The Strategy and Energetics of a Soul-aligned Freelance Copywriting Business

Learn tips on how to create a freelance copywriting business that allows you to work solely with your dream clients and do only the work you love.

 

Tips to Create Your Dream Freelance Copywriting Business 

 

Creating a soul-aligned freelance copywriting business where you only work with your soulmate clients and do your dream work is very possible. In order to do this it’s really about where the strategy meets the energetics. It takes learning how to balance the masculine and feminine. This industry and this field is very masculine, it’s very deadline driven, hustle, rush and all that stuff. That can be one of the fun parts, but there are also ways to find flow, ease and fun in the business that you create for yourself. That is what’s so beautiful about it. We are creating a business, we are in charge, we call the shots, we decide what happens when, how, where and why we are doing it. But it is easy to start getting caught up in some limiting beliefs. A lot of us are also conditioned through a corporate setting, so we are used to reporting to someone else. We are used to responding immediately when someone sends us an email. We are used to being available all the time for everyone. But that is not ultimately required to have a successful freelance copywriting business. I’m going to start from the very beginning so that no matter where you are in your copywriting journey you can hopefully get some great take-aways from these tips to create your own soul-aligned freelance copywriting business.

 

Naming Your Freelance Copywriting Business

 

This is where I started and this is a really fun place to start, which is naming your business. You can choose your name as your business name or you can get really creative with it and make up a word or a combination of letters. My company is called A18 Media. I chose something that represented me, the letter A for Amy, the number 18 is my power number, and the number 8 is the number of abundance. It’s also a name that works if I want to pivot my business in the future maybe towards a different type of copywriting or away from copywriting, or if I want to start an ad agency. A18 can be super flexible for a lot of different avenues I might go down in the future. So deciding on a name that has potential for a business pivot is something important to keep in mind when choosing. 

 

To come up with your business name you can ask friends and family for feedback. A lot of times we get in our head and have a really great idea but other people might bring things to light that you may not have noticed. Like maybe the first letters of it spells a weird word or something like that. So get it out on paper, speak it, sleep on it, meditate about it, feel into it, and then write out a bunch of options and see what feels best to you. Then move forward that way. 

 

Inside my Freelance Flow course we go through a really fun exercise for getting the wheels turning to name your business. This is where the energetics comes in as well because you are naming your business and then you are going to start thinking about how your branding is going to look. You’re going to start thinking about what colors you want to use and what feeling you want to evoke to people who are going to hire you and be your clients. That is where you can start tapping into that energetic field and really start to manifest a business that you really really want in this lifetime. 

 

Create an Office Space That You Love

 

Creating an office space that you love is really important. I know we are all in different environments, but even if it’s as simple as putting some stickers on the top of your laptop to make you feel good, do it. Maybe right now you are running your business criss cross applesauce on the couch with your laptop, but there are little things we can do that make us feel creative, inspired and motivated. And when you start feeling those types of ways while working in your business, that is going to reflect in who you attract and it’s going to reflect in the kind of experience you are giving your client. 

 

My personal style is very boho and pretty feminine. I have candles, incense and sage. If I experience a less than desirable client interaction, I like to burn something. I light that candle or sage and move that energy away from my space and clear it. It makes me feel fresh minded for the next project that I work on. That is something fun that you can think about incorporating into your office space. 

 

It’s about setting yourself up for feeling a certain way about your business. Before we moved into the home we are in now, my desk was in a closet that we turned into an office space. I put a desk in there, a lamp and chair and that is where I would curl up at 4:30 or 5:00 am to work on my business stuff before I would go into my 9-5 job. But I just really think that making that physical space warm and inviting for when you are creating work for your clients is really going to show through into the experience that you are providing. That’s the whole point, it’s for you to feel good, it’s for your clients to feel good and then we are raising the collective vibrations which is a bonus! 

