Hi Reader,

Happy Friday!

If you scroll down past today's Friday Freelance Tip, you'll see there's a brand new segment in the newsletter.

Freelance Money Diaries (still a working name) aims to shed some light on the TRUE finances of running a freelance business. Not your Insta-fake "I make $100k and you can too", but the realities of taxes, salaries, and revenue vs profit.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this! And, if you'd like to get involved, you absolutely can (you can remain anonymous if you'd prefer!).

​Just fill out this form here. ​

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to this week:

👉 I wrote 4 pieces for clients (Whop, Klaviyo, Positional, and a creator tool)

👉 I kicked off a big project with a new client

👉 I wrapped up this month's projects and sent my invoices

👉 I published a new post on Freelance Magic about how I earn £10k a month​

⏱ Approx hours spent on client work this week: ~23

⏱ Approx hours spent on non-client work: ~2

💰 Total revenue this week: £4,600​

Friday Freelance Tip​​ ✨ ​

Every career has its defining moments, freelancing included.

When I wrote about how I went from £38.86 to £1,000+ per piece last week, it got me thinking about how I managed to pull it off.

Or, more precisely, what the stepping stones were that allowed me to make that leap.

And remember, that leap didn’t happen overnight. Instead, it was a series of small (maybe even minute?) actions and decisions made over a long period of time.

So what exactly were those small actions and decisions?

Pulling the plug on my 9-5

Obviously, the most defining moment of my career was quitting my stable 9-5, moving to Spain, and starting life as a freelance writer without any experience. I hadn’t worked with any clients previously. I wasn’t hustling on the side of my day job. I didn’t even know any other freelancers.

Caveat: I was young and carefree. I had very few responsibilities and a small cushion of savings behind me (about £2,000). This privileged position meant I was able to give freelancing a go — but, I still had bills to pay.

Suddenly having no income was the real kick I needed to start getting clients. I did everything in my power to land contracts, from reaching out to people on Craiglist, cold pitching any and every brand I came across, to signing up for Upwork in a race to the bottom that actually kept my bottom line ticking over for a year or two.

Getting off Upwork

Those early years were spent scrambling for gigs on Upwork. I’d pit myself against hundreds of other freelancers in the hopes that my (low) bid would win. Often, it did, and I worked with a lot of clients through Upwork.

But I couldn’t get past the £50 a piece mark. I’d see other freelancers charging hundreds of pounds for a piece and wonder how the hell they were doing that when I couldn’t get a single client to agree to pay me more than £50 for 2,000 words.

I made the decision to quit Upwork cold turkey and find my own clients.

I had a few leftover clients from my Upwork days that I moved off the platform and worked with independently while I tried to find higher-paying clients.

At this point, I threw myself into pitching and building connections with brands and other freelancers.

Growing my network

When I left Upwork, I suddenly felt like I was floating in this void. I couldn’t fall back on bidding for gigs so I had to make my own way. It’s really easy to get too comfortable on gig sites because they’re always there. Sure, I was only getting paid £50 a piece, but that was better than nothing, right?

During this phase (about three years into freelancing), I joined a coworking space and started making an effort to grow my network. I went to networking events and conferences. I joined Facebook groups and created social media accounts.

I was also pitching HARD in the background. With every new client I landed, I replaced one of my existing Upwork clients. Each month, my roster was increasing in quality and I was getting paid more.

Assessing the viability of my niche

It was around this time that I really started to think about what I wanted to be known for. Up until this point, I had been writing for all sorts of companies — from weird fact websites to hotel booking agencies and restaurant tech. My portfolio was all over the place.

I had a background in marketing, so I leaned into that and started pitching for work writing for marketing agencies. My experience paid off and I landed a few cool gigs writing marketing content for automation tools and agencies.

Around this time, I started to get bylines for my work (before that, I was predominantly ghostwriting), so I was able to build my name in the marketing world. I wrote a few guest posts for big sites like Social Media Examiner and SEMrush and things started to really take off.

Navigating a pandemic

No one really anticipates a pandemic in the middle of their career, right? It felt like I’d finally found my stride when the pandemic hit. Lol. I lost all my clients in the space of one month and I started researching full-time jobs to tide me over.

But the thought of going back to employment filled me with dread (along with the existential dread of a pandemic looming over me, this was not good). So, I reassessed my options and started reaching out to brands in industries the pandemic hadn’t adversely affected.

Cue ecommerce tech.

We all know what happened to ecommerce during the pandemic, so I won’t bore you with the details. But it did well. And jumping on that wave early meant I did well too. I caught the attention of brands like Shopify and Klaviyo who were expanding their freelance network because… well, amazing growth.

Putting myself out there

Up until 2021, I’d been pretty quiet on social media. But the loneliness of the pandemic and the inability to go to my usual coworking spaces meant I was craving connections with other freelancers. I reacquainted myself with Twitter and LinkedIn and started sharing stories about my freelance life.

