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Lizzie Davey posted thisOctober is a strange month (👻) if you're freelance. It doesn't quite have that lovely fresh start energy of January or the forced pause of December. But it's actually a great month to get your ducks in a row, sort your sh** out, and generally Finish The Year Strong. It's kinda the last stretch where you've still got a bit of headspace to be proactive before everyone's inboxes turn into a chaotic mess (November) or a ghost town (December). A few things I've learned to do in October: - Chase invoices before clients disappear for the holidays. - Pitch existing clients on next year's work now while budgets are still being decided. - Give people a heads-up if my rates are changing in the New Year. - Decide which client relationships aren't worth carrying into next year. There's a ton of other things I do during October to give myself the best end to the year and I've listed them all out in my October playbook (link below). There's also a load of templates and scripts you can plug-and-play.
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Lizzie Davey shared thisEverything you could possibly need to “make it” as a freelancer 🤭 Obviously, this is mostly tongue-in-cheek, but you really DO need patience and thick skin… it’s not for the faint-hearted out here! Am I missing anything?
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Lizzie Davey shared this"How do you find time to post on LinkedIn?" It's a question I get asked a loooot, especially since I've somehow crept up to almost 20,000 followers (😱). For me, it's not about finding more time, but rather never starting from a blank page. I HATE a blank page. The good news is that most freelancers and service providers I speak to aren't short of things to say, they just don't have a system... So they post when inspiration strikes, go through a flurry of activity, and then disappear off the face of the earth when client work takes over. The circle of life. To tackle this, I've started helping them build a system. Here's how it works: 1. We get our heads together during a strategy session We talk through your goals, who you want reading your posts, and the stories and opinions you've built up over your career. Then we shape it all into content buckets that are unique to you. 2. I go away a do a bit of sleuthing 🕵️♀️ I research your online presence, then cross-reference it with how you want to show up. Where's the gap? What's already working that you're not doing enough of? 3. I build your very own content hub Everything lives in one place: - Your voice and how you want to be "perceived" online - Your unique content buckets, with the reasoning behind each one - 30+ content ideas pulled straight from our session - A simple framework you can keep running yourself I've just finished one for a brilliant CRM specialist and I'm excited to work with her for the next month fleshing out those initial posts before she takes over full autonomy with her new-found system. If you're a freelancer or run a service business and LinkedIn keeps slipping to the bottom of your to-do list, drop me a message. I'd love to chat!
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Lizzie Davey shared thisYou know you've made it when someone impersonates you, right?! This is the third time someone has impersonated me this year, and I get that imitation is a form of flattery but as a freelancer this can be HUGELY detrimental to business. They have literally copied my profile word-for-word AND link to my website. We are the faces of our business and someone impersonating us can have massive repercussions for our reputation (which we rely on!). I've reported this one to LinkedIn and sent them a message, so hopefully it gets taken down quickly.
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Lizzie Davey shared thisUnfortunately, skill and passion doesn’t always equal income, which I think is something a LOT of writers struggle with. We all want to show off our poetic prose and write meaningful things, but spoiler, it’s hard to find people who’ll pay you to do that (or, at least, pay you WELL). Here’s how I took a love of writing and turned it into a business that turns over six-figures a year...
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Lizzie Davey posted thisWhen I first went freelance, I assumed a 40-hour week meant 40 hours of billable, creative work. Turns out "full-time freelancer" is a bit of a misleading title. What I actually am is a part-time writer with a full-time job running a business. Here's roughly how my week breaks down: 15-18 hours of cold, hard writing. Drafting, outlining, editing, and an embarrassing amount of time spent deleting a sentence and rewriting it in a slightly different order. 2-3 hours of research, batched together so I can ride the high of actually being ~in the zone~. 2 hours swallowed by admin. Invoicing, reading through contracts, wading through an inbox that always seems to be a bottomless pit. Definitely not glam stuff. At least 1 hour spiralling about whether I should just retrain as a vet, get a job pouring coffees, or move to another country and start over. Turns out spiralling is a totally normal part of the job, who knew?!