 

Banking and Accounting

 

This isn’t necessarily the sexiest part but then again maybe it is, it’s about banking and accounting, afterall we are here to get paid! We are here for a lot of things, but one of those is definitely to get paid. This is something that I had to be encouraged and reminded to do. I am very much the creative minded type person. I like making things pretty, I like to cook and I love high sensory. So the accounting part was just yuck and boring to me. But I did get it set up and did it correctly. I’m so grateful I did because it makes life so much easier, especially at tax time. And after Covid hit, I applied for the PPE loan, I was able to show very clearly where all my money was going in and out and that helped me get the support that I needed during that time.

 

There are a lot of options for accounting out there. I use a free platform called Wave. It is very popular with copywriters and it meets every need that I have. You link it up to your bank and then it keeps track of everything that’s going into your business. I did do a consultation with an accountant and she told me that, in the United States, the government really cares about the money that’s going in. So have that clearly documented and clearly tracked, and the sooner the better. You are never going to be too early with setting up these systems in your business. Treat your business like a legitimate thing that is not a hobby or side hustle. When you start to set up these accounts, you are training your mind that this is for real, this is a big deal. You are going to start taking it seriously and then that mindset is going to trickle into other aspects of your business as well. 

 

I highly recommend setting up a business checking account and getting a business credit card. Do your own research on what benefits you get from the different cards and pick that best one. Then set up that accounting software. Wave is great but a lot of people use Quickbooks as well.

 

How to Attract Your Soulmate Clients

 

The ways to start attracting the clients that we want to work with involve some strategies and then the mindset behind those strategies. I started out by taking a course on cold emailing. That is still a legitimate way to attract clients. First of all, by doing this, you are literally reaching out to the people who you want to be working with. So let’s get a little more clear on that. 

 

I recently sent out an email about the journey I had to take in shifting my mindset in order to attract the clients that I wanted to be working with in my business. I knew deep down, when I was first starting out, that I wanted to help local businesses in my community. I love supporting small businesses, especially female owned businesses. But in my head I had decided for them that they couldn’t afford the rates that I wanted to be charging. This was not ultimately true of course. I couldn’t know their financial situation. Maybe they were independently wealthy, or maybe they have this account fund waiting around somewhere for the perfect copywriter to come in and ask if they need help. We are actually doing a disservice if we count out an entire potential clientele group, that deep down we know we want to work with, we’re passionate about and we want to help, yet we decide that they can’t afford us. That is not ultimately true. So there is no reason to not pursue that. 

 

In the beginning of my business journey I decided that I was going to niche down into the cannabis industry because not too long before that it became legal in California. I fully support legalization of cannabis and other drugs but I don’t partake so it’s not something that has changed my life. I had no personal connection to it, I just saw it as a potential for income, and guess what? Nothing happened. I played around with that energy a little bit. I pretended that I cared. I followed some Instagram accounts and listened to a few podcasts about cannabis. I even got a client and wrote some blogs for him about it. But I just wasn’t into it and it didn’t work out. So once I started to get clear on who I wanted to be working with, that’s when things started to come into my business. That is when I started attracting the clients that I really wanted to be working with. 

 

Another strategic way to find clients, especially when you are starting out, is actually Craig’s List. This is a little old school and you want to tread lightly in this space of course but it does work. I got my very first clients when my business was still a side hustle by posting an ad on Craig’s List. It said “Need a Blogger??”. I got some really shady responses and I also got some legit ones. 

 

Typically the clients you find on there aren’t educated on the price of our services. It does have a lot of the Upwork and Fivver vibe and mentality. If you think about where they are coming from, they are probably just searching “copywriter” on the internet and those sites pop up first. If those sites work for you, more power to you, so happy that is working out for you. It wasn’t for me. I didn’t feel an equal exchange of energy going out with what I would be producing for Fivver and Upwork. They just aren’t really my vibe. But on Craig’s List, I wasn’t charging a lot for a blog post but it was still more than you would get on Upwork or Fivver. It’s just something to think about. 

 

There is also the Gigs section on Craig’s List that post for writing gigs. If you are looking to build up your portfolio or resume and you find something that is interesting and fun, then I think it’s fine to check out and see what’s out there in your local area. You might find some gems, you never know. And for me posting an ad was only $5 but you can also respond to ads as well.

