To doing business your way

More and more people want to talk to me about how I structure my business. Specifically, the fact that I only offer time-based bookings and not project rates or retainers which are the industry norm for freelance copywriters.

I can, and have, spoken at length about the mechanics of it all. 

How it works, what tech and systems I use, how I handle the challenges that come with time-based working and who* helped me create the model and set it all up. 

Inevitably, these conversations lead to the richer ground of how I’ve created my business to work for me and my life. And exactly how a person can go about doing that. Which is a harder question to answer.

Because detailed instructions on how to create a business that perfectly matches your life, goals, strengths, availability, preferences, values, etc. just don’t exist. There’s no missing piece, no magic formula, no golden key.

Even if there was, figuring it out for yourself is kinda essential to the process.

Partly because figuring it out is fun and fulfilling. Partly because when you figure it out for yourself you can trust that what you’ve created will work for you. And partly because you’ll never really stop having to figure it out. You’ll change—and your business will need to change, too.

This quote from a Bill Hader interview sums it up nicely…

“While Hader still regards these filmmakers [he admires] with awe, he says he no longer barrages them with questions. ‘It’s like going up to somebody who’s married and you’ve never been in love before. And you’re like, ‘How do you fall in love? What’s that like?’ Once you fall in love yourself, you’re like, ‘Oh, I have my own way of doing this thing.’”

I’m happy to explain the ins and outs of how I run my business to anyone who wants to know. And it might even help a little. But at the end of the day, I don’t really want to teach people how to run a business like mine.

And not because I’m guarding some big secret. But because I’d rather leave people with the idea that they can do business their way. And that figuring it out for themselves isn’t just possible but essential.