Just how do you create a workflow for your freelance writing business that will help you achieve your goals, finish your projects, and not lose your sanity?
Isn't that why you quit your 9 to 5 to start a freelance writing business in the first place? To get away from the routine and grind?
Probably. The good news is creating a workflow doesn't have to stifle your creativity or make you feel like you're back at the daily grind. In fact, if done well, you can create a workflow for your freelance writing business that will help boost your creativity, increase your productivity, and help you build the exact life you wanted when you quit that job.
Chances are you've been surrounded by workflows your entire life. Perhaps you noticed it, but maybe not.
At home, dirty laundry goes into the laundry basket, then to the washer, then to the dryer, then ironed, then folded, then back into their closet or dresser until you're ready to use them again. Dishes go from the table to the sink, washed, rinsed, dried, then put away. These are simply examples of a workflow, and some steps may vary from house to house – but you get the general idea.
A workflow is a systematic process created to dictate how to do something repeatedly. Households have them, businesses have them, yet a lot of people who work from home, especially in the creative businesses, leave out the important step of establishing a workflow.
Perhaps they think the time and effort spent creating a workflow would be better spent doing the actual work. And let's face it, when you're working in a more creative field — such as writing, painting, crocheting, or even fashion design — it's hard to think of it in terms of a systematic process. Creativity itself almost seems to be the opposite of systematic. Inspiration strikes at random — you can't necessarily plan for it.
Nonetheless, establishing workflows for your at-home business is essential to keeping you organized and on track. They help you be more efficient with your time and more productive. And once set up, they will increase the quality of your output. So we are going to take some times and set up our workflows.
Creating Workflows for your Freelance Writing Business is Essential to Keeping you Organized and on Track.
Yes, workflows. Plural. You will need more than one. First step, let's figure out just how many you need. To do that, write out a list of all the processes you use in your business. Here are some examples of workflows that I use:
- Blog Posts
- Social Media
- Client Onboarding
- Services
- Product
- Payment and Invoicing
- Courses and Webinars
Do you see where I'm going with this? As a freelance ghostwriter and editor, even if I can't establish a workflow for how and when I write, I do need a workflow for how I find new clients, how I set up my contracts, and how I handle payments.
Next step, identifying what needs to happen in each system. Let's start with our “Blog Posts” systems. What steps need to be included there?
- Idea or inspiration
- Research
- Write Draft
- Edits
- Images
- Publishing
- Sharing
As you can see, each blog post goes through several steps before it even hits the reader. And each step is going to be broken down even further. By breaking this down, you'll know exactly which tools you need for each step.
So let's put this into action — You're going to Create a Workflow for Your Freelance Writing Business:
Specifically, a workflow for writing a blog post for your freelance writing business.
Idea or Inspiration
Where do you get your ideas from? And what do you do with them once you get them? The possibilities are endless here: write them into a notebook (just make sure the notebook is dedicated to this use, and is not something you use for multiple purposes), save them as a file somewhere on your computer, Pinterest, Evernote, Trello, or any combination of the above.
Personally, I love Trello. I use the free version to store my ideas until I'm ready for them. But I can also track each idea through my workflow:
This is actually a tweaked version of the free Trello template that you can get from them. If you want to use the same thing, just sign up for your free Trello account here, then head over to their templates area and copy the template over to your account. After that, you can tweak and adjust it any way you like to make it work for you.
I'll talk about all the other things you can do with Trello in a different post (OH! I should add that to my Ideas Board!). But for now, as you can see, I gather my ideas for a client into one list, “Ideas,” and then as I move them through the rest of the workflow, I physically move them from one list to the other.
So Trello is listed as a tool for every step of my workflow. Of course, I realize my tools may not work for you — maybe you like a different project management tool than Trello – there are plenty of good ones out there. I will also adjust tools based on my clients' preferences. I use both Asana and Freedcamp as free alternatives to Trello in some of my other workflow systems.
Make a list of the tools that work best for you and your clients and place them here for this step.
Research
Where do you go to research, and what do you use while you're researching? I have a hard time with my research because I inevitably get myself distracted in online rabbit holes. So my tools here include the extension Web Timer (so I can track how I spend my time on the Internet) and StayFocused or Website Blocker. That way, I can block myself out of the sites where I waste the most time.
I also include my favorite search engines (GoodSearch is awesome and helps raise money for the charity of my choice, and Duck Duck Go provide clean results with less clutter and fewer duplicates), as well as ways to track and store my research (Scrivener is great for this, as is Google Drive and Pinterest). Find the tools that work best for you for and write them down for this step (even if they are repeated — just write them down again).
Write Draft
Ah yes, the draft.
Now this is where the client's blog post really starts to take shape. Sit down and get to writing.
This list will include any tools you use for this purpose. My list includes Scrivener, Evernote, Google Docs, and sprints. That's right, the majority of my blog posts are written as sprints — set a timer and try to write as many words as you can before the bell rings (there are actually a few benefits to this method — which I will also cover in a different blog post).
What are some of the tools you use for this step? Write them down and add them to the list.
Edits
Once the blog post has been drafted, it needs to be edited. Word flow, spelling, grammar: all of those things need to be checked.
My tools for this step include Scrivener, ProWritingAid, and AutoCrit. Choose your favorite editing tools and list them here for this step. It should end with the client's blogging platform, whether that be WordPress, Blogger, Bloglovin, etc.
Images
I have to admit, I am a minimalist when it comes to a blog. I vastly prefer the text to images and videos. In fact, if you look back a couple years on this blog, you will see plenty of entries that contained little to no graphics.
However, text isn't as shareable as I'd like it to be. Blog posts need graphics. Need. Not only to help break up the text and provide whitespace on the blog (making it easier to read) but for promotional purposes. Whether you plan on sharing your blog posts to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Pinterest, graphics make the difference.
This list should include where you source your graphics, your logos and branding, and where you edit your graphics. When sourcing graphics, you can choose to take photographs or use a service like freeimages.com to find photographs that reflect your blog. You can also create some stunning web-friendly graphics using free services like PicMonkey or Canva.
Do not — I repeat — Do not simply run a search in Google and grab a photograph or graphic from there. That's a good way to get into a lot of trouble with copyright infringement. Just take your own photographs, source free photographs (check their licensing to see what you're allowed to do with them), source paid photographs, or create your own graphics.
My list of tools for this step include, you guessed it, freeimages.com, unsplash, Pixabay, my smartphone, my camera, PicMonkey, Gimp, PhotoShop, and Canva. Another part of this step is to determine how many graphics to create and which what sizes).
Write down your list of tools you use to create or source images for your blog, as well as the number and sizes you will need.
Publishing
Finally, we get to the part where we can publish the client's blog post (of course, this depends on your exact agreement with your client. If your agreement is simply to send them a draft, then list the tools you use for that).
My tool for this step include, primarily, WordPress, where the majority of my clients host their blogs, as well as Medium and Blogger. Yours will likely include wherever your clients' blogs are being hosted, and either some sort of calendar or planning tool telling you when to post them or a scheduler to post them automatically for you.
There you have it.
When all is said and done, you should end up with a Client Blog Post Workflow Chart that helps keep you organized and makes sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Did you enjoy this article? Here are some more posts on freelance writing you may like:
- Essential Steps to Freelance Writing Success
- Easy Holiday Marketing Ideas for Freelance Writers
- Love Writing? Start Getting Paid to Write Articles
- How to Handle a Negative Nelly Client: 3 Steps to Diffusing a Negative Client
- End Writer's Block for Good: 10 Triggers and Their Solutions
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