 

Facebook groups are also huge. For example, Women Helping Women Entrepreneurs has five bajillion members in it. You can go in and use the search feature and search the word Copywriter in the group. Then you’ll find people looking for it and a lot of people specify what niche or style of copywriter they are looking for and you can find someone you are really aligned with in there. If they are already in a group like that, you already have something in common. So that is a really good way to go look for clients. It’s also nice and personal, you can start a conversation on DM’s and get to know each other. I have been hired many times based on my personality and my energy. Probably 99.9% of the time is based on that. My work is fine and good but there is something about the connection that you can make in these Facebook groups and it’s really cool and worth exploring.

 

Also, there is SEO in your Facebook comments. So if someone is looking for a copywriter or consulting in online marketing, if you use the word copywriter in your comment, that word will start to be associated with your profile and yourself. So Facebook is going to start pulling up more of those inquiries for you because it knows that’s your jam, that’s what you do, that’s what you are interested in. You’ve gotta love SEO. People get all in their head about it, but it’s really a powerful tool.

 

There is also good old fashioned applying for jobs. I got a really cool and exciting freelancing opportunity last year, just by responding to an ad on LinkedIn. I was a contributing writer for this awesome wellness blog. It was right up my ally and I loved it. Indeed also has a lot of great leads as well. You can set up alerts on both LinkedIn and Indeed, so you’ll get emails sent to you when new jobs are posted that meet your criteria. So just start throwing what you want out there. Be clear on what you want and just start looking for it. That is another energetic tip. Once you start putting your mindset into the place of already being that thing, things begin to change. Let’s say you want to be a hospitality writer, start acting as if you are that expert hospitality or hotel or restaurant copywriter. Then things around you are going to start shifting based on the intention you set for yourself and what you put out there in the world.

 

Another great way to get clients is just by tapping into your own network. Ask family and friends. If you do get into the industry, in marketing or ad agencies, you meet a lot of people. In this industry, people jump around a lot and there are a lot of contractors and freelancers. We’re all similar in that we are multi-passionate. So don’t burn bridges, stay polite and friendly and just knock their socks off with your work. Then when someone bounces around to a new agency or gets a new client and needs a copywriter, you’re going to come to mind because you are so awesome and easy to work with. Word of mouth is a great way to get clients.

 

Portfolio

 

A common question I get in regards to starting a freelance copywriting business is about building a portfolio. People always ask how you can even start a portfolio if you don’t have anything written when you are first starting out. Well, you just make one. I got an email the other day from Laura Belgray of Talking Shrimp. She was talking about a website you can go on that allows you to change the headlines of people’s websites. So let’s say you find a website that has a mediocre headline, you can go in and change it. It’ll look fully designed but it’ll have your copy. It’s not actually going to change their website but it is a great way to show potential clients your work in a professional way and start building a portfolio. You can show off your headline writing skills. 

 

I also recommend writing an email that you could potentially send to a client in your dream niche, that they might want to send out. Just write it and throw it into a Canva template that’s already designed for you. That can go into your portfolio. You can create a portfolio on Google Docs. There is no design involved at all, it’s straight copy. But people are hiring you as a copywriter, so they probably just want to know if you can write copy anyways, so that works. There are tons of options, and it’s really just a matter of starting to write. You can start a blog on your own website. Make it a practice and set a goal for yourself to write one blog a week or twice a month. Just start writing that way, those are writing skills and that can go in your portfolio. Bulk up you social media captions. And ask family and friends if you can help them out. If they have a brand or business that they could use some social media posts, emails or blogs written for, offer your services. 

 

Writing is something that people hate. People don’t like to do this stuff. So it’s doing someone a service to step in and they are going to be so relieved. But make it clear that it’ll be limited so that you don’t get stuck creating free content forever. Just start asking, start creating, start writing. Use the resources that you have available to you for free like Canva and Google Docs. Then you can save things as PDF’s and they’ll be easy to send out to potential clients. 

