Freelance Writing & Business Communication

Business Vision handout from Magnet

Yesterday, I had the pleasure to participate in a round table talk, with four other 6-figure freelancers, at Magnet, Canada’s magazine conference. There were about 60 or so aspiring and veteran freelance writers – 10 at a table – and the ’speakers’ spent 10 minutes at each table answering questions. Then we moved on to the next table. It was kind of like speed dating, but much more fun and less stressful. I gave each participant a handout on business vision, which I am sharing with you here.

Want to boost your business? Start with your business vision.

Do you have some downtime over the summer? If so, you might want to spend some time focusing your business vision. Do you have downtime most of the time? If so, you really want to spend some time focusing your business vision.

Most freelancers I know do not have a business vision. Nor do they have a business plan. That’s unfortunate because your business vision defines the business life you want to live. The business plan includes the concrete objectives and marketing tasks that support your vision. But it all starts with a clearly defined business vision.

Defining your business vision is not as onerous a task as you might imagine; it is more important a task than you might think. Without a business vision, how will you know where you want to go? How will you create a road map (business plan) to get you there?

To define your vision, answer the five “W” questions – who, what, where, when and why – from a business perspective. Allow me to briefly review the W5 questions from the perspective of someone who aspires to be a freelance writer.

• Who do you want to be? I presume a freelance writer. But you could want to be a writer/trainer, a graphic article a web designer, and so on.
• What do you want to do? As a freelance writer, you could go corporate or you might write for newspapers and magazines. You need to decide what you want to do before you write your business plan and start marketing your services.
• Who do you want to do it for? There are many corporate sectors and many types of periodicals. You will not write for all of them. Logically plan the sectors or types of publications you will target before your write your business plan and start marketing your services.
• Where do you want to do it from? If like me you want to work from home, it means you will not take contract positions that involve commuting to work. In other words, you business vision will help you both accept and reject various types of work.
• When do you want to do it? Will you take the whole summer off? If so, you don’t want to be doing any marketing in June!
• Why do you want to do it? Knowing why you want to freelance will help motivate you to do the work required to get your business off the ground.

Once you have completed the above, review your answers and use your business vision to help you formulate your business and marketing plans, or how you will make your vision real.

- You can read more about business vision here.
- You can read more about marketing your services here.

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Paul Lima is a freelance writer and trainer and the author of Everything You Wanted to Know About Freelance Writing… and Build A Better Business Foundation: Create a Business Vision, Write a Business Plan, Produce a Marketing Plan. You can read more about Paul’s books online at www.paullima.com/books.