Deciding to go freelance instead of working a traditional 9–5 can be incredibly anxiety inducing. But gigging may be your golden ticket to career freedom.
In this episode, Nicki and Kate discuss how job safety is an illusion and the only way to truly be “safe” is to be in control of your career yourself. Freelancing allows for control over practically every aspect of your livelihood.
Listen now and learn how to secure copywriting gigs like a pro, the misconceptions about job security, and how to take control of your income with a freelancing career.
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Looking for closed captioning or a transcript? Check out the episode on YouTube!
A Sneak Peek at the Episode
[1:30] Nicki and Kate want to dive into the benefits of freelancing. First, they go over why full-time jobs are not as safe as one might think.
[3:20] At the end of the day, companies need to survive and sometimes your employment (no matter how loyal you are) is costing them more than they can afford. Nicki and Kate continue to explain many ways in which a full-time employment isn’t actually as secure as most of us think.
[7:50] Nicki explains how consistently pitching is key to job safety as a freelancer.
[9:15] When you have a system for pitching, you are in control of your career. Nicki continues the conversation on creating job safety as a freelancer with constant pitching and using a system to pitch, follow up, and schedule clients.
[11:30] Nicki and Kate discuss the benefits of the control you have as a freelancer. You can ramp up your pitching, thus your work and income, whenever you want.
[12:30] Kate drops the crazy fact that by 2027, it is projected that 60% of the workforce will be contract workers! (Study: 60% of workforce will be independent by 2027)
[13:05] The “gig economy” is more than just Uber and DoorDash. Kate and Nicki explain how the world is transforming to be more and more freelance everyday.
[15:38] As a freelancer, you can have your eggs in many baskets instead of relying on your employer to provide everything for you. Kate talks more about the freedoms that come with being a freelancer.
[17:00] Freelancing doesn’t have to be your full time job for you to reap the benefits. Nicki explains how having a freelance side hustle can be a source of extra income and a potential way out of your full-time job should you ever want to leave.
[19:00] There are a ton of “scary” things that employers tend to handle for their employees such as taxes, healthcare, and 401Ks. Kate recommends doing the math to relieve some of that stress about how to be on top of all of those as a freelancer. (Spoiler: there are a ton of pros to controlling your benefits as a freelancer!)
[21:45] With freelance work, you can set yourself up practically anywhere. Nicki talks about how excited she is to finally travel again after the whirlwind of a year it has been.
Must-Hear Takeaways
As with every episode, we highly encourage you to listen to the entire conversation! But here are a few of the highlights:
“There you offer yourself benefits. I think that’s a great point that don’t go into freelancing without having a plan for it and without having a plan for everything and without educating yourself.
But at the same time, don’t discount the idea of freelancing without understanding it and without understanding how plenty of people are doing it effectively. And they don’t worry about dry spells or they don’t worry about paying for insurance that they don’t, it’s perfectly a successful way to exist and to earn a living.” – Nicki
“Well, if you have a full-time copy earning job, you can still take freelance clients, but it doesn’t have to be like a full side hustle. You can take a client every once in a while.
But the nice thing about having a little bit of freelancing is that you can scale it up if things go south at the company, but you can also scale it up if you wanna get out of that company.” – Nicki
“So it’s this idea of reframing, instead of having your eggs in one basket and an employer, you are spreading it among all of your different clients. And if one of those clients doesn’t wanna work with you again, or it’s a one-off project, you still have all of these other balls in play versus if you lose your full-time job, you go from all of the income to none of it very quickly versus even if I lost a really big client of mine, I would still have a very good income.” – Kate
Related Links
- Listen: Why Freelancing in a Recession is Wildly Effective
- The New Truth of Today’s Working World
- How to Avoid a Work Dry Spell
- Is It Better to Be an On-Staff Copywriter or a Freelance Copywriter?
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About the Build Your Business Podcast
Ready to turn your love of writing into a successful copywriting career?
Join professional copywriters Nicki Krawczyk and Kate Sitarz to get the tips, tools, and training to help you become a copywriter and build a thriving business of your own. Nicki and Kate have 20+ and 10+ years of experience, respectively, writing copy for multi-billion-dollar companies, solopreneurs, and every size business in between.
Whether you want to land an on-staff job, freelance full-time and work from wherever you want, or make extra money with a side hustle, the best place to start learning is right here.
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Last Updated on July 12, 2024
