2007: Freelance Writers’ Year in Review

2007 is just about over, and everyone seems to be gearing up for the new year by posting goals and resolutions. I’m working on my goals for 2008 too, but before realistically establishing my goals for next year, I need to take a look at what I accomplished (and didn’t accomplish) this past year. After all, in order to know where you’re going, you need to take a long, hard look at where you’ve been.

For a freelance writer, there is much to consider in terms of reviewing a year’s worth of work. Here are some of the areas that I examined, and questions that I asked in completing my own year in review.

Products and Services

What did you sell in 2007, and what sat on the shelf? Did you focus on writing articles, stories, or a novel, which you shopped around? Or, did you market your writing services, allowing your clients’ needs to direct your energies? If you threw a bunch of balls up in the air and waited to see which ones landed, and which ones bounced, now is a good time to evaluate the areas in which you were most successful, so that next year you only toss balls that have a good chance of landing in cash flow.

Were most of your projects interesting enough to hold your attention, or did you constantly find your mind wandering? If writing web content gets your blood pumping but drafting business plans makes your blood turn cold, it might be a good idea to focus on those areas of writing in which you’re most interested. By figuring out what you actually enjoy working on, you can start to establish areas of specialization. You may also decide to pull services that didn’t bring in any business, had you nodding off in boredom, or simply didn’t pay well.

Sales and Marketing

How did you market yourself in 2007? Do you have a web site? A blog? Did you post ads on Craig’s List and wait for customers to come to you, or did you reach out to your customers by sending them marketing materials? Maybe you rely on networking and word of mouth. Whatever your marketing strategy has been, now is the perfect time to figure which of your marketing efforts brought in the business.

If you’re a freelance writer who relies on submissions, then now is also the time to figure out which publications were a good fit for you over the last year. Some editors are prompt when it comes to letting you know if your work has been accepted, and others never respond at all. One publication might pay a penny per word, while another pays as high as a dollar. These factors can help you determine where your time and energy were well spent in 2007.

Operations and Process Flow

It’s wise to have an established work process. I usually ask my clients to provide me with some basic information about their business and writing projects. Then, I send them a quote for services. Whenever possible, I give them some options by offering basic, plus, and deluxe packages. If they sign off on the quote, we are both contracted to the work agreement and the project commences. I find that having this process in place helps both me and my customers in staying organized and having a very clear and detailed understanding of each other’s expectations. Do you have a process in place?

This is also the time to examine your backup plans and the ways you deal with unexpected interruptions. If you missed a deadline this year, you probably learned a lesson about the value of a backup plan. What did you do when you got sick, or were called out of town on an emergency? How do you handle your clients when they miss their deadlines or payment due dates? What do you do when one finicky customer asks for revision after revision, until your fees no longer warrant the project? By examining these and other unexpected bumps in the road, you’ll be better equipped to formulate contingency plans for 2008.

Organization

Organization is critical for freelancers who are running the whole show - developing products and services, marketing and selling their goods, managing paperwork, reports, and other administrative tasks, plus doing all the actual work. How well organized are all of these aspects of your business? Did you lose or misplace any receipts this year? Were you able to accurately track your income versus your expenses? Do you know where your clients are coming from? And were all of your projects easy to navigate, or did you lose files and misplace important e-mails? Pinpoint the areas that caused you trouble so that you can eliminate such problems in the future by being better organized.

Income and Rates

How do you set your rates? This area of business is often a struggle for freelancers who stare at client inquiries wondering how much should I charge? How much are they willing pay? What is this worth? Many freelance writers charge by the word. Others charge by the hour. Most have a base rate, which can be tweaked to align with the amount of work that will be involved for each project.

If potential customers walked away from you this year because your rates were too high, maybe it’s time to look at some ways to make your fees more cost effective. Did you offer any discounts or a referral program? On the flip side, if your rates were too low, customers are just as likely to be repelled because they’ll conclude that your work must be as low in value as your fees. Ask yourself if your rates are competitive, and if you haven’t done your market research, now is the time!

More importantly, are you earning a living wage? Everyone wants more money, but at the very least, you should be able to cover your own basic living expenses. If you’ve been freelancing for awhile and still can’t manage to pay all your bills, then it’s time for a serious overhaul. If you’ve got money piling up in dusty corners of your office, then you’re probably doing just fine. Ultimately, what you want to establish at the end of the year is whether you are in the red or in the black.

Expenses

Did you track your expenses? Save your receipts? The fiscal year is winding down, and it’s time make sure you have all your tax paperwork in order. In reviewing your expenses, determine what items had a lot of mileage and what you could have done without. Did you buy a fancy new PDA so you could communicate with clients and work on the go, but then rarely used it because you spent most of your time in your home office anyway? What about that expensive style guide you almost didn’t buy, but ended up referring to on a daily basis? As with everything else, reviewing your expenses to figure out which purchases were valuable and which were wasteful will help you make better decisions in the coming year.

Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself

In the end, the annual review should be a priceless learning experience. After all, who wants to make the same mistakes next year? Don’t torture yourself over bad decisions or poor judgment. What’s done is done, so move forward knowing that you are one year wiser.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!