Have you ever felt like your dream of being a freelance copywriter is just too far out of reach? 

You’re a talented mom, and you love words and writing, but you’re not sure what to believe when people group writers in the same group as starving artists and ask you questions like, “When have words ever paid the bills?”

You LOVE the idea of being able to work from home, but you’re not sure where to begin. You can’t help but start to wonder … 

Maybe it’s only for people who are more talented or have more money or experience than I do.

Maybe it’s only for people who are well-known and have a big following on social media.

Where does that leave you? Feeling like you’re never going to get ahead. 

Cash is tight, and you’re stressed about money. Just once, you’d love to splurge and get that big-ticket item your kid wants without feeling guilty or like it’s a major stretch of your budget. 

And treating yourself? Yeah right. You are the last person you’d splurge on because everyone else always comes first. You’re willing to do all kinds of hard things and sacrifice what you love to take care of the people you love.

Can you relate? Does any of that sound familiar? 

Here’s the thing – what if you’ve been going about it all backward? What if instead of gutting it out and putting yourself last, actually leaning into what you love is the answer?

In this article, I want to talk about how to leverage doing what you love doing and write your way to freedom as a freelance copywriter.

I’m also going to tell you about the seven steps to launching freelance copywriting services and making money as a freelance copywriter. Let’s dive in!

Been There, Done That

All those questions and preconceived notions about freelance copywriting I just mentioned? I am super familiar with them all. 

In 2017, I was in a place where I needed to make something happen to generate income for my family, but I was just an Iowa farm wife with zero social following and janky WiFi. I graduated from a small town school with 31 people in my graduating class. What could I even do? 

Most people where I’m from would have just told me to put on my big girl pants and go out and get a job. That’s what everyone else was doing. Of course, I thought about it. When your family is in a tough spot, you definitely consider all the options.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really like the options I came up with. I live in a pretty rural area. If I wanted to stay local, there weren’t a lot of good-paying jobs I’d qualify for. I have a degree in journalism and mass communications, but small-town newspapers don’t pay very well. 

That left traveling to a larger area to find a better job, but that would mean commuting an hour both ways five days a week. Plus I’d be starting from the bottom since I hadn’t been in the traditional workforce in 16 years.

Honestly, I didn’t love either of those options. They left me with a sick feeling inside because I didn’t want to leave my kids. 

Got Any Other Options?

There had to be another way. I wanted to keep working from home so I could be with my kids and spend more time with them. I didn’t want to have someone else controlling all my time, what I did, or what I could earn.

Sounds simple, right? But I didn’t even know where to start. I started Googling and digging around online, I saw other people making money from home doing social media management. If it worked for them, it could work for me. I decided that’s what I’d do too.

So I learned all about it and dove in head first. PLOT TWIST: I hated it. I did NOT enjoy doing social media management at all. But for six months, I kept at it. I didn’t know what else to do.

Burned Out and Fed Up

In that six months, I burned out bad. I was working 80 hours or more per week, serving low-paying clients and doing things I didn’t enjoy. I told myself that’s just what us moms do, right? We sacrifice and do what we think we must to take care of the people we love.

And I WAS making money, so I couldn’t complain, right? But here’s the problem. The way I was doing things wasn’t actually getting me what I wanted. I was working so much I was spending LESS time with my kids, not more. And I was miserable. 

If that was what being an entrepreneur was like, I decided I didn’t want it. I almost convinced myself that I wasn’t cut out to have my own business or be an entrepreneur. I had about decided to just go out and get a J-O-B when my husband had a come-to-Jesus moment with me.

He sat me down one morning when I was on the verge of a total meltdown and he said, “You have to stop. You have to stop trying to do everything. This is not why we decided to build an online business. You’re exhausted and stressed, and we miss you.”

Then he got eye to eye with me and said, “Make no mistake. I 100% believe you can do this. Whatever it takes, we’ll figure it out. I’ll go get a job. Whatever you need. But it’s time to stop putting yourself last and start doing what you love instead.” 

Permission to Succeed

In that moment, it was like I finally had the permission to do what I loved — permission I hadn’t been able to give myself. I decided to give entrepreneurship one more try, but this time, I was going to do what I actually liked doing. I was going to write. And that’s when everything changed.

It was only when I zeroed in on what I loved doing that I was able to build a business that’s been generating multiple six figures a year for the last five years in a row.

And that’s what I want for you. I want you to know that it IS possible for you to build a business and make money while actually loving what you do.

And in the rest of this article, I don’t want to just talk about how I did it. That’s inspirational, but it’s not all that helpful. I don’t want to just tell you it can be done, I want to help you by actually HELPING you.

So let’s dive into my seven-step process to launching freelance copywriting services so you know exactly what you need to do to get started.