Turns out, people really enjoyed those stories, and I quickly built a decent following. I also started to be more consistent with this newsletter, which is my absolute favourite thing to write each week.

Increasing my visibility on social media helped me attract even bigger, better clients. But, more than that, I started to get referrals from other freelancers and companies who knew me or knew of me. This was a really special moment for me because it hits differently when someone actually recommends you. They’re putting their own reputation on the line.

My next small decision?

I’m currently toying with which direction to take my business in. All of these micro-decisions have led me to where I am today — earning far more money than I ever imagined, working with huge clients on projects I absolutely adore, and living a life that I would never have been able to live if I hadn’t made the jump to freelance, quit Upwork, and switched niche.

For now, I’m experimenting with trying out different revenue streams. I’ve created a handful of resources for freelancers and I’m about to start a new contract with a client where I will take on an agency role (my first project through Copy Revival!).

I don’t know how these experiments will turn out, but I’m enjoying the ride for now. And I know that I’m always one small decision away from my next big breakthrough.

All this to say: there’s never “one big decision” or “one thing” that successful freelancers have done to get where they are. It’s always, always a series of micro-decisions and actions that compound over time.

If you’re anything like me, this gives you GREAT comfort because I HATE making big decisions. I am terrible at it. So it’s comforting to know that I don’t have to make them. Instead, I can choose small actions in any given moment depending on how I feel or where I’m at.

Perhaps the biggest surprise people find out about me is that I HAVE NO PLAN. There is no “five-year plan” or even a one-year plan. I don’t set goals. I trust that these micro-decisions that have got me this far will continue to take me on exciting adventures —- because that’s what we’re here for, right?!

I’d love to hear from you — what have been the most defining moments in your career so far?

First up is tech writer Elena Prokopets (who actually came up with this idea!)

Where are you based? Strasbourg, France

How long have you been freelancing? 9 years

Elena is a full-time freelancer and operates as a registered legal entity (LLC)

What do you do? B2B writer for tech-led companies and software development businesses

What was your 2023 revenue? €107,660

What was your net profit in 2023? €51,118

How much did you pay in taxes?

I have an interesting startup. My LLC is registered in Estonia, so my corporate taxes are due there. It's an advantage cause I pay 0% corporate tax on all retained profits (aka money I keep in the business) and only pay taxes on salary that I pay to myself. So I keep a lot of money in my business and invest it. In 2023, I paid approx. €15K in social contributions alone. I also bill 22% VAT to clients from Estonia. So that was about €4K total across several clients.

How much did you take as a salary?

I've taken out 48 329 euros as a salary through 2023. This year has been a bit unusual because I've changed how I'm paying myself in October 2023.

I now have an official work contract with my company as a hired employee in France and I cover social security, pension, and loads of other 'stuff' for myself. The net salary I receive is €2800/mo and it costs my business €4723.73 per mo. I used to pay more myself previously but decided to scale down a bit this year to save on taxes. Instead, I plan to issue myself a €5/€10K bonus mid-this year

What are your monthly business expenses?

My minimal monthly costs are €250 eur, which include accounting, a couple of biz tools, and bank account fees.

Granted, most of my clients pay me via direct bank transfers, so I don't shoulder extra payment processing fees. My total operating expenses for the past year were €8K.

These included some larger purchases and business travel. I also like to pay annual subscriptions upfront to get better costs.

Do you contribute to a pension?

I've started contributing to FR pension plan this year (at the age of 32, haha). It's mandatory and costs me 244.06 EUR. But I'm not relying on the scheme much and building out a nest egg for myself through investing.

What do you do with the remaining cash in your business?

I started investing last year and moved a good chunk of biz money into an all-EFT portfolio in May 2023. Through 2023, its value increased by 7K. I add an extra 800 to 1000 EUR monthly into it. Also, I keep the rest of my money in high-interest accounts on Wise. My biz bank in Estonia also gives me 1% interest on money in my checking account (not a grand sum).

Do you have any hot take money-management tips?

Save > Splurge.

Keep a good chunk of money in your business. It saves you on personal income taxes and gives you leverage. You're not stressing about a late paid invoice or a quarterly tax bill or whatever it is that may get debited from your bank account. You can also invest that money to make it grow.

I'd recommend having at least 3mo of running + personal income (salary) money sitting in your biz bank account as your runway.

Also, don't spend on fancy stuff like super expensive branding agency or yet another PM/marketing/whatever app. Keep a minimal viable work stack of tools and spend on things that really make a difference for your income or happiness.

As always, happy freelancing :)

Lizzie ✨

P.S. What steps can you take next?

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Want to learn the exact process I use to write £1,000 posts for the likes of Shopify, Hotjar, CoSchedule, and Sprout Social? Access Create Better Content here.​​​

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