 

Industry Niche vs. Copywriting Style Niche

 

There are two different kinds of niches. There is the industry niche and the copywriting style niche. Deciding on these comes with evolution and learning new things. Just really think of what you are drawn to. And don’t limit yourself on things like who you believe can afford your services and things like that. If you are passionate about something in this world, there is a reason that thought and passion was put into you. Now you get to go out and start helping those people and begin to draw them in. 

 

There is also a copywriting style niche. I am pretty general, but I specialize in social media captions, and websites, which lumps into landing pages, blogs and emails. You can get really specific, like you only do launches, or social media copywriting, or promotional email copy. Those are different copywriting specialties that you can tout yourself as the go-to expert. And really dig in and really become that expert and become known for that specialty. So when people are looking for something specific like an email series for a launch they have coming up, hopefully your name will come up.

 

Those are the two things you can think about as far as niching goes. It’s what industry you are called to help and what style of copywriting you really love doing. And remember that nothing is set in stone. You can start somewhere and then decide to change your mind the next day. That’s the beauty of having your own business, you are in charge and you can pivot whenever you want. There is no one telling you no, except yourself. So if you aren’t feeling it and you feel like pivoting away and starting something entirely new, that’s totally fine and acceptable. That’s also the beauty of digital, online, and social media, it’s all so temporary. People are going to be ok if you shift your path a little bit. And then that’s the learning curve. You are going to learn something, maybe something doesn’t align in a niche that you thought you were going to love. But you take that experience, you are grateful for that, you learn from it, and you apply it to the next thing. So it just keeps going and it keeps your life happier when you know there is this flow that when something doesn’t work out, it wasn’t a failure. It was just a lesson that you learned.  

 

Ways to Package Your Services

 

This area can be a little boring but it’s still something useful for your business. Typically you’ll have a big bulk item that you are going to sell and then you can do add-ons. Add-ons would be something like a consultation session or strategy session. There are ways you can present your packages. Let’s say you are going to do website copy for someone. You know in the back of your head, that to deliver a good website copy, you’re going to need to include SEO meta data. That is just part of what you should be doing as a website copywriter. But you can present it as another line item. There is nothing wrong with that because you have this skill set. You know as a talented copywriter, SEO meta descriptions are very important for website copy. So you are going to highlight that in the proposal that you send them. That can be a line item add-on and you can bump up your prices with that. It’s very cool.

 

There are different creative ways you can package your offers to not only justify your prices to yourself but also to your potential clients. That is something that I had to learn. I would come up with a price for a website that in my head seemed like an even exchange of energy and compensation. Then I would itemize everything like Headline, User Experience, SEO Strategy, Keyword Research, Conversational Copy and really get granular with it, and that would help me settle on the price being totally fair. And it helps your client understand what is going into this whole thing too because sometimes there is some education that needs to happen in order to make it clear what we are actually delivering with our services. 

 

Pricing is something that is very personal and it’s also something that you just have to start feeling into. It can be scary to ask for what you might hear of other copywriters getting for their services. But the more we can raise that up as an industry, the more we can start collectively educating people who use our services and bring to light what they can expect. We can help that expectation management. Always add 20 percent to whatever your initial pitch or proposal price would be, because you are going to spend more time on the project than you think. If there is one thing that is for sure in this world, it’s taxes and that you are going to spend more time on the project than you think. So always add at least a little bit more so that you are covered with that extra time, effort and energy. Consider time for inspiration, that should be part of your proposal. Consider research and revisions. I always like to stipulate how many revisions are included in my projects. And all of that will help justify your pricing as well.  

 

Marketing Yourself

 

This is my favorite thing to talk about because I love content marketing and social media strategy and all those fun things! The options are limitless. There is Instagram, Facebook, email marketing, SEO strategies, and Tik Tok. We get more into these in Freelance Flow as more of a one on one situation too because everyone is different. We can listen to experts, professionals, and podcasts that tell us how to post, when to post, what topics to post, etc. That may work for some people, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the only solution for you. If you are shoved into this situation and told that you have to do all these things, then you start to feel resentful about them, then that is going to start showing through in the content you are creating. The energy that is put behind the content you are feeling forced to put out there is not going to come through as authentic and vibey as you might want it to. It’s so crazy how energy kind of sticks to what we are creating. It’s like when you send out an email that you feel meh about and you get just ok open rates. Or you feel super super excited about some silly Tik Tok video you did and you put it out there, and suddenly lots of other people think it is hilarious too. It’s really interesting how that happens. 

