Freelance writing business plan: ditch the magical mystery tour

Do you have a freelance writing business plan?

Chances are that you don’t. That’s fine, but it does mean that you’re operating in the dark. You don’t know where you’re headed, so your freelance life is a continual magical mystery tour. You take whatever jobs come along, and that’s no way to run a real business — or a life.

You need a business plan, but this may sound so intimidating to you that you suffer instant brain freeze.

Gina Trapani has what she calls a “personal business model”. It’s an excellent first step to creating a business plan, because it gives you a sense of direction.

In How to Craft Your Personal Business Model – FreelanceSwitch – The Freelance Blog she says:

“Most freelancers have some mix of high-paying drudge work and low-to-no paying interesting work. (The lucky ones snag high-paying interesting work, and only the dumb ones do underpaid drudgery.) But it’s important to strive for a good balance. In this terrible economy, it’s even more difficult than usual to make clear-headed decisions about what’s the best way to spend your time.”

I like itty bitty business plans, commonly known as “back of napkin” business plans. In my case, they’re back of index card business plans.

My back of index card business plan

This is simple, but it’s effective — give it a try. At the least, it will give you confidence, and that’s a huge benefit.

On a 5 x 8 index card, answer these questions:

1. What do I want to do? Why? What’s the payoff in money or other?

2. Who can I model who’s doing this successfully?

3. How much time/ money can I afford to invest in this?

4. Deadline? Indicators of success?

5. SWOT? (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats?)

5. First step?

If you have a business plan for your freelance writing, tell us a little about it in the Comments.

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