Chapter 1: The Journey of a Freelancer

When I embarked on my freelance copywriting journey, I took on every task myself—from managing finances to securing leads and completing client assignments. It was an overwhelming workload, but I believed I was making the right choice by keeping my operations streamlined. I was proud of my frugality, thinking, “I’m bootstrapping this venture successfully…”

However, I eventually reached a breaking point where I felt drained and overwhelmed. I simply couldn't extend my working hours any further. I had to make a choice about which tasks to delegate, but letting go was difficult since I was accustomed to handling everything personally. Admittedly, I might have a slight tendency to be a control enthusiast.

To assess my time usage, I utilized Rescue Time for a week-long audit.

I categorized my activities based on the time investment and the revenue they generated, organizing them into three monetary tiers: $10, $100, and $1000 tasks.

$10 Tasks included:

• Deleting unnecessary emails.
• Organizing bank transactions in accounting software.
• Basic lead generation activities.

$100 Tasks encompassed:

• Answering straightforward questions from clients and students (I mentor a small group aspiring to be freelance content writers).
• Crafting promotional long-form posts for social media.
• Reviewing the work of my freelance writing students.

While responding to clients may seem minor, I recognize the importance of supporting those who rely on my expertise. These tasks, though not highly lucrative, are essential to maintaining strong client relationships.

Finally, $1000 Tasks involved:

• Preparing for and conducting calls with potential clients.
• Researching for copy production, including creating customer surveys and brand voice documents.
• The actual copywriting process.

After completing my time audit, I discovered I was devoting most of my hours to $10 tasks—definitely not ideal.

Author’s image: Time Audit Spreadsheet

I realized I needed to shift my approach. However, as mentioned, my inclination to control everything made it challenging to delegate.

Initially, I started reducing my compulsive habit of checking trivial metrics like:

• Daily book sales on Amazon—irrelevant.
• Daily new email list subscribers—irrelevant.
• The number of followers on LinkedIn—irrelevant.

What truly matters is taking actions to drive those results. Sales happen automatically with my Amazon ads running, and I only need to check the monthly statements. Subscribers join my email list when I offer something of value, so my focus should be on promoting that content weekly. Likewise, LinkedIn followers are attracted by valuable posts, which is what I should concentrate on.

Within a few days, I successfully curbed my checking habits and hired a virtual assistant (VA) for lead generation tasks.

She identifies potential clients for my copywriting services and reaches out using a script I crafted. If they show interest, she flags them for my attention, allowing me to focus on more critical aspects of my work.

This change has freed up approximately two hours of my day that I previously spent on lead generation.

My VA also streamlined my email management into several categories:

• Urgent tasks for immediate action.
• Important but non-urgent tasks.
• Personal messages.
• Junk emails.

Now, I prioritize the “Urgent tasks” label when checking my inbox, and if I have extra time, I’ll address the other categories. Once a week, I tackle the “Junk” label and unsubscribe from irrelevant content using a service called Trimbox, which simplifies the process immensely.

This new email system has saved me an additional hour daily.

As for managing bank transactions, I’m still hesitant to delegate that. I promised myself that once I achieve a specific revenue target for six consecutive months, I would hire an accountant. While I realize I should probably do so now, I still find myself clinging to that task.

Overall, hiring a VA has reclaimed two hours per day from lead generation and another hour from email management, along with additional time I previously lost feeling overwhelmed.

Although there’s a cost associated with VA services, the return on investment has been substantial. I now spend minimal time on $10 tasks and focus primarily on $100 and $1000 activities.

Author’s image: Time audit after delegating $10 tasks

In the past six months, my revenue from copywriting has doubled, all thanks to relinquishing those $10 tasks to someone else.

The saying goes, “Time is money, and money loves speed.” By investing time in tasks that could be delegated, I was inadvertently stalling progress when I should have been accelerating growth.

Now, whenever I catch myself getting distracted by minor details like brand colors or metrics (I do have a tendency to obsess over these), I ask myself, “What $1000 task am I avoiding right now?” There's usually a significant project waiting for my attention.

To refocus, I take a brief walk and then dive into the deep work that only I can accomplish for my business.

So far, everything is progressing well. Now, the challenge is determining whether I can also let go of those $100 tasks and double my growth again.

Julie Cunningham is a freelance healthcare content creator and copywriter. Join her Freelance to Freedom community for actionable strategies to launch and expand your freelance writing career.

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