Pondering Doing Freelance Proofreading?
Many writers make money doing freelance proofreading. I just started looking into doing freelance proofreading, myself and thought you might find some of these tips useful too in case you were thinking of setting up a freelance proofreading business too.
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Freelance Proofreading Business Basics - Writing Your Business Plan
Knowadays has some great resources for writers wanting to make money doing proofreading. I recently started a free trial proofreading course through Knowadays and I've been very pleased with the course and the support they provide for people wanting to become freelance proofreaders. One bonus with taking their course is when you pass their online course you have the opportunity to be hired by their proofreading agency, so you can start making money right away helping other writers. One of their recent emails contained a link to this very helpful article on their blog on how to get your freelance proofreading business off to a great start by writing a business plan for your freelance proofreading business. The following article is adapted from their website.
Why Writers Need to Write a Business Plan for Their Freelance Proofreading Businesses
Being a freelance proofreader holds many joys including the freedom to choose your working hours and pay. However, freelancing is not exempt from mundane chores like organizing your taxes or coming up with a business plan. Why are business plans so important to writers? Many freelancers think they don’t need a business plan, however, it's quite the opposite. A business plan is essential to help you:
- Grow and professionalize your business.
- Determine marketing strategies that work for you.
- Identify competitors (and learn from them).
- Identify your target clients.
- Estimate your ideal income (and set goals to get there).
- Be adaptable in unforeseen circumstances.
- Focus your business efforts and help keep you on track.
1. Company Summary
It’s important to include a company summary in your business plan. The company summary is where you share how you develop your business overview and its purpose. What’s your business story? When writing your company summary, you might want to include the following subsections
- Business values: These are words and phrases that communicate your business’ beliefs. A proofreader might want to include phrases such as "attentiveness to details", “thoughtfulness” or “expertise”.
- Service descriptions: What do you offer? Describe the services you provide (i.e., the types of proofreading, editing, formatting, etc., you do). Putting your services in writing will also give you an idea of whether you’re trying to do too much or too little. Do you have expertise in a particular area such as cooking, technology, or finance?
- Mission statement: This is a single sentence that describes what your business does and for whom. Your mission statement will draw on your identified values and services. Use some famous examples to inspire you if you’re stuck.
2. Competitor Comparison:
It’s crucial to review the similarities and differences between you and your competitors. This helps you position yourself better and promote your expertise where your competitors might be lacking.
3. Target Market and Clients:
Write down some of your target client personas. This helps you clarify who your target clients are. Finding this challenging? Making a list of topics you do not wish to proofread can help. Once you know your target audience, you can better develop your plans for contacting them.
4. Budget:
How much money do you have to invest in your business? Write down an estimate. This amount should cover not only marketing expenses but also professional development (e.g., additional training) and an emergency fund. No money to invest in starting your proofreading business? Pray! There may be ways you have overlooked getting either the funds you need or the items on your budget list.
5. Business Goals:
What would you like to accomplish with your business? Goals need to be S.M.A.R.T. - Specific Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. Start with your end in mind and break it down into steps. List your goals and set a timeframe to achieve them.
When it comes to setting and achieving business goals, the more structured the better. When setting goals for the next quarter, for example, you can write one task per week to complete over 12 weeks. This will give you a plan for the next three months!
By the time you’ve completed these tasks, you can evaluate your progress and adjust your goals accordingly. When goal setting, remember to include the things you’d like to stop doing too (e.g., cut down on the number of free samples you offer by 50%).
6. Marketing and Sales Strategies:
Marketing and sales strategies are related to how you promote yourself and reach your target clients (i.e., how you will achieve the business goals and projection targets you just created).
In this area of your business plan, decide on the sales and marketing strategies you will carry out to achieve the goals you’ve set. These strategies will likely include ways of reaching out to prospective clients (e.g., cold email, social media, blogging).
Tips for Creating Your Business Plan
Although writing a business plan may seem daunting, it’s something you’ll have to do from scratch only once. Here are a couple more tips to keep in mind:
Be flexible with your plan. A business plan is meant to be a fluid document - not something written in stone. Adapt it to your changing needs. It is important to include contingency plans because things rarely work out in real life as they are written on paper. expected.
Update your plans as you go along. What’s working? What needs changing? Make sure to keep setting yourself new goals. Be aware there are plenty of free freelance business plan templates online to choose from, which can be helpful too.
Becoming A Proofreader
Ready to start your freelance proofreading business? Why not try the Knowadays Becoming A Proofreader course? It has taken many people from complete beginner to confident, trained professional. Find out about the Knowadays free trial here. No credit card is necessary.
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About This Author
Sister Su is grateful to God for keeping her alive. She is a Trent/Queen's Concurrent Education graduate with over 20 years of teaching experience. She writes on several blogs, has a YouTube channel and is most easily reached through Twitter @Sister_Su See her link tree for more details:@Sister_Su | Linktree
This post was proofread with the free version of Grammarly
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