A Simple Way for Freelance Writers to Thrive in a Recession
Hint: develop a skill that your clients can’t do without
Photo by bongkarn thanyakijon Pexels
How are things going in your world? In our world, the days are running together, the supermarket trips are scary, and the Zoom happy hours are getting old.
But on Friday evening, we got a delightful surprise. We got an email from a former student and it was the best kind of email from a former student:
I have some good news. I have been assigned my first CME project with [Company X]. I will be creating 3 mini-modules on [Topic Y]. They have been happy with the NAs I have been completing with them thus far. Wahoo!
Everything about this email makes us happy. This student leveraged a skill she learned from us (how to write needs assessments) to create an ongoing relationship with a client, which has then expanded to more lucrative work! Every new project with this client is work that our student didn’t have to spend time marketing to get.
Recurring work is generally much more lucrative than a one-off project, even if the one-off project is paying you a higher rate. Here’s why:
Let’s say it takes you an hour to research a potential client.
Then it takes you 30 minutes to compose an email and send it, then follow up.
If the client responds, you can add another 90 minutes to having a preliminary call, and putting together an SOW or contract.
This is 3 hours of unpaid time. And this assumes that you get a positive response with every client. But if your hit rate is 20% (which is a very optimistic success rate), then you’re looking at approximately 10 hours of unpaid marketing time for every new client.
Now let’s assume that your hourly rate is $100. That’s $1000-worth of time that you spent getting a new client that you don’t have to spend with ongoing clients.
“That’s great, but how do I get these sweet recurring gigs?” you ask.
In this climate, it’s all about the Benjamins. It’s all about contributing to the client’s bottom line.
In this climate, clients are concentrating on bringing in revenue and cutting expenses. Anything that’s “nice to have” is jettisoned. Therefore, when it comes to freelance writers, a business must believe that the expense of hiring them will generate revenue.
While for many freelancer writers demonstrating value can be difficult (I mean, how much is an informational blog post worth?), the cool thing about medical writers is that they can rely on one type of writing that leads to money in the bank for the client - literally!
Short of direct response copywriting - the writing that makes people pull out their wallets and buy stuff - writing fundable grants is the most direct way of contributing to your clients’ finances.
If you can write solid, winning needs assessment grants, you’re practically writing a big check to the CME company that hires you. Needs assessment grants are how many CME companies bring in all their revenue. It’s their lifeblood. And right now, more than ever, it is critical for them to keep writing fundable grants so that the money keeps coming in.
How important are needs assessments to CME companies? So important that some CME companies apply for hundreds of these grants every year.
Our former student’s email demonstrates the opportunities that can come your way by mastering a close-to-the-revenue skill.
And that email is also a tangible example of what we’ve experienced ourselves and are teaching others: if you learn a skill that clients find extremely valuable AND you treat clients like partners and not just like paychecks, you will often turn a one-off assignment into a gusher of work.
Even in a Coronavirus-induced recession.
Even when it seems counterintuitive to think about building your freelance business, relationship building and an in-demand skill still provide a one-two punch for consistent revenue.
If you agree that writing winning NAs is an important skill to have and want to learn it, join our waitlist for our Write Needs Assessments Like A Pro course here.