Tag Archives: commercial writing

The Unconsciously Competent Freelancer

unconsciously competentBy Jake Poinier

Peter Bowerman wrote a thought-provoking post the other day at his Well-Fed Writer blog: One Big Reason Why Commercial Writing Pays Better and Resists “Off-Shoring” (and Why This Other Kind of Writing Doesn’t…) It’s worth reading the whole thing, but it was actually the comments that sparked me to write this riff on his thoughts—which revolved around epiphanies.

If you’ve spent any time in the corporate world, or even in semi-serious athletics, you’ve probably heard of a psychological principle called “The Four Stages of Competence.” Briefly, they are:

  1. Unconscious incompetence: You don’t know how to do something, and you don’t recognize it.
  2. Conscious incompetence: You understand that you have a deficit, but you still don’t know how to do it.
  3. Conscious competence: You know how to do something, but it takes a concerted effort.
  4. Unconscious competence: You understand something so well that it’s second nature, and you can even teach it to someone else.

I recognize all of those learning steps in my progress as a freelancer. I suspect you do, too. But what is interesting to me is understanding how differently the writing side and business side evolved. As someone who’d written for magazines, PR and marketing/advertising firms, I estimate I was somewhere in stages 3-4 on the wordcraft end of things when I left my corporate job.

I was firmly in stage 1, however, when it came to running a business. Of course, I had *experience* in various businesses and industries for 10 years, and even exposure to financials and sales calls with people who were at stage 4.

But there is no replacement for time and hard knocks from entrepreneurship—and shoring up the business side is paramount, even if you’re a stage 4 writer, editor or graphic designer. In fact, Malcom Gladwell, author of Outliers, defined a “10,000-hour rule” as a specific timeline for success in a pursuit. In case you want the math, the road to becoming an unconsciously competent freelancer will take about 5 years at 40 hours a week. And it’s worth every minute.

Freelancers: When you assess your own career, what stage are you in on the creative side? On the business side?

Jake Poinier runs Boomvang Creative Group and blogs as Dr. Freelance. His most recent post was “Brochure writing and playing nice.”

Image courtesy of cobrasoft.

Secret Freelance Jobs

freelance-writing-for-hire

Ever wonder how some of your fellow freelance writers are making it? Why do some seem to have a ton of work while others are doing well just to scrape out enough for the rent? Freelance writing gigs aren’t always advertised on Craigslist and writing sites like AbsoluteWrite.com. In fact, there’s an entire sector of “secret” freelance gigs out there waiting to be found, you just have to know where to start looking.

How picky are you about the writing work you seek? Are you willing to do catalog copy or descriptions of items for sale on eBay? Commercial copy? SEO-optimized content? Believe it or not, there is LOTS of work available for people willing to write this stuff, even in the current bad economy. Sometimes BECAUSE of our current bad economy.

Look at any online music store like zZounds or Guitar Center, and you’ll find thousands of pages of musical gear all written up and presented for your review.

These companies don’t always have the cash to keep writers on the job in-house. And SOME companies have computer crashes and they lose six months worth of work because they weren’t smart enough to back up their most recent catalog. Yes, I personally witnessed that one. THAT bunch desperately needed a freelancer to come in and help pick up the pieces. And they would have kept that lucky freelancer employed for a long time, as once the catalog was recovered and published, they needed to turn around and start working on a new one.

So what’s the “secret”? Take a look around you–there are plenty of mom and pop stores with large online inventories, art galleries, even banks are all hiring freelance writers. I personally do work on the side for a Texas-based banking group, writing everything from how-to guides on first-time homebuyer loans and mortgages to refinancing and home improvement loans.

The key is getting in touch with the people who need you and reminding them of your existence until THEY realize they need you.

Take a look at the phone book and ask yourself how many of those local Yellow Pages entries might be in dire need of a writer for projects. Chances are you’ll find someone who needs a press release, articles for their (sadly lacking) web pages or web copy in general written by someone who knows how to string words together in a convincing, professional way.