The #1 Mistake I Made In My Freelance Writing Career + How To Avoid It

Just a quick little freelance writing tip for you guys today, but trust me, it’s an important one.

As someone who has been working in the world of content marketing for over two years now, I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way. From not properly understanding a project before starting, to picking the wrong clients, the entire process of getting my freelance writing career up and running has been one hell of a process.

But, in particular, there is one mistake that I made that really stands out amongst the rest.

It’s the mistake that if I could go back and change, I would.

Interested in what this pesky little mistake is? Read on, and learn how to avoid this mistake for yourself. Believe me when I say by avoiding this mistake, you’ll be able to launch your freelance writing career even faster than I did.

The #1 Freelance Writing Mistake I Made

Okay, so here it is.

The number one mistake that I made as a beginner freelance writer was I got too comfortable.

Yup, that’s it.

I know you might have been expecting something a little more dramatic, but truly, getting too comfortable in my career is what caused me to slow down in my progress for multiple months.

Why?

Well, largely because when I was just starting out, I was naive. As a beginner, I had obtained a nice little roster of clients, and I foolishly believed that I would be able to hold onto these clients forever, and that my income would only continue to grow as I added to the list.  

Unfortunately, though, for most freelance writers, this is not the case.

Freelance writing can be a very unreliable field to work in.

Because here’s the deal with freelance writing: clients come and go, and most of the time, you have no control over this.

Sure, you can provide the best possible experience to your clients, but you can’t control if their budget runs out, or if they decide to move their project in a different direction.

How I Found Myself In This Situation

Let me give you a specific example, okay?

Like I said, when I was just starting out I had a grouping of clients, and I relied on this grouping for my income, without thinking about what would happen if a client were to drop me.

In particular, I had one client that I managed to land early on that was extremely well-paying considering my status as a total newbie in this field.

I bet you’ve guessed where this is going…

Yes, this client dropped me.

Not because of anything I did, but simply because they decided to take their project in a new direction, and they no longer required my writing.

Needless to say, I was devastated. This client was such a huge portion of my monthly income.

The result?

I now had to hustle hard to try and make up for this sudden decrease in income, and let me tell you, it was stressful AF. In fact, that time in my freelancing career actually had me debating whether I wanted to continue freelance writing at all.

It was that bad. 

How To Avoid This Mistake In Your Own Freelance Writing Career

Want to avoid this little mistake of mine?

I’m sure you do, and luckily the solution is rather simple: never get too comfortable with your clients.

Like I mentioned, freelancing is not exactly the most reliable career, so because of that, I always recommend that freelancers keep their eyes and ears open for new job opportunities, at all times.

It’s easy enough to fall into a pattern and get too comfortable with your current clients, but you should constantly be applying to new jobs. 

You never know, there could be an opportunity out there that’s more suited to your skills, or a client might be willing to pay you double what you’re getting paid for similar work.

You don’t have to be sneaky about it, or feel like you’re “cheating” on your current clients. It’s just a simple case of being aware of the industry that you’re working in. Because seriously, if you could be doing more fulfilling, higher-paying work, why wouldn’t you be?

Don’t stay in one spot simply because you feel an allegiance to your current client base. You’ll never grow this way, and you never know where your clients could be taking their business.

For all you know, they could be thinking of dropping you next month. Be sure you’re prepared for this to happen by keeping your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in your writing niche.

Trust me, it could save you a serious headache down the road.

 

For a more in-depth look at how you can start off your freelance writing career, feel free to give my ebook, Freelance Writing Simplified, a peek. In it, I tell you the exact steps I took to get my freelance writing career off on the right foot, plus I share with you 6 other mistakes I made to help get you to where I am faster.

Happy freelancing, all!