3 Essential steps + where to go from there

When I first started my business, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I was freelancing for very little pay and working in restaurants to make ends meet. It was the opposite of living the dream. If you’ve Googled anything about how to start a copywriting business, you know that there’s a ton of info out there. Often it’s conflicting, vague, or just not helpful. I share my story of how I started my copywriting business in an attempt to overcome that BS. Copywriting is such a rewarding career—you get to help others grow their businesses too. And I think that more people deserve to be making good money online.

Now, my copywriting business is so much different than when I first started. I freelanced for years before figuring it out, but now I run a 6-figure copywriting business… And I only work up to 15 hours each week.

If you start off the right way, you can skip a lot of the growing pains I went through to grow your business a lot faster.

How to start a copywriting business with no experience

I remember being new. In the beginning, I didn’t even know what “copywriting” meant. But I figured it out, and now that I’ve been there, done that, I can lay out an easy-to-follow roadmap for others who want to start a copywriting business too—and grow without all the mistakes that I made.

Ultimately, you need to learn HOW to write good copy. Your results will always be what makes you stand out. It’s okay if you’re still in the process of this or haven’t started officially, but that’s the number one thing you need to do to prepare yourself to become a copywriter.

This blog is about beyond that stage. → You’re committed. You like writing copy. Now you want to actually start the copywriting business you’ve been dreaming about.

So let’s talk about the businessy side of things. How to start, grow, and scale a sustainable and profitable copywriting business.

Building, growing, and scaling your copywriting business

There are 3 phases of having a copywriting business. First, you lay the groundwork in the BUILD phase. When everything is in place, you’ll start the GROW phase, where you increase numbers and your clientele. The natural next step is to SCALE, and if the first 2 phases are done the right way it makes scaling so much easier. 

Right now, you’re probably in the BUILD phase. This is the part where you’re getting the foundations in place. You need to consider things like:

• How will leads find you? Or how will you find leads? → How will people find you so you can write copy for them?
• What does your sales pipeline look like? → What journey does your potential client take from first discovering you to becoming a client?
• What are your offers and rates? → What do you want to do for clients, and how will you make money?
• How many clients do you have capacity for? → How much work can you handle on a quarterly, monthly, weekly, or even daily basis?
• Do you need a website? → Do you want somewhere to send potential clients so you look legit?
  

There’s a lot of upfront work, but you can build each piece as you go. You don’t need to have everything in place before launching your copywriting business. But you do need to focus on these priorities first.

What you can do right now to start a copywriting business:

Beyond actually studying copy to hone your craft (because providing ACTUAL value to your clients is a must—integrity is important around here) there are some essentials to starting a copywriting business.

1. Nail down your ideal client.

If you don’t know who you’re trying to reach, then you won’t capture anyone’s attention. And NO, your audience is not “everyone” or “anyone”… That is a major mistake that most freelancers make in the early days of their business!

But where do you start sorting through all of these strategy details? Figuring out who you want to reach and what value you provide is something that you can learn inside my free course, 4 Steps to Profit.

2. Make a website for your copywriting business.

For most freelance copywriters, a website is a crucial piece of your sales pipeline. If you don’t have a website, there’s a gap in the process to get qualified leads. (In other words, people who are actually a good fit to work with.) Either those leads fall off track, or you have to manually do the work to convert every single one. This isn’t an efficient way to start and run a copywriting business!

If you can build a website with copy that converts your ideal clients, so you don’t have to work so hard for every lead… That is a foundational piece of your copywriting business that will set you up for long-term success.

3. Choose a lead generation strategy.

You need leads. Leads are potential clients → people who need what you can give them. How do you want to find them? I touched on this a bit above: Your website is a part of your sales pipeline. You could also explore cold pitching, networking, and referrals. However, my preferred method of getting leads for my copywriting business is developing that pipeline around the website, then focusing on organic content marketing to attract the right people.

Whatever strategy you choose, you need to stick with it! Overnight success doesn’t exist. But consistent effort over time will help you grow.

Get help building your foundation

This might feel like a lot! 4 Steps to Profit is for beginners just like you starting your own copywriting business. This is the roadmap I made to point copywriters just getting started in the right direction. 4 Steps to Profit gives you the foundation you need to not only BUILD, but later GROW and SCALE—your way and in alignment with your life.