How to start your own copywriting company

Are you a skilled copywriter with a passion for the written word? Do you also just so happen to have an entrepreneurial streak coursing through your veins? If so, it sounds like you’re destined to start your own copywriting company.

Make no mistake about it, embarking on this pathway in your career isn’t going to be easy. You will have to work incredibly hard to get your organization off the ground. And you’ll have to work even harder to ensure that it stands out from the crowd in its densely populated market. If you devote enough time, effort, and passion to this project, however, you’ll be sure to reap a host of personal and professional rewards from it.

Want to uncover the secrets of starting a successful copywriting company? If so, be sure to read on.

Learn to be the boss

Your skills as a copywriter will only get you so far in the world of business. Yes, you might be operating in a field that you know like the back of your hand, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are going to be ready for the challenge of being the boss.

If you want to be the sturdy backbone of your copywriting company, you need to hone your leadership capabilities. Try putting the following advice into practice:

• Embrace the fact that your professional relationships with people will change and you cannot be everybody’s friend
• Align yourself with a number of peers and mentors that will be able to encourage you whenever you start to doubt your skills as a leader
• Stop being so indecisive when making important decisions — even if you are somewhat unsure, don’t show it!

You aren’t going to make the transition from freelance writer to fully-fledged business owner overnight, that much is for certain. If you’re serious about honing your skills as a boss, you need to be patient with yourself and you need to work on your management capabilities every day. Only then will you stand a chance at becoming the leader that your copywriting company so desperately needs.

Come up with a business plan

If you want to provide your copywriting company with the best possible start in life, you absolutely must come up with a robust business plan. Not only will this help you to set goals and measure your progress but it’ll also make your organization much more appealing in the eyes of potential investors. Once they see that you have strategized your company’s future growth and scalability, investors will feel much more inclined to trust you with their money.

To ensure that your business plan plays an active role in your attempt to build solid foundations for your copywriting company, it’s imperative that you ask yourself the following questions while you are coming up with this all-important strategy:

• What is your target audience?
• How are these consumers going to find you and access your services?
• Will you be offering your services via a membership site or a consulting package?
• What problems will your service solve for your customers?
• Are there any specific tools or materials that you will need to make use of?

Establish your rates

Establishing your own set of writing, proofing, and/or editing rates is something else that you must do to differentiate yourself from the competing pack. The money that you charge will have a profound impact on your company’s reputation and brand. This is why you must take your time when performing this all-important task. Study your market and take a look at the going rate for the services that you provide, figure out how much money you need to make to keep your business afloat, and set your prices accordingly.

If you want to draw a steady stream custom, you need to set yourself up with a realistic pricing model. You need to make money, that much cannot be denied, but the profit that you turn over shouldn’t come at the expense of your customer service. Should you fail to provide your consumers with good value for money, you will start to make them feel alienated and ripped off. Before too long, these feelings of dissatisfaction will prompt them to take their services elsewhere. Should that happen too often, you will be sure to find yourself in the midst of a financial fiasco sooner rather than later.

Should you, for whatever reason, find yourself in a perilous situation when it comes to your finances, rest assured there are plenty of people and services out there that you can turn to for support. If times get really tough, you could, for example, take out a business line of credit at Become.co. This will enable you to borrow the exact amount of money that you need to keep your copywriting company afloat. Should you embark down this borrowing route, you will only be charged interest on the funds that you actually tap into. Not the full amount of the loan that was offered to you. This will help you to stay on top of your finances. Simply because you won’t be pressured to pay back money that you didn’t even borrow in the first place.

Optimize your brand

Due to the positive impact, it has on SEO, copywriting is currently enjoying a massive surge in popularity. This is a good thing, as it means that there will always be customers looking for your services. It does, however, also mean that there are now new copywriting companies popping up left, right, and center.

As touched upon earlier in this article, you will have your work cut out for you when you attempt to make your business stand out from the crowd. You can achieve this crucial feat, however, if you put the brand optimization advice laid out below into practice:

• Be upfront about your value
• Avoid hyperbolic promotion
• Back up your statements with actions
• Adopt a conversational tone when advertising your services

Continue Reading: My Journey To Becoming a Full-Time Freelance Copywriter

About the Author

Content marketing and inbound marketing expert, Steve Conway is passionate about discovering new tech which will enhance his already well-honed digital marketing skills.