I have a confession to make. A confession that will shock many people in today’s culture – where being your own boss is applauded at every turn and working for someone else is often looked down upon, scoffed at, and sometimes even mocked…
Did you know that a new LinkedIn post singing the praises of starting your own freelance writing career is posted every single second in the UK? (Probably). But as a Content Executive at Lead Pronto, who has previously worked as a freelance writer for over 2 years, I’ve actually found my full-time, traditional employment here to be far more rewarding than my freelance years. And I’ll tell you all about it below.
My Freelance Career
Like most people who start out as a self-employed content writer, my freelance career was launched out of necessity rather than any real desire to become the next big thing in SEO content writing. COVID-19 had hit, I’d lost my hospitality job as a result, and I needed some way to make money.
I had a desktop. I could string a sentence together. So naively I assumed I could take any future client’s website to the top of Google using the power of my words alone. I was wrong, of course, but what my naivety gave me was a sense of misplaced (some might call it delusional) confidence, and I started to land clients as a result.
Those first few months as a freelance writer taught me a lot. Mistakes were made, but I learned from them, and eventually I carved myself out a decent living by impressing a few clients who wanted me to stick around. I honed my skills, researched things I thought I ought to know (like what is SEO anyway and why do I keep seeing it in my client’s content briefs) – and eventually I got better.
The next year and a half or so brought more clients and I was doing well, both financially and in terms of the results I was getting for those who placed their trust in me. Service pages and blog posts were quickly becoming my specialty and I was enjoying the work I was doing.
My freelance career was going well. I hadn’t lost any clients for a while and my income was steady enough right up until I made the decision to ‘switch to the dark side’ and apply for a full time position at an agency. But why did my allegiances shift?
Making The Switch
It was maybe 6 months or so before I applied for Pronto that things started to change for me. I’d actually been getting some work from a digital marketing agency that needed to outsource some of their content, but not enough to fill a full-time position in-house.
Through my work with this client I started to get a better understanding of what my content was going on to do in the world. They would provide me with updates about content performance and help me figure out what was working and what wasn’t, all whilst encouraging me to learn more about SEO content writing. They even kindly paid for me to complete a course: Web Copy Masterclass, and I really started to get an idea about the bigger picture and how content connects with other things – a website’s design, SEO best practices, etc – for maximum impact.
Through this client I got a taste of what agency work could look like – and I wanted in.
My Time At Lead Pronto
Making the switch from freelance to agency work was a big decision, but it was one I ultimately took gladly because I felt I’d hit a ceiling in the work I was doing alone. No skills can ever truly be developed to their full extent in a vacuum, and I needed to be around other people to take my content writing to the next level. When a role came up at Lead Pronto, applying was a no-brainer.
Of course, when I first started at Pronto, adjustments had to be made to the way I worked. Collaboration is key here and after working alone for so long I had to learn to take advice and guidance from others and be willing to listen to new ideas whilst implementing new software and tools that at first felt foreign (but now feel like my right hand I’m so familiar with them). I adapted though, and now I couldn’t see myself working alone again.
I can honestly say that I learnt more in my first 2 months here than in the entire 2 years I spent freelancing (and I’d learnt a lot back then, too) – so for me, working at a Lead Generation & Digital Marketing Agency has been nothing short of a blessing.
Why I Think Agency Work Trumps Freelance
There’s countless reasons why agency work is superior to freelance writing:
- I get to work with some of the most talented individuals I’ve ever met in the workplace
- New skills have been learned and old skills bettered
- I’m part of a team now and don’t have to shoulder client requirements alone
- I know how content fits into the bigger marketing picture
- Constant improvement is encouraged here, so I no longer feel like there’s a ceiling to my skills and knowledge
- I’m part of a company with a great culture – we have monthly social events, raise money for our charity of the year (currently Clatterbridge), and can all genuinely rely on each others’ unique skills and areas of expertise when it comes to delivering results for our clients
Making the switch from working alone and being your own boss to being part of a team felt alien at first, and it goes against everything we’re being told of late. Since COVID, more people have been starting businesses and freelancing than ever before. And there will be people that view my journey from freelancing to agency work as a failure. But to them I say this: I’m a better writer today than I was when I started – and with Lead Pronto’s drive for constant improvement, I’ll be even better tomorrow.