 

There are tons and tons of stuff to play with and that’s what I encourage you to do if you are feeling overwhelmed with social media marketing. Play with all the things. Play around with it and see what sticks, what your audience resonates with, see where you have the most fun, and just hang out there for awhile. Try it out for a month or two and really focus your time, effort and energy on one certain place, and then just make adjustments as you see fit. 

 

For copywriters, I think there is great opportunity on a platform like Instagram because there are not a ton of copywriters on there yet. The big OG’s are on there, but it doesn’t seem to be as prevalent as some of the bigger industries like food blogging, for example. So Instagram is fun to hang out on for us.

 

I also like Instagram because of stories. You are really able to put your face out there and that  is a strategy I really encourage. Even though it might be a little scary, to get vulnerable on stories and in your story telling, it really helps you connect with people. That personal connection you are going to make with the person reading or watching it is really going to bring them into your energy. You are going to relate on deeper levels than just deliverables. I am just wrapping up a project I have been working on with a client. We were chatting on DM’s and sending voice memos and I kind of just let the universe do its thing. I wasn’t trying to push the sale with her because I just trust and know that what is supposed to come my way will come my way. And she told me that she literally highered me because of my energy. I don’t think she even read any of my work. So it’s totally possible!

 

Welcoming Your New Clients

 

These are some forms and practices you can start integrating into your business maybe before you even have a client or before you have your next client. You can create a nice welcome packet. On this, you are going to start setting boundaries, which is really important for the overall experience with you and your client. If you are happy, they’re happy, everyone’s happy, and the work is so much better and it’s an easier experience overall. 

 

Your boundaries can be things like letting them know how quickly they can expect a response from you on emails. So if you don’t want to get stuck in the immediate response bubble like we have been trained in corporate, let them know that they can expect to hear back from you within 24 hours. Some people get their clients completely off of emails and only work with them on a project management system like Trello or Asana. That boundary is set clear that you are going to only be on there between these hours and these hours, so you can answer questions within those times. Boundaries are still a work in progress for me, but it’s so much better when they are clearly set up from the get go in your welcome packet. 

 

Another fun one I like to send over is an intro questionnaire. This is going to help you get to know their voice and tone a lot better. You can do a call as well, which is a good idea to do at least once before you start working together. Then you can send over the questionnaire for them to fill out. And you’ll get different things coming through over the phone vs. through their writing or typing, but all are useful in getting to know them. I like to include really fun questions in there like, What is your spirit animal? Who would you go get a beer with, dead or alive? What concert would you like to see? It’ll help to really get into their personality. And then while they are filling out those answers, they are going to give you hints and clues and literally spell out parts of their voice and tone, their mannerisms, their isms. I like to ask those questions too. What is your catchphrase? What are you isms? I ask What is your mission statement? And this is an opportunity to pitch another service, if they don’t have one, then you can offer to help them write one. 

 

These are some great onboarding things that I like to send over to my clients. Also, one thing to include in that, is to ask about the words they do not want you to use, because there might be some specifics. Sometimes you’ll come into a new situation and there is a specific word or phrase that was hashed over a few weeks ago and thrown out and if you bring that up, not knowing of course, it might be super triggering for them. So it’s important to ask for those off limit words that help you avoid that accidental spiraling situation.   

 

Mindset

 

Mindset is the foundation of my course Freelance Flow, and I have mentioned it here over and over. It’s all the spiritual practices and energetic things that we can do in our business that not only shift our experience as business owners, as freelancers but just as people in general. Things like looking at limiting beliefs. If something comes up, try to figure out where that is coming from. Is it from a past trauma? Is it something from your childhood? 

