. The rest is up to the same hard work you’ve put into your current freelance focus.
Writers, how as the pandemic impacted your business?
Are you looking for more work right now, and if so, where?
What part of your current specialty do you think you can transfer or expand on?