Step 1: Uncover Your Why

The first step to launching freelance copywriting services so you can write your way to freedom and make money from home doing what you love is dialing in on your why.

Sit down and take some time to consider why you love writing and what your reasons are for wanting to build a business as a freelance copywriter. There’s no right or wrong answer here, but the reason it’s important to do this is because these are the motivating factors that will keep you going even when things get challenging.

If you don’t have a clear why set in front of you that you can focus on to stay motivated and in momentum, it’s easy to just put your dreams on the back burner or give up on them when things get tough.

Step 2: Banish Limiting Beliefs

The second step to getting started as a freelance copywriter has nothing to do with writing and everything to do with prepping your mindset for success.

You might think that won’t be very helpful, but what I’ve learned throughout the years in my own business and seen in other people’s businesses is that your business can only grow to the level of your mindset. The best way to make sure your mindset is on target is to banish any limiting beliefs you have.

Limiting beliefs are literal poison for your business. They’ll keep you stuck and stopped in your tracks when you should be moving forward. Sit down and make a list of your limiting beliefs. Call them out and shrink them down to size. then replace that with truth statements that you can focus on instead. Dos it as many times as you need to – and you might need to do it more than once. Our brains are tricky, and they’re designed to keep us safe. But safe isn’t always what will move the needle for success.

Step 3: Build Your Business by Design

Step three is to decide what you want your services to look like. I call this building your business by design. You’re going to want to get clear on what type of copy services you want to offer, and what kind of results you can get for clients. This will help you be able to attract the right kind of clients for you while ensuring that you’re actually doing things that you enjoy.

You’ll want to think about the practical things too, like how many hours you want to work and what you want your working day to look like. The more clarity you have around this, the easier it will be to make progress. You can’t achieve a goal you never set, right?

Step 4: Set Your Rates

Next, step 4, you’ll want to set your rates. Avoid that deer-in-the-headlights moment when talking to clients by determining what you’ll charge before you ever have those conversations. Consider how much you want to make and how many hours you’d like to work. 

And if you want my best advice about pricing – don’t charge per word or per hour. Those pricing structures only punish people who are good at what they do. Charge per project, and remember, the price you set today shouldn’t be your forever pricing. As you grow your skillset and level or results you can get for clients, raise your rates.

Step 5: Identify Your Ideal Clients

Step 5 is identify your ideal clients. Not every client will be a good fit. Who do you want to write for? What types of businesses or industries light you up? 

Many new freelance copywriters make the mistake of not thinking about who they want to write for. They end up having to settle for whatever comes their way, which isn’t always great. If you don’t get clear on who you WANT to work with, you’ll end up working with a LOT of the wrong kind of clients trying to figure it out.

Think about who your dream client is so you can attract them to you. And I’m not being all woo-woo on that. I’m not talking about manifesting clients. I’m talking about attracting the right clients to you by the things you say and the places you show up online.

Step 6: Optimize Your Social Media Profiles

Step 6 is optimize your social media profiles. By the time you get to this step, you have clarity on what types of services you want to offer, what you want to charge, and who you want to write for. Now you just need a place to start showing up and attracting attention to your services. I’m convinced social media is the best place to begin.

But what will people see when they visit your social media profiles? Will they be able to tell who you help, how you help them, and what kind of results you can get? If not, it’s time to edit your banner images and profile descriptions to include info on what you do, who you serve, and how someone can contact you. 

Step 7: Write a Focus Statement

And finally, step 7 is create a clear communication statement you can rattle off the top of your head whenever anyone asks you what you do. I call this your Focus Statement, because it focuses all communication with your ideal clients. Some people also call this your elevator speech, but since we’re online service providers, the chances that we’ll be in an elevator with any of our prospective clients anytime soon is slim, “focus statement” better describes it.

So let me recap those 7 steps for you real quick. To launch freelance copywriting services and start making money doing what you love, do the following 7 steps first to get off to a great start:

Step 1:  Uncover your why

Step 2:  Banish limiting beliefs

Step 3:  Build your business by design

Step 4:  Set your rates

Step 5:  Identify your ideal clients

Step 6:  Optimize your social media profiles

Step 7:  Write a focus statement

So what do you think? Are you ready to stop putting yourself last and start building a business doing something you actually LOVE? 

Walking through this 7-step framework will set you up for success by giving you clarity on your business and services so you can clearly communicate about what you do to your ideal clients. Your passion for what you love doing will shine through, and I can’t wait to see you get yourself out there!

And guess what? You don’t have to do it alone! I have a FREE 7-day challenge called the Client Attraction Crash Course where I’ll show you exactly how to walk through this 7-step process, one day at a time. Hundreds of freelance copywriting moms have enjoyed this 7-day challenge, so click HERE to sign up for a spot in the FREE challenge.