 

Learning how not to take things personally is a big thing. Having a soul-aligned freelance copywriting business is understanding that you are not your work. Separating that is important. When someone comes to you with a criticism or critique, it’s not on you as a person. It’s only the words you put onto paper to give to them which happened to evoke an emotion, for whatever reason, that might not have anything to do with you. It could have triggered a trauma or past experience in their life. Their reaction isn’t our responsibility. Our responsibility is just to create something that everyone is happy and good with. So keep it light and keep it fun. 

 

Another important thing is to maybe not respond to emails right away. There are certain things that do trigger emotions in people. So if you get feedback that might be harsh or rude, try not to respond right away. Let it sit, let it calm down and relax. This will take some of the stress and anxiety off of you as well, to just let it kind of simmer and then go back later and revisit it. If you are coming out of a corporate environment, there are a lot of things we were conditioned to do, that we didn’t even realize were toxic and quite frankly abusive. The idea that we always have to be on working 24/7, hustle, and go go go all the time. That is not ultimately true. There is a term in agencies called Fire, or client fire drill. That naturally is going to elicit a pretty physical urgent reaction within you. And it’s not the most healthy thing to carry that around and live life on that edge of flight or fight all the time. There are things we can do to process and let that go.

 

I also encourage you to learn who you are spiritually, specifically in two ways. The first is to learn your human design type. It is amazing and awesome and once you know your type and chart, it’s going to teach you so much about yourself and how you attract clients. In my chart, my net worth is in my network. So the majority of my client work is coming to me through referrals and word of mouth. It’s in my chart and it’s part of my job to get out there and network and be active in Facebook groups, and all those things, because that is how I am attracting clients, based on my human design type. 

 

The second way to learn about yourself is in your astrological chart. There is so much more than just your rising sign. So if you dig in there, different planets relate to communication and all those things. I know tons and tons of people that are already very passionate about these things and it makes such a difference in your business. I never really correlated all that woo woo stuff into business, but the more that I am integrating it, the more abundance I’m experiencing in my life, the more joy I’m finding in my work, and the happier I am in my relationships and all those things. That’s really what I want to teach inside Freelance Flow as well, is the balance between the strategy and the energetics and just to empower you to have the confidence to create the type of freelance copywriting business that you have been dreaming about. That deep down you really want, but maybe there are things getting in the way, and we are going to work through all of that. 

 

Freelance Flow is kind of a hybrid of a course and group coaching program. There are 8 modules that you can binge all at once or go week by week if you choose to. So each week’s module will correlate with the content happening within the Facebook group. The Facebook group is where the magic is going to happen and where the group coaching will take place as well. I’ll have weekly office hours to be available for questions. I’ll also be bringing in some experts to talk about things like human design so we can really get into that stuff. I just want to have that one on one connection with everyone in the program to really get the results that you have been looking for in this whole endeavor, but maybe have had blocks or have been struggling with, because this is so possible for you or anybody! I know a lot of people are going through things coming out of the last year of Covid. I don’t believe we have actually exhaled yet after this global traumatic experience and I think there are going to be a lot of shifts and changes happening out there. I want to help you navigate this new time and build a business that you love, because we all deserve that!   

 

Let’s connect in some other places! I have a super awesome and fun Facebook group called the Copywriting Girls Club. We are a fun bunch of ladies that love to talk about copywriting, business stuff, networking, and even a bit of the woo woo energetics. You can connect with other copywriters both in agencies, freelancers and some that write copy for their own business. We love to give and get feedback, tips, advice, support and collaborate. So join the fun HERE.

 

Come hang out on Instagram with me HERE.

 

And if you want some tips on how to repurpose your content, like take a blog post, for example, and use it all over your different social media channels, I have this super useful Spread Your Magic Cheat Sheet. You can grab a copy for free HERE.

 

Want to connect with other passionate female copywriters, grow your network to get new leads, improve your craft as a writer, and have a safe space to vent about clients? Join us in the Copywriting Girls Club! It’s our private girl gang on Facebook, and we would love to have you in there to share your zone of genius.