The ugly truth about freelancing...

I wish someone would've warned me about THIS.💡

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When I quit my job to become a full-time freelance ghostwriter, I wish someone would’ve warned me about the hardships that go along with establishing a freelancing business. In fact, I was so excited to dive headfirst into my passion and build my own business that I failed to consider the greatest obstacle to freelancing success.

From a family trip to Maui, Hawaii. The freedom to travel is certainly a perk of freelancing… But it’s not always sunshine and palm trees! ☀️

The obstacle to which I’m referring actually stems from a universal truth that, in retrospect, should’ve been obvious. But I missed it at first, and being aware of this one thing truly makes all the difference between success and failure as a freelancer.

So, without further ado, here it is:

The path to success starts as an uphill battle.

Hear me out. I knew freelancing wouldn’t be an easy career, especially at first. But it also took me a while to discover what I now refer to as the “point of automation.”

What is the point of automation?

The point of automation is when the initial hard work of freelancing starts to provide you with jobs and opportunities automatically. The initial work period can be 6 months, 3 years, or any length of time, but if your work is actually productive, you will eventually reach a point in your freelancing career where potential clients reach out to you through referrals, your website/socials, etc. Essentially, the goal is to do the legwork of building your business up front so that you start receiving job and feature opportunities on autopilot.

Imagine you’re rolling a massive snowball up a hill. Going up gets harder and harder, but once you reach the top and shove the snowball over the hill, things get a lot easier. Suddenly, the snowball rolls without any effort from you - and it only gets bigger as it descends!

That’s what building a freelancing career is like.

As a freelancer, it’s likely that you’ll always continue “selling yourself,” by which I mean telling everyone about what you do, reaching out to potential clients that you’d especially like to work with, and pitching to publications you’d like to be featured in. However, if you do things right, there comes a point where your business is established enough that you’re actually forced to say “no” to projects because you simply have more incoming work than you can handle!

Reaching the “point of automation” is freeing. It gives you more time to work on client and personal projects, more time to create automated systems for your business, and more time to reach out to those people you’ve always wanted to write for - all because you have consistent work and opportunities coming in.

Getting there can be really hard, though.

Building a portfolio and website, searching for clients, and sending pitches to publications can quickly become exhausting. This is especially true if, like many freelance writers, you only got into the profession because you wanted to work on actual writing projects. When they aren’t your passion, business tasks and maintenance are draining!

Plus, sticking it out when you’re not bringing in much money can make everything feel even worse - it’s as if there’s a dark cloud of urgency hanging over you 24/7.

Luckily, there are things you can do to alleviate the stress and length of the pre-point of automation period!

To read about the "after" when it comes to reaching the point of automation, be sure to check out this post on my Substack newsletter.

With hard work and perseverance, you can reach the after.