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Lizzie Davey posted thisIf I were freelancing with unpredictable income right now, here's what I'd do... For most freelancers, talent isn't the issue... the issue is our good ol' nemesis stability. Income often arrives in waves, so every month can feel like you're starting over from scratch. And when you're permanently focused on chasing the next invoice, it's INCREDIBLY hard to build the kind of long-term creative career you actually want. So here's exactly what I'd do if I were in this position: First, I'd go back through the last 12 to 24 months of work in detail. Rather than trying to conjure a niche out of thin air, I'd reverse-engineer one from what's already demonstrably worked. I'd put together a simple document mapping out: - who I'd worked with - what kind of work I'd delivered - what industry each client was in - what they'd paid - how the project came about (pitched, inbound, or referral) Second, I'd turn those insights into two clear positioning lanes. For someone with a journalism-meets-culture background, that could look like: One lane in travel and lifestyle, writing editorial-style content for brands in that space. A second lane in cultural institutions (e.g., hotels, museums, libraries, heritage sites) needing copywriting support for their websites. Third, I'd build a prospect list based on evidence. I wouldn't try to leap into brand new industries straight away. Instead, I'd look for companies similar to the ones I'd already worked successfully with. LinkedIn makes this easy. Pull up one relevant company's page, then use "people also viewed/similar companies" and the related company suggestions to surface a whole cluster of similar organisations. Do that a few times over and you'll quickly end up with a solid list of 50 to 100 realistic prospects, split across your two lanes. Fourth, I'd reach out to warm contacts before turning to cold ones. A short, lovely human message asking how are things going, is there anything coming up this month or next quarter I could help with. Finally, I'd approach any new outreach with one goal: start conversations. You probably don't need ten new clients overnight. You probably just need one or two solid, ongoing relationships that create an income floor to build from. I've got a (free!) workshop that goes into more detail about how I do this. I'll pop a link below 👇
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Lizzie Davey shared thisFinding clients is the bane of every freelancer's life. It's RELENTLESS. There are always so many shiny new things to try that it can often feel like you're jumping from one thing to the next. It's take me 10+ years to figure out a couple of client acquisition methods that work for me, but I've tried a LOT of different ways over the years (including bidding sites, cold pitching, events, directories, ALL SORTS). I'm a big advocate of finding what works for you and, when you do, sticking with that until it doesn't work any more - basically, don't get distracted by the Shiny New Thing. If you're still in the figuring it out stage, here are 52 ways you can find your next freelance client (one for every week of the year). Give a few of them a go and find what works. If you want a deeper guide, including some scripts you can use, I'll pop a link to my free guide below 👇
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Lizzie Davey posted thisHow come some freelancers stay booked solid while others can't land a single gig? We're all navigating the same market, facing the same headwinds, yet the results couldn't be more different. In my experience, it usually comes down to three things: 1. Positioning (how clearly you communicate your value). 2. Reputation (a track record consistent enough that people remember it). 3. Relationships (the network that actually refers you work). And I won't pretend privilege doesn't play a role: having savings, a supportive partner, less responsibilities, or a lower cost of living makes it a lot easier to take risks. But freelancers who are struggling aren't less skilled, and the ones thriving aren't necessarily "putting in more hours." What tends to separate the two is how visible and connected someone was before they needed the work. The freelancers who stay busy are usually the ones who've been consistently showing up, sharing their knowledge, keeping in touch with their network, and making themselves easy to remember and refer. This year, I've been doubling down hard on what works and I've found it's been way more fun and way less of a slog.
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Liljana Miladinova an absolute must-have!
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Lizzie Davey reacted on thisLizzie Davey reacted on thisTime for another quarterly #freelance update! Here’s how my Q3 finished up: ✏️ pieces filed: 55 💸 money billed: $18,865 🎉 new published bylines: TurboTax! Q2 comparison: ✏️ pieces filed: 48 💸 billed: $12,403 🎉 new published bylines: Playboy & GQ! What changed? I took on four advertorial assignments, a first for me, which paid a heck of a lot better than normal rates. I’m still clueless on how to find these in the wild, as I happened into all of them, but I’d love to add more of these to pump up the books a bit. What’s next? October is off to a strong start, with $4,920 in landed assignments so far and two new dream bylines I’m hoping to see go live. 🤞 I’ve got some personal travel lined up in October (a belated 40th with college girlfriends to Cancun and a family wine trip to Napa), so I’m going to focus on extra top-of-funnel work when I’m not traveling to try to keep momentum going. 🏖️ 🍷 Counting my assumed October billings, I’m at $46,705 in freelance revenue for the year. Can I get to $60k by the end of the year? Or is that too ambitious considering the holidays? What’s on tap for your Q4? *I do these updates to bring some transparency to the world of freelance writing. Talking about money is cringe, but it’s also REALLY HARD to get a sense of what folks are / aren’t earning in this space, so I put myself out there in the hopes it might help someone else. For additional context, freelancing is my side hustle, not my full-time gig.* And yeah, shameless plug: editors, if you're looking for a consistent writer, let's chat!
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Lizzie Davey reacted on thisLizzie Davey reacted on thisI HATE being a bother. So when Amy Watt told me I should be sending regular updates to clients about what I'm up to, I was like "sure Jan" and then did nothing with that advice for two years. Then last week one of her email updates came through my inbox and I remembered how much I LOVE these types of email updates, actually. I love having a little window of understanding into what people are working on. One of my fave bits of Lizzie Davey's newsletter is a breakdown of what she's been up to this week. It's kind of parasocial. So, I tried it for myself. I sent out a little update to current and former clients, nothing massively formal, and I was SO surprised at the nice feedback I received. 🥺 Turns out, sometimes people don't mind being bothered if you're not being spammy, annoying, and you're keeping it personal. Most people actually kind of like it!
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Hotel Reviewer for LateRooms.com
See projectVisiting, researching, and writing reviews for two hotels in Brighton and one on the Isle of Wight for LateRooms.com's 52 Sleeps project.
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