Recession-Proof Your Freelance Writing Business

This month, my colleague, Carol Tice (@ticewrites), founder of the award-winning Make a Living Writing blog and Freelance Writers Den, offers a challenge to you: recession-proof your freelance writing business. Take her up on this challenge if you want to be a recession success story.

Are you worried about how you’ll earn and retain clients in the recession that’s taken hold? You’re not alone. It’s time to recession-proof your freelance business and make sure you can earn well in the months to come.

First, you’ll need a positive mindset. Yes, the macroeconomic trend is bad right now. But you’re just one tiny freelancer in a $1 trillion freelance market. So these significant trends don’t have to affect you…IF you make up your mind that you’re going to continue earning well, no matter what.

In every downturn, there are winners and losers. Some freelancers will do great, just as some companies are thriving (think Amazon and Zoom, for instance).

If you commit to doing volume marketing during this time, you should be fine. You’ll continue to have inbound leads and clients — yes, freelance writers are still landing new clients, right now! And you’ll have options if current clients suddenly “pause” everything they’re doing.

Ready to challenge yourself to recession-proof your business?

June Nonfiction Writer’s Challenge

To complete this month’s nonfiction writer’s challenge, recession-proof your freelance writing business by taking the following basic marketing steps.

1. 1. Identify at least one “winner” industry that’s still doing well at this time. (The free ebook, The Recession-Proof Freelancer, offers a list of thriving industries.)
      
   2. Identify at least 10 companies within that industry that are larger and likely have money or access to capital. If any have connections within your network where you could get an intro, all the better.Scan the internet for press releases from public companies. (Their quarterly reports show how much cash they have on hand.) You also can search on Crunchbase and other sites for companies that have recently received venture-capital money. Or look for press releases about businesses that are getting government-bailout loans. In addition, think about companies that serve wealthy people; they will all go on as if nothing’s wrong.
   3. Pitch those 10 companies! Use email, or, for a better strategy, first connect on LinkedIn and let them know your pitch is coming via email. Find something on the companies’ websites you think you could help with (abandoned blog, halted press releases, old case studies, etc.). Suggest this project in your pitch. A simple message along the following lines will do:

As a freelance writer who specializes in [your industry], I recently came across [your company’s good news, a great article that mentioned you in Forbes, the blog post you published, etc.]

Checking out your site, I noticed [what you could write for the company]. (For example, there’s no free ebook to attract subscribers, you’ve abandoned your blog, you haven’t published a press release in six months, etc.)

Could you use help with that?

[One sentence here about why you are the writer they need, similar work you’ve done, etc.]

[A call to action.] (For instance, Would it make sense for us to hop on a quick phone call? I’ll call you Monday to assess your interest, etc. (Or whatever you want the next step to be.]

[Your signature]

Follow these three steps now to develop and execute a marketing plan to quickly pitch and land new clients. If you take this challenge, you’ll find yourself as busy—if not busier—than before the recession we find ourselves in right now.

About the Author

Carol Tice is the founder of the award-winning Make a Living Writing blog (founded 2008) and Freelance Writers Den paid membership community (founded 2011). She coaches home-based freelance writers on how to grow their income with her proven program, Freelance Writers Den 2X Income Accelerator. Her own freelance business ramped to six figures in the downturn of ‘08-’10. Her freelance clients have included Forbes, Entrepreneur, Seattle Magazine, Delta Sky, Costco, American Express, Deloitte, and many more. She’s the author of two print books and 10+ ebooks. Her latest release is the free ebook The Recession-Proof Freelancer: A 12-Point Plan for Thriving in Hard Times.

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Photo courtesy of Antonio